I’m like everyone else, I thought fat was what made me fat…but sugar fooled us all– Sugar and weight loss have nothing to do with each other. For years, the Sugar Industry, medical professionals, the government, and so-called independent researchers have told people that fat was making people obese.
These findings led to low-fat food and drink labeling on tons of processed foods that came inboxes. From there we these industries pros told us we need to start a Zero Carb labeling on our food packaging, who knows if these foods were zero carbs. But we live, and we learn, recent studies point to sugar as being the culprit in a lot of our weight problems around the world.
Sugar’s Health Effects
Sugar can cause many health complications you would really rather avoid. The biggest problem with sugar is that it gives the body no nutritional value. Sugar is one of the leading if not the no.1 link to weight gain. With weight gain, there is a domino effect of health ailments that will accompany obesity. They include diabetes, heart disease, raise your risk of cancer. Sugar also will eventually lead to depression for the overweight person.
Beware of Hidden Sugars
Both added sugar and hidden sugars in foods like cereals, yogurts, crackers, alcohol mixers, instant oatmeal. One hundred percent juice labeled products are a big source of hidden sugars. Nut butter like Nutella along with Granola Bars and sauces like Barbecue and Honey Mustard are loaded with sugars.
Benefits of Healthy Living
According to Health Magazine, there are so many benefits to leading a balanced and healthy lifestyle. Exercise brings about a sense of happiness, relaxation, and improved self-esteem.
You experience improved sleep due to a regular exercise program. Exercise lowers your risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Lastly, living a healthy lifestyle with regular exercise boosts your endurance while a healthy diet gives your body all the nutrients and vitamins it needs to perform each day.
While losing weight might seem impossible, the truth is that it’s not that tough. Challenge yourself to be consistent, health and weight loss is all about performing in a consistent pattern.
In this case, your taking care of your whole body, you’re eating healthily, your staying active, this will limit your stress, but also make sure you get a good night’s sleep. Your body will thank you each day.
Sugar and Diabetics
WebMD states, “if your blood sugar stays over 240, it is too high, high blood sugar usually comes on slowly. With high blood sugar, you won’t have enough insulin in your body, this will lead to Diabetes.
There are many reasons for high blood sugar; it can happen if you miss taking your diabetes medicine, overeat, or lead a sedentary lifestyle. Sometimes, the medication you take for other problems may cause high blood sugar. Be sure to tell your doctor about the medications you take”.
If this is you, or even if you’re currently healthy. You should rethink your consumption of sugar and possibly even let it go for your own sake. There are numerous articles and blogs on the internet with people writing about giving up sugar — most if not all, with excellent results. There are more than a thousand reasons you should reduce your sugar intake, but we will discuss just a few.
No Sugar Diet or Whole New Eating Pattern?
During a healthy lifestyle change, eating nutritious foods with an appropriate activity level, your body will start to lose fat, which is the goal.
According to Weight Watchers your body needs to burn fat while still building muscle. Your body needs to be in a calorie deficite by eating fewer calories than your burning. It’s important to be eating adequate amounts of protein.
Protein builds muscle, so make sure this is part of your daily diet. By eating protein, you won’t be losing muscle while losing weight. With careful diet management and full-body strengthening routines, you will be retaining muscle while losing fat.
This is why exercise is vitally important as part of a healthy lifestyle because muscles burn more calories than fat does; this will aid in your overall weight loss.
Reasons Sugar is Not Good for Your Health
It puts your liver at significant risks; every cell of our human body needs sugars in small doses. Our bodies break the foods we eat into two kinds of sugar: fructose and glucose.
Glucose is the sugar that the body cells need while fructose, gets into the bloodstream, and has little importance to how our bodies function.
The liver metabolizes fructose and converts it into glycogen which is stored and can be used at a later time by the body to fulfill energy needs.
However, if the quantity of stored glycogen, as well as fructose, becomes too high in the blood, the liver turns these into fat. This will, in turn, inhibit or slow down the normal functioning of the liver.
This situation can also put you at risk of fatty liver syndrome and even cardiovascular diseases as well as diabetes complications.
