Stop Adding Sugar to Your Food. Your Body Doesn’t Need It

Sugar is no longer associated with only weight gain. It’s far worse than that. It has links with every possible disease ranging from skin disorders to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, autoimmune disorders and even cancer.So it’s literally a sweet poison that’s killing us slowly. And it does so by creating a perfect environment for a disease to breed.Acidity, inflammation, destruction of good gut bacteria and growth of bad bacteria (like Candida), perforation of gut lining, low immunity, nutritional deficiency, belly fat are just some of the side effects of added sugar. These can creep up upon us leading to mood swings, depression, extreme fatigue, lowered libido etc. Also read: Wake Up Call For India: Study Links Diabetes, High BMI to CancerJust to give you an idea:A normal size can of soda (diet or not) reduces the efficiency of the immune system by almost 40 to 50%, for upto 4-5 hours. Anything can happen in that time frame.There has been a lot of talk about sugar and its relation with cancer. Some agree and some disagree.Sugar is believed to stimulate tumor growth according to a recent study. Sugar also makes the body acidic and most diseases start due to an acidic environment, making it a struggle for a body to burn fat in an acidic medium.Notice when you give a body fluid sample (like blood, urine, or saliva) to a pathology lab for it to be tested for infectious microorganisms, they often introduce sugar solution to the sample.This promotes multiplication of microorganisms, thus making the specimen more clearly visible and identifiable under a microscope. Here, glucose is used as a growth medium for microorganisms.This means elevated sugar levels in the body enable the growth and multiplication of all parasites, mold, fungus and bacteria present in the body, including cancer cells that feed of glucose.Also read: Sorry to Ruin Your Day: Sugar is Toxic!Is Sugar Needed By Our Body At All?The answer is YES, provided it comes from the right source.Our body does need carbohydrates, which are broken down into sugar. This sugar is essential for our body to create energy to survive.However, it is should be of the right quality and in right quantities.Sugars (i.e. sucrose) coming from processed foods like cake (or table sugar in itself), supplies fake energy because they are empty calories and are processed to such an extent that all fibre and nutrients are stripped. Such a type of sugar is hard to metabolize by our bodies.Whereas sugar coming in from a fruit (i.e fructose) or a vegetable (like sweet potato) provide sugar in its most natural state that our bodies know how to process it. That’s not it - such sources also provide fibre, vitamins, minerals and trace elements along with sugar.Even though you might have truly earned that muffin post a marathon or you are in dire need of that sports drink, just know that it’s full of sugar.In no way can it provide what a body truly needs during the times of physical exertion. However feed on an apple or coconut water, and you are giving your body exactly what it needs to replenish and recover.So you see the importance of choosing the right kind of sugar because, while the good one can energize you, the bad one can kill you.Also read: FitQuiz: Do You Know How Much Sugar Your Body Actually Needs?Beware of Marketing GimmicksHaving said that, there’s nothing wrong with a little bit of sugar. We all have had it at some point in our lives.But when one has a diet largely comprising of packaged foods, junk food and aerated drinks, they take in more sugar than the body can handle.The real problem is mindless and over consumption of sugar.Not only should we blame ourselves for lacking awareness but also how food companies trick our brains.Check out any supermarket shelf. Sugar is lurking in every product. There are about 45 disguises of sugar like high fructose corn syrup, brown rice syrup, cane sugar, etc that companies use to mislead consumers.Food marketers, who have studied human psychology, use colours like red, orange and yellow for packaging products because these colours signal sweetness, desirability and trick our mind into attraction.Furthermore, all those bottles that proclaim “Low Fat” or “Less Fat” are probably loaded with sugar. One may not see the word “sugar” as the first ingredient, but instead there’s “High Fructose Corn Syrup”. It is thus extremely important to educate oneself on how to read nutritional labels and decode ingredient list.Also read: Artificial Sweeteners: Sugar-free But Are They Really Safe?Let’s talk about bread! A staple in everyone’s home?To keep up with the supply and demand, bread manufacturing companies add a chemical called “alloxan”.Alloxan has the capacity to mess with pancreas and cause insulin resistance. This treatment with alloxan is not only restricted to white bread, but also extends to white sugar and table salt because of it being very similar to chlorine bleach.Think of any cookie or a commercially prepared bakery product. It has got white flour, white sugar and white salt, making it a diabetic bomb!To conclude, there is nothing sugar has to offer.If you find it hard to give up sugar then commit to a 7-day sugar free challenge to start with. Slowly you will start to experience that life is better and healthier without sugar.(Luke Coutinho is M.D. Alternative Medicine (Integrative & Lifestyle) & Holistic Nutritionist. Luke treats patients with disease and specializes in cancer with a holistic and integrative approach worldwide.)(Breathe In, Breathe Out: Are you finding it tough to breathe polluted air? Join hands with FIT to find #PollutionKaSolution. Send in your suggestions to fit@thequint.com or WhatsApp @ +919999008335)

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Stop Adding Sugar to Your Food. Your Body Doesn’t Need It

If you find it hard to give up sugar, then commit to a 7-day sugar free challenge to start with.

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Topics: Type 2 diabetes Sugar Diabetes