Get Off the
Sugar Roller Coaster Now!
By Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS
Here's a news bulletin for you: The most damaging
ingredient in the American diet is not fat.
It's sugar.
No kidding. As a "health hazard", fat has gotten the
lion's share of attention -- but it may well turn out
that our attention was focused in the wrong place. High
sugar diets are now linked to increased risk for
diabetes, Alzheimer's, some types of cancer, and
obesity. Sugar depresses the immune system, ages the
body, creates inflammation, and contributes to cravings,
mood swings, PMS, and a host of other conditions.
And the news about our consumption isn't good,
either. USDA surveys show that the average American is
consuming about 20 teaspoons of the stuff a day. Sugar
now accounts for over 15% of the average adult's
calories and 20% of the average teenager's.
So why exactly does sugar cause such a problem?
Let's start with insulin.
When you eat sugar, your blood sugar rises (quickly)
and your pancreas immediately jumps into action. It
responds to the increase in blood sugar by secreting the
hormone insulin, whose job -- among other
things -- is to get that sugar out of the bloodstream
pronto... by delivering it to the muscle cells where it
can be used for energy. That's because if sugar hangs
around the bloodstream, it ultimately does a lot of
damage -- glomming onto red blood cells and creating
sticky compounds that ultimately clog up the works.
But there are two problems with the way our bodies
handle sugar. First, most of us aren't using those
muscle cells enough to create much of a demand for the
sugar, so the muscle cells eventually shut their doors.
(It doesn't require too much sugar to power the muscles
used to move the mouse on your computer.) So sugar
either goes into fat cells, or continues to hang out in
the bloodstream, like an accident waiting to happen.
The second problem is that the small amount of
insulin needed to manage a moderate amount of sugar from
a natural food -- like an apple, for example -- isn't
enough to manage a diet of 900-calorie "no-fat" muffins
from Starbucks. The pancreas has to shoot more and more
insulin into the system to get the job done, and high
levels of insulin create a whole other set of
problems.
Insulin, for example, tells the kidneys to hold onto
sodium, increasing blood pressure. Chronically high
insulin levels have also been linked to Metabolic
Syndrome (a kind of "pre-diabetes" which increases the
risk for heart disease). That's just the short list...
And it's not just plain old garden variety table
sugar that has this effect on the body. Some of the
worst offenders when it comes to raising blood sugar are
mashed potatoes, most breads, rice, fruit punch,
pancakes, virtually all desserts, and even cornflakes.
These foods convert quickly to sugar in the body. Your
pancreas can't tell the difference.
Sugar's not just non-nutritive, it's
actually anti-nutritive. Here's why: When sugar
is found in real life foods and plants (like apples or
berries, or even for goodness sake, actual sugar cane),
it comes complete with the vitamins, minerals, and
enzymes needed for its complete digestion. That's pretty
amazing!
But when it's found in your sugar bowl -- or in any
of the typical chemical compounds that food
manufacturers use to sweeten their goods --like "brown
rice syrup" or the disaster known as high fructose corn
syrup -- it contains nothing of any value.
Your body actually has to "borrow" from its stores of
nutrients in order to process it. That's one reason
sugar is considered to be an immune system depressor. In
order to be metabolized, sugar literally "eats up"
nutrients your body needs to stay healthy.
And if you think sugar isn't addictive, think again.
Research at Princeton University has found that the
brains of rats change in response to sugar.1
Rats that were allowed to binge on sugar showed signs of
"withdrawal" when the pleasure centers of the brain were
blocked, an experience all-too-familiar to many of us
who can't get our nightly fix of Ben and Jerry's. The
researchers suggested that sugar triggers production of
the brain's natural opioids.
Whether sugar is a true "addiction" or a dependence,
remains an open question. I say, "Who cares?" The fact
remains that sugar consumption is a big problem for a
whole lot of people.
According to Connie Bennett, whose excellent book,
"Sugar Shock!" details her own personal journey out of
"sugar hell", there are an estimated 74-147 million
Americans who have difficulty processing sweets and
refined carbs. "Ultimately, (the) insidious
roller-coaster effect which occurs whenever you eat lots
of sweets and quickie carbs hampers sufferers' ability
to function at full or even half throttle", she writes.
In my first book I wrote that you may not be able to
eliminate sugar from your diet completely, but to the
extent that you can, you will be doing yourself an
enormous favor. That's just as true now as it was then.
Get off the sugar roller coaster. Your body -- and
your brain --will thank you for it.
[Ed. note: Dr. Bowden is a
nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition and
health. He's a board certified nutrition specialist with
a Master's degree in psychology and the author of five
books including The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth.
His latest book is The Most Effective Cures on Earth. |