My first job after graduating from college was in the sugar industry. I actually toiled for six years on various islands, but left to go to graduate school. C. Brewer, then the oldest company in Hawaii, was very kind to me and actually paid my salary during my first year. After I indicated I might as well go on for my PhD, the company told me they did not think such a degree was of much use to them, but, go on, get your PhD, and when you graduate let us know. We'll work out something. When I began teaching at the University of Hawaii, one summer I wrote an environmental report for them as the payback. How generous. I thus should be supremely thankful.
I tried to help them with biofuels and other renewable resources, but the industry eventually disappeared from Hawaii. Since my days with them, I've come to a conclusion that sugar is bad for you...very bad. Not as toxic as fructose, which, in effect, comes from the corn industry, but terrible nevertheless.
It is thus to express my strong support for his cause that I post here a guest contribution from Jesse Miller:
15 Amazing Things That Happen When You
Quit Sugar
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Sugar is known to be not only addictive, but potentially dangerous.
Consuming great amounts of it can be
as hard on your liver as alcohol. It can lead to many serious health problems including obesity, diabetes, heart
disease, headaches, immune system suppression, chromium deficiency, tooth
decay, gum disease and much more.
Quitting sugar can be as hard as quitting cigarettes and can affect you in many of the same ways.
It is not generally something you
want to quit cold turkey, as the side effects can be hard to deal with.
You might notice that you feel
incredibly tired, need lots of extra caffeine and have headaches from
withdrawal. Some of these can feel quite serious. You might also become
short-tempered and have an overall feeling of depression in some cases.
After the initial feelings of
withdrawal and lack of energy, you will start to experience the benefits.
It is best to start slowly. You may
choose to forego just a few sugary items to start with, especially if your
intake was much higher than normal.
1. Your heart health will improve
The recommended daily amount of
sugar for women according to the American Heart Association is about 6
teaspoons; however, most adults in the United States consume, with ease, more
than three times that amount on any given day.
The fact that there are many foods
in which sugar naturally occurs sometimes leads us to miscalculate the amount
we are consuming, thereby leading to over consumption.
Cutting back on sugar reduces the
burden on your heart significantly, and reduces the risk of many heart related
diseases.
2. You reduce your chances of developing diabetes significantly
For each and every 12-ounce serving
of beverages that contain sugar, the risk of diabetes rises by one fourth.
You cannot substitute fruit drinks
or juices either, thinking that they are healthier alternatives, as the
diabetes risk is over thirty percent higher for people who drink more than two
of these each day.
Even opting for sugar free diet
sodas does not help, as they have been shown to pose a higher risk of
developing diabetes as well, should you drink two or more per day.
Less than this, however, is
acceptable, proving that moderation may be key after all.
3. Your mood will improve
A better mood is not something you might experience right
away when you quit sugar, but once you are over the worst of it, you will begin
to feel much better.
A study has even shown that more than four cans of
soda each day increase your chances of experiencing depression by almost forty
percent.
Desserts, sweet snacks, sweetened
drinks, processed meats and other refined carbohydrates can often have the same
effect.
An overload of sugar can also short
circuit the gut-brain connection to cause effects such as anxiety and
even schizophrenia.
With all the mental symptoms that
can be caused by an overindulgence in sugar, it only makes sense that getting
sugar out of your diet will reverse those symptoms, and usually pretty quickly.
4. Your sleep quality will start to improve
Sleeping
well at night will become much easier, as your lack of energy
and need of a nap from a sugar crash midday will be nonexistent.
Over a third of Americans suffer
from blood sugar issues that rank as the second most common cause of insomnia,
but the majority of people who have it are unaware that they do.
Some people have adopted the habit
of eating six small meals per day, a diet used by those who often suffer from
hypoglycemia, but this is a huge issue when it comes times to go to sleep.
Once you have gotten your body into
the routine of eating every 2-3 hours, going to bed with the expectation of
sleeping 8-9 hours without interruption becomes impossible.
The human body is designed to burn
fat during the sleep cycle because it burns slower and for a longer period of
time.
However, after overindulging in
sugar, the body burns that instead, so it never even gets the opportunity to
burn fat.
5. You will remember things better
You will notice an ability to better
remember things as your memory improves after you get rid of sugar from
your diet.
Too much sugar consumption can cause
forgetfulness and, if left unchecked, possibly even permanent brain damage.
A UCLA study outlines an experiment that showed impacted
cognitive ability after ingesting foods made with high fructose corn syrup,
which is a staple in the Western diet.
Metabolic syndrome, or MetS, is the
known link between consuming too much sugar and brain damage and is also the
risk factor for obesity.
However, the link to mental health
has been largely ignored. Since average Americans are known to ingest more than
forty pounds of high fructose corn syrup each year, and on a regular basis, it
can only be assumed that the long-term effects of that on brain function has a
very detrimental effect.
6. You finally achieve some of your weight loss goals
Weight
loss can happen faster than you might otherwise have imagined
just by cutting sugar out of your diet.
