Newsletter #4 - Sugar
In the United States sugar consumption averages 152 pounds per person per year. Is this surprising? Almost all packaged food contains several kinds of sugar often listed as sucrose, corn syrup, fructose, and caramel color.
All foods must be converted to glucose before they are used by your body as fuel. To ensure your glucose level remains relatively balanced, your body has a safety mechanism. It works like this –
If your level falls too low, your brain tells you that you are hungry. You eat food that is turned into glucose.
If your level rises too high, your brain tells your pancreas to release insulin, which enters your bloodstream to clean up extra glucose.
If you eat a lot of foods that produce high levels of glucose, your body reacts by producing too much insulin. Over time your body stops using insulin effectively, leaving behind excess glucose in the bloodstream. This excess glucose turns into fat. Your pancreas works overtime and releases even more insulin. Super-refined carb-foods are converted into glucose very quickly which is bad news. Your blood-glucose shoots up. This fools your body into releasing too much insulin. This insulin mops up so much glucose that your level falls and your brain tells you that you are hungry again.
These factors can lead to one of two health problems –
1. You exhaust your pancreas and you develop type 2 diabetes. Also know as adult onset diabetes, obesity related diabetes, or non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. Type 2 is the most common type of diabetes.
2. You develop hyperinsulinism where you have abnormally high levels of insulin in the blood. This can cause hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, chronic obesity, high blood pressure and more.
All this shows why it is important to balance your blood sugar levels. The stress of repeated sugar spikes exhausts and ages your body faster than normal. Carbohydrates are the easiest of our foods to be converted into glucose. It is important to eat more non-refined carbohydrates. Include whole wheat, rolled oats and other whole grains in your diet. Stay away from white bread, refined sugar, and too many processed foods.
Live long and prosper!
In the United States sugar consumption averages 152 pounds per person per year. Is this surprising? Almost all packaged food contains several kinds of sugar often listed as sucrose, corn syrup, fructose, and caramel color.
All foods must be converted to glucose before they are used by your body as fuel. To ensure your glucose level remains relatively balanced, your body has a safety mechanism. It works like this –
If your level falls too low, your brain tells you that you are hungry. You eat food that is turned into glucose.
If your level rises too high, your brain tells your pancreas to release insulin, which enters your bloodstream to clean up extra glucose.
If you eat a lot of foods that produce high levels of glucose, your body reacts by producing too much insulin. Over time your body stops using insulin effectively, leaving behind excess glucose in the bloodstream. This excess glucose turns into fat. Your pancreas works overtime and releases even more insulin. Super-refined carb-foods are converted into glucose very quickly which is bad news. Your blood-glucose shoots up. This fools your body into releasing too much insulin. This insulin mops up so much glucose that your level falls and your brain tells you that you are hungry again.
These factors can lead to one of two health problems –
1. You exhaust your pancreas and you develop type 2 diabetes. Also know as adult onset diabetes, obesity related diabetes, or non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. Type 2 is the most common type of diabetes.
2. You develop hyperinsulinism where you have abnormally high levels of insulin in the blood. This can cause hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, chronic obesity, high blood pressure and more.
All this shows why it is important to balance your blood sugar levels. The stress of repeated sugar spikes exhausts and ages your body faster than normal. Carbohydrates are the easiest of our foods to be converted into glucose. It is important to eat more non-refined carbohydrates. Include whole wheat, rolled oats and other whole grains in your diet. Stay away from white bread, refined sugar, and too many processed foods.
Live long and prosper!
posted by George V. Schubel @ 3:00 PM
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