The Truth About Sugar :: Mankato Chiropractor

Dec 06, 2015

The Not So Sweet Truth About Sugar from your Mankato Chiropractor

When we think of sugar, we often think of cookies, cake, chocolate, and candy. Who doesn’t have a sweet tooth now and again? Advantage Chiropractic wants you to know the not so sweet truth about sugar! According to Dr. Mark Hyman, author of “The Blood Sugar Solution,” the average American consumes roughly 152 pounds of sugar a year. Sugar in all of its forms is the root cause behind obesity and chronic disease including type 2 diabetes, cancer, dementia, depression, and more. Cutting back on sugar will not only help decrease your waistline, but lead to a longer, healthier life. Here are the top 8 reasons to avoid sugar:

1.)   Sugar is addictive. According to Dr. Hyman, sugar is 8 times more addictive that cocaine.  It stimulates the release of the feel-good chemical dopamine in the brain.

2.)   Sugar contains no essential nutrients, and actually robs your body of vital minerals. It causes minerals such as calcium, potassium, and magnesium to seep out out of the body.

3.)   Sugar may increase your risk of cancer. Too much sugar causes elevated insulin levels in the body and this insulin stimulates cell growth. Cancer is characterized by uncontrolled growth and multiplication of cells, and insulin is a key hormone in regulating this sort of growth.

4.)   Sugar can overload the liver. When you ingest sugar, the body breaks it down into glucose and fructose. Fructose can only be metabolized in the liver, and when it is overloaded, it turns that fructose into fat. This may result in fatty liver and other diseases.

5.)   Sugar causes insulin resistance. Insulin is an important hormone that allows glucose to enter your body’s cells from the bloodstream. When you ingest excess amount of sugar, this causes elevated levels of this glucose in the bloodstream. This is toxic to the body and the pancreas in turn secretes insulin to remove it from the blood. The end result is insulin resistance and improper function of the pancreas.

6.)   Sugar can lead to Type 2 Diabetes. As described in #5, insulin resistance causes improper function of the pancreas. When the body’s cells become resistant, the pancreas creates more insulin to compensate. Eventually when the pancreas cannot keep up, blood sugar levels drastically climb and Type 2 Diabetes is the result.

7.)   Sugar affects your mood. Sugar causes inflammation, which is associated with depression. Also, the body’s response to the elevated insulin results in a too rapid reduction of blood glucose, causing the sugar “crash” feeling that most are familiar with. The body will release adrenaline to compensate, causing feelings of anxiety and irritability.

8.)   Sugar affects your cholesterol. High sugar levels actually lower your good cholesterol (HDL), which help remove the bad cholesterol (LDL) from artery walls. This poses an increased risk for coronary artery disease.

Visit our Mankato Chiropractic office today to borrow a copy of the documentary “Fed up.” It’s a very interesting film focusing on the causes of obesity in America, one of which is sugar!

Hyman, Mark. “Top 10 Big Ideas: How to Detox from Sugar.” Dr Hyman. Yakadadanda. 16 January 2015.

Web. 19 June 2015.