The body absorbs sugar quite easily,
however it is not a natural part of any human diet. When sugar is consumed,
insulin production increases.
Insulin, in turn, prohibits the body
from using fat as a fuel while converting sugar to fat and weight gain is the
result of the whole process. By eliminating sugar, you are not only allowing
insulin to remain in the amounts it is suppose to be in, but you are also
eliminating a great many calories also attributed to the substance.
The more your sugar consumption, the
less ability you have to burn fat because your body is burning that sugar
instead.
7. You look more youthful
Giving up sugar can lead to an
overall more youthful look, starting with your face.
Sugar has a dehydrating effect while
it increases oil production at the same time.
It also affects the ability of water
binding so that your skin looks much less vivacious.
Other symptoms of sugar intake on
the face include dark circles under the eyes, swelling and inflammation and
even mild outbreaks of acne.
By quitting sugar, you will see the
effects in 72 to 96 hours. Complexion color will be improved, oily skin will
begin to diminish and your face will be more hydrated, perky with fewer wrinkles
than before.
8. Your immune system becomes stronger
Your immune system will be able to function much better
once sugar is out of the diet.
According to a study conducted in 1973, sugar causes our white
blood cells to cease from doing their job of consuming bad bacteria.
A more interesting bit of
information from that same study is the fact that starches did not have the
same effect on the white blood cells.
In light of that fact, it would also
be safe to assume, probably, that grains and pseudo-grains do not either.
For an immune system to function at
its strongest level possible, the ideal situation is eliminate all added and
processed sugar.
While this can be extremely hard to
do, especially since there are so many names that sugar goes by these days, every little
bit helps.
9. You feel more energetic throughout the day
There is a bit of truth to the statements saying that refined
sugar gives you an energy boost.
Indeed, a short pick-me-up occurs as
the sugar first hits your system. However, the long terms affects of repeated
sugar intake actually harms your body by reducing its ability to correctly
metabolize food, transforming it into energy.
Once the body becomes use to a quick
energy boost, it will begin to look for that and once the sugar is not found,
the crash that is associated with it will happen.
10. Your willpower improves
Sugar is incredibly addictive. That
is why people often refer to their “sweet tooth” or “sweet cravings”.
It is often beyond a person’s
control to decide whether they want sugary foods and snack and if they do not
get them, they can show major signs of withdrawal, sometimes as severe as you
might see in someone trying to give up tobacco.
However, once you begin to see the
differences in how you feel and look, your willpower levels will increase
drastically.
11. Joint pain and inflammation decrease
Refined and processed sugars can
either cause or contribute to inflammation in many different ways.
In addition to making autoimmune
disorders worse, the increase of sugar into the body causes insulin levels to
rise and insulin can cause inflammation to worsen, which inadvertently leads to
joint pain as well as other bodily pains.
The less sugar you eat, the less
inflamed your joints will be, giving you much relief.
12. Your oral health improves
When you consume sugar, especially
in liquid form, much of it adheres to your teeth, even if you swish your mouth
afterwards.
Bacteria immediately latch onto this
sugar and begin to eat it, after which acid is produced.
The acid then begins to eat away at
the enamel found on your teeth and thus begins a horrid cycle for your mouth.
Cavities, gum disease and gingivitis
are then well on their way.
Even brushing immediately after
consuming sweets is a bad idea, because it makes your enamel softer and more
prone to being brushed away.
13. You increase the levels of good cholesterol in your body
The job of HDL, or “good”
cholesterol, is primarily to take up extra levels of the “bad” cholesterol, or
LDL.
This means that, for health reasons,
you definitely want your good cholesterol higher than your bad cholesterol, but
sugar can lead to a decrease in HDL.
A greater sugar intake has also been
known to cause higher levels of triglycerides as well, and all of these
increase your risks of developing heart disease.
Triglycerides, however, do not
dissolve in the blood stream and continue to travel throughout the circulatory
system where they cause damage to artery walls and can cause hardening of the
arteries.
14. Your liver becomes leaner
To create fat, the liver uses sugar,
specifically fructose.
The more sugar you consume, the more
chance your liver has to produce copious amounts of fat, which can result in a
fatty liver.
While it is specifically called
nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, it looks exactly like the livers of those who
overindulge in alcohol.
If detected early, it is reversible,
but becomes less so the longer the damage continues.
15. You lower your risk of some types of cancer
Cancer cells are fed by sugar, which
encourages ongoing cancer cell growth.
Cancer cells rate of sugar uptake is
more than ten times higher than the rate at which regular healthy cells make
use of it.
Cancer cells are also known to
thrive in environments that are acidic in nature.
Since the pH of sugar is about 6.4,
it provides a very cancer-friendly atmosphere. Sugar is linked to more cancers
of the breast, prostrate, endometrium and pancreas.
Sugar substitutes are not a good replacement for sugar
either, as they are also linked to cancers such as bladder cancer, lymphoma and
leukemia.
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