Immune function. If you are concerned about swine fever, avian flu or nay other bug, search has shown that sugar suppresses our immune function. It is well known that bacteria and yeast feed on sugar and that, when these organisms get out of balance in the body, infections and illness are more likely to occur.

Increased risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Several studies have shown that the more sugar and refined carbohydrate foods a person consumes, the greater the risk for obese and diabetes and heart disease.

Blood Sugar Levels - rise and fall dramatically. Unstable blood sugar often leads to mood swings, fatigue, headaches and cravings for more sugar. Cravings set up a cycle of addiction, temporarily you feel better but a few hours later there are more cravings and hunger. Those who avoid sugar often report having little or no cravings for sugary foods.

Sugar can affect different people in different ways affecting their behaviour from moods swings, irritability, anger, or trigger attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with cravings and hypoglycaemia (low blood-sugar levels).

Can’t Win. If you consume a lot of sugar and other refined carbohydrates, you’ll be short of chromium, and one of chromium’s main functions is to help regulate blood sugar levels. Most people eat refined sugar and carbohydrates. Refining starches and other carbohydrates rob these foods of their minerals, especially chromium. So the more you eat the shorted of chromium you become and the more you crave these foods.

Helping the Aging Process. Sugar contributes to the signs of aging, some of the sugar consumed ends up attaching itself to proteins, in a process called glycation. In fact is has been aptly named AGES for Advanced Glycation End-products. These new molecular structures contribute to the loss of elasticity found in aging body tissues, not just to our skin, but more importantly to our organs and arteries. The more sugar circulating in your blood, the more damage and the evidence is showing that this damage is not reversible.

Elevated triglyceride levels. Sugar consumption is linked to higher levels of triglycerides in the blood stream, which have been linked to heart disease.

Sugar can cause gum disease, which can lead to heart disease. More and more evidence is pointing to the fact that chronic infections, such as those that result from periodontal problems, play a role in the development of coronary artery disease. This has a connection with the body’s response to infection and inflammation.

Of course sugar can cause tooth decay, some are more susceptible than others.

Elevated stress. When we’re under stress, our stress hormones rise, these chemicals are the body’s fight-or-flight emergency crew, sent out to prepare the body for an attack or an escape. These chemicals are also called into action when blood-sugar levels drop, due to a dramatic rise and then plummet after consuming sugar and/or refined carbohydrates, caffeine, or alcohol. These stress hormones accelerate aging, and as we get older their levels take much longer to fall than when we where younger.

Sugar replaces vital nutrients. Most sugar is just empty calories, research has shown that people who consume a lot of sugar have low intakes of essential nutrients –– especially vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, vitamin B-12, calcium, phosphorous, magnesium chromium, and iron.

Sugar affects bone density. Sugar is extremely acid forming in the body, calcium is a buffering agent and the bones are a perfect reservoir, the body the calcium from the bones to maintain a balance, ensuring the body doesn’t become too acidic.

What to do – re-educating yourself and your taste buds. Sugar lurks in many unexpected places - a food needn’t taste all that sweet for it to be loaded with sugar. Read labels carefully – dextrose, juice concentrate, sucrose, corn syrup, evaporated cane juice, cane sugar, beet sugar, sucrose, maltose, maltodextrin, sorbitol, glucose, corn sugar, barley malt, caramel, rice syrup and carob syrup. Also be aware just because something advertises ‘low-carb’ or a ‘diet food’ or ‘low-fat’, it doesn’t mean it’s free of sugar.

Never take an artificial sweetener if you value your health – if you need to take something, take stevia, it’s a natural no calorie sweetener, used for 20 years in Japan. Stevia is a plant known for thousands of years in South America.

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