124 Ways Sugar Can Ruin Your Health

Contributed by Nancy Appleton, Ph.D., www.nancyappleton.com
Author of the book "Lick The Sugar Habit"


�� 1
Sugar can suppress your immune system

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Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in your body

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Sugar can cause hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children

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Sugar can produce a significant rise in triglycerides

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Sugar contributes to the reduction in defenses against bacterial infection (infectious diseases)

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Sugar causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function, the more sugar you eat the more elasticity and function you lose

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Sugar reduces high density lipoproteins

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Sugar leads to chromium deficiency

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Sugar leads to cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostrate, and rectum

�10
Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose

11
Sugar causes copper deficiency

12
Sugar interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium

13
Sugar can weaken your eyesight

14
Sugar raises the level of a neurotransmitters