The not-so-sweet truth about sugar

Sugar does, at times, seem more like a demon than the fun and enjoyable treat that we so often associate with the white stuff.

All joking aside, sugar is now well understood as a very addictive substance, and as an addiction, it comes with some pretty harsh consequences for our health.

You might agree that sugar is addictive, but you may not know just how addictive or how harmful that addiction can be. Let’s take a look and see what science is starting to show us about sugar:

• Sugar addiction: Animal studies show that sugar is every bit as addictive as cigarettes, alcohol and even drugs. If you understand that sugar is an addiction, you understand a lot of your behavior around the foods that you eat: bingeing, cravings, hoarding, obsession are all signs of addiction. If you have ever tried a diet, but couldn’t stick with it, or if you lost a lot of weight only to gain it back, you have your addiction to blame.

• Weight Gain: While medicine denies that there is an association, sugar leads directly to weight gain. It does this because eating sugar creates large spikes in blood sugar. Whenever your blood sugar is higher than the current needs of your body, your body will store the extra sugar as fat. This does not happen with other foods, like broccoli, meat, or even an apple.

• Insulin Insensitivity: Insulin insensitivity occurs when our cells become resistant to insulin. Both metabolic syndrome and diabetes are forms of insulin insensitivity. Your cells become resistant to insulin when there is constantly too much sugar in your bloodstream. While even medical societies such as the American Diabetes Association deny the connection, sugar and foods that act like sugar are largely responsible for diabetes.

• Toxic: The most surprising thing I uncovered was that sugar is toxic to the blood vessels in the body. In the exact same way that cigarette smoke damages the lungs, sugar in the bloodstream damages blood vessels. This damage is clearly seen in diabetics who have blood vessel damage in the form of heart disease, eye disease, kidney disease and more. The exact same damage occurs in people who aren’t diabetic but who eat sugar, only slower.

This discussion on the hazards of sugar addiction leads us conveniently into the benefits of the NATURAL SUGAR substitute of XYLITOL.