Sugar Facts:
- -CDC reports the lifetime risk of diabetes in America is currently at 40% for an average 20 year old
- -American Heart Association reports American adults consume 22 teaspoons added sugars per day, teens 34 teaspoons per day.
- -Sugar promotes tooth decay. The news here is tooth decay and the need to brush/floss teeth is considered a fact of life for most Americans. In wild animals and healthy hunter gatherers caries are almost unknown, sans dentists/tooth brushes, toothpaste and floss.
- -Starch turns to sugar (glucose) in the mouth, and during digestion. Plain, dry bagels and unsweetened cornflakes may not taste sweet, but they are still "candy" to our bodies.
- -Sweetened or not, grain-based cereals are sugar. Period. Spraying vitamins on them does not make them food.
- -Fruits are nature's candy.
- -Of 60,000 products in grocery stores, 80% contain added sugar (Catie Couric, movie Fed Up)
- -The amount of sugar in a product may be misrepresented on the label. In 2014 Whole Foods is sued over yogurt containing 5 times more sugar than the label shows (a discrepancy first reported by Consumer Reports).
- -Agave Nectar contains as much as 95% pure fructose.
- -Researchers at University of Guelph, Canada, found blood sugar spikes from white bread and sourdough bread pale in comparison to those from whole wheat bread. Whole wheat bread appears to rival some candy bars in this respect yet is thought to be healthy.
- -Sugars found in most foods are fermentable carbohydrates. Fermentable carbohydrates promote tooth decay initially, and chronic modern diseases (diabetes, heart disease e.g.) decades later. (P Hujoel: Dietary Carbohydrates and Dental Systemic Diseases)
- -Sugar promotes insulin. Insulin stores excess sugar as fat. Sugar--> Fat
- -Alzheimer's is increasingly referred to as Type 3 Diabetes, a disease of carbohydrate (sugar, e.g.) intolerance.
- -Eat enough sugar and you may lose the ability to detect small amounts. Go off for awhile and things you once ate or drank easily may taste too sweet. Broccoli and spring water taste sweeter on a low sugar diet.
- -Refined sugars and starches are empty calories that promote fat storage at rapid rates.
- -A high sugar diet promotes mood swings, anxiety and poor concentration.
- -Diets high in sugar and starch stiffen arteries.
- -Consuming sugars at bedtime can result in frequent awakenings at night, even insomnia.
- -Refined sugars and starches are addictive. Weaning off is not easy, but is well worth your while if you value your health.