According to the Huffington Post most of use consume an excess of up to and beyond 500 extra calories of sugar per day. One pound weight gain is equivalent to approximately 3500 calories. This means that the average person is putting themselves at risk to gain a minimum of one extra pound a week.
Here are 10 more reasons to cut back on sugar:
Sugar sweetened beverages are related to obesity
Canadians are drinking roughly twice as many soft drinks now as they did in 1970. Sugary liquids may make us fatter because they don’t curb our appetite for more food.
Sugar enriched beverages are linked to diabetes
Sugar sweetened soft drinks might increase the risk of type 2 diabetes because they’re high in rapidly absorbable carbohydrates. Also, studies have shown that people who eat foods that raise blood sugar levels have a higher risk of diabetes.
Sugar contains empty calories
There’s no question that sugars are a major culprit in obesity, because they’re a source of empty calories that most people don’t need. Sugar has no nutritional benefits whatsoever. Added sugars crowd out healthy foods, or make you fat if eaten in addition to healthy foods.
Sugar-sweetened drinks can raise the risk of heart disease
Excess weight isn not good for the heart. A big belly is one part of the metabolic syndrome, which raises the risk of heart disease (and diabetes). But sugar-sweetened beverages may promote heart disease whether or not they make you gain weight.
Sugar raises triglycerides
When you consume a large dose of glucose, the liver doesn’t pull much of it in if you don’t need the calories. In contrast, fructose ends up in the liver whether you need the calories or not. What does the liver do with all that fructose? It converts some of the fructose into fat, which gets sent into the bloodstream, resulting in higher levels of triglycerides.
Sugar promotes belly fat
According to the Huffington Post A 2010 2010 study in children found "excess fructose intake (but not glucose intake) actually caused visceral fat cells to mature -- setting the stage for a big belly and even bigger future risk for heart disease and diabetes."
Sugar may be linked to cancer production and may effect cancer survival
According to research done by the Huffington Post. A 2013 study found that "sugars in the intestine triggered the formation of a hormone called GIP (it is completely dependant on sugar levels), that in turn, increases insulin released by the pancreas. Researchers found that β-catenin may in fact affect the cells susceptibility to cancer formation. They found an associations between high sugar and starch intake and survival rates in both breast cancer patients and colon patients." This link between sugar and higher cancer risks should make you wan't to cut back if nothing else does.
Leptin is a hormone made by fat cells. It’s supposed to make you stop eating. Over time a high sugar diet blocks the leptin signal in the brain. The result is that you keep eating and no longer know when you are full.
Minimizing added sugars has been known to keep blood pressure down
There’s a possibility that sugar raises blood pressure, but it is not definitive. It is clear that there’s little place for sugar in a diet that’s designed to lower blood pressure.
Most sugary foods are low in nutrients
When you consume high sugar foods from companies such as Coca-cola, Pepsi, Hostess, Dunkin Donuts, Krispy Kreme etc you are getting over fed and under nourished. These foods are high in sugars and low in nutrients. Many are also packed with white flour which does not contain much nutritional value.
Alicia Bell, BSc Kin, CPT, NCCP, CF-L1
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