If we don’t have sugar in our tea or coffee, don’t have a bag of sugar in our food cupboards, and don’t eat cakes, biscuits, or baked goods… can we say that we don’t have sugar in our diet? The shocking truth is sugar is everywhere and has made its way into most foods.
According to the NHS website (Live well, Eat well), “Ingredients such as salt, sugar and fat are sometimes added to processed foods to make their flavour more appealing and to extend their shelf life”. When most processed foods also eliminate fibre to prolong shelf life, what effect does this have on our bodies when we consume these foods?
In the natural world, sugar is found in fruits, vegetables, and other sources where the sugar is combined with fibre. This is an important combination because fibre creates a lattice network within the intestinal tract, limiting the quantity of sugar that might be absorbed. When we consume sugar without fibre, unregulated quantities are absorbed, and our bodies are faced with a dilemma…. how to get rid of it.
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The British Liver Trust states (Sugar and the liver: what you need to know):
“When we eat a meal containing sugar, our bodies break it down into glucose. Our body uses some of the glucose immediately, for energy, and saves some of it for later. Any excess glucose in the blood is turned into fat cells….The liver is one of the places in our bodies that stores this excess fat. Over time, liver cells are gradually replaced by fat cells, leading to non-alcohol related fatty liver disease…. In fact, non-alcohol related fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is likely to overtake alcohol as the leading cause of liver disease in the next few years” https://britishlivertrust.org.uk/sugar-and-the-liver-what-you-need-to-know/
According to Dr Robert Lustig (paediatrician & professor), sugar and alcohol have an identical effect on the liver, ultimately leading to liver disease.
Would we give a toddler a glass of whisky each day? It’s alarming to consider that a glass of fruit juice, a smoothie, or commercial baby formula can have an identical effect on that toddler’s liver.
Most people consume much more than the officially recommended amount of sugar each day, which is worsened by hidden sugar in food.
If sugar acts as a poison within the body, then fibre is the antidote; nature combined the two precisely for this reason. When we extract sugar from cane, beet, nectar, corn, etc., we break this important combination.
For a healthy body, should sugar ONLY be consumed as nature intended…. within whole foods (fruits, vegetables, berries, etc.)?
WELL KNOWN SUGAR RELATED DISEASES/CONDITIONS:
- Diabetes
- Liver disease
- Coronary heart disease
- Candida Overgrowth [see post for more details]
- Chronic Inflammation
- Endocrine Disruption
75 Different names for sugar