Is Sugar linked to Cancer?
Sugar is linked to weight gain, one of the leading causes of cancer in people. So it’s safe to say that there is a link between Cancer and sugar. You probably already know that insulin is very vital to the regulation of cell growth. Now, high consumption of sugar can lead to elevated insulin levels, which can, in turn, put you at the risk of breast, prostate, and pancreatic cancers.
Sugar and your Risk of Heart Disease
Sugar actually does have the power to damage your arteries and heart and increase your risk of heart disease or attack. Even fructose, the sugar found in fruits and honey can actually improve your LDL or bad cholesterol, increase insulin levels and blood glucose as well as also constrict your arteries. These can actually increase obesity at the abdomen as well as increase your risk of diabetes and heart diseases.
High levels of fructose in the blood can hinder the natural circulation of insulin and leptin, decreasing the quantity of those hormones circulated and increasing hunger levels by increasing the concentration of ghrelin which is the hunger hormone. This increase in hunger levels can, of course, increase your risk of obesity and make it more robust for you if you’re looking to lose some weight.
Sugar will make you Hungry
Eating more sugar would often mean higher levels of glucose in your blood. With higher levels of glucose, your pancreas secretes more insulin to enable the glucose to get into your cells. Now, with the higher levels of insulin being emitted, the cells of your body could become immune to insulin leading to insulin resistance. Seeing as this happens when there is high glucose in the body, it could be a starter for diabetes as well as other metabolic problems.
Sugar and Alcohol
You may have noticed that people who are deep into drugs and alcohol also have an obsession with sweet foods like and junk rich in sugar like desserts and pastries. Well, the thing is, when you consume sugar, it releases the happy hormone, dopamine. This hormone is a neurotransmitter and can increase your desire for sugar, which releases the hormone as well as other addictive substances. The link is in the fact these other addictive substances like alcohol also release dopamine, which enhances mood and enables addiction.
Sugar and your teeth
Sugar is one of the biggest causes of cavities. Besides, you or someone close to you may have had the experience of toothache after chewing sweets and having remnants in your teeth. The thing is, when you do not rinse sugar remnants out of your mouth, it provides a conducive environment for harmful bacteria to live and grow.
Sugar and Aging
Increased sugar levels can have adverse effects on the collagen in your skin. This will naturally result in wrinkles as well as cause spots that can take away the shine of your skin and make you look older than your real age. If you want to avoid fast aging, you probably also want to cut down substantially on your intake of sugar.
Sugar and your chance of Obesity?
It’s easy to link sugar and obesity. We’ve already established earlier that sugar reduces satiety and increases hunger levels. Of course, this increase in hunger levels will compel you to eat a lot more, and this can result in abdominal obesity, especially if they are carbohydrate-rich foods. This obesity can, of course, result in issues like renal disease and heart diseases.
Conclusion
Of course, obviously. We already noted that too much insulin in your blood could make your cells resistant to insulin. When this happens, the pancreas which secretes insulin will lose its ability to emit as much insulin as the body needs. With the less production of insulin, glucose levels get to hazardous high levels. The typical result of this situation is diabetes.
As people age, they find it more difficult to keep unwanted weight off, and they choose “fad” diets to shed weight quickly. However, losing weight and keeping it off is really about making a lifestyle change that includes a healthy diet and an exercise program.
Lifestyle Weight Loss Diets
A lifestyle change is more than a “fad” diet. For safe, effective, and long-term weight loss, you should change your overall lifestyle to incorporate a healthy diet, an exercise program, and stress management.
According to UnityPoint Health, a balanced lifestyle includes high-quality, nutritious whole foods, fruits, veggies, and whole grains, along with an exercise program of 30 minutes of exercise five days a week. “Fad” dieting leads to temporary weight loss that usually returns quickly.
With an overall lifestyle change, the effects are long term, you fill your body with foods that fuel and nurture it, and the physical activity keeps your muscles and bones strong and healthy.
Great site you have here.. It’s hard to find good quality writing like yours these days.
I really appreciate people like you! Take care!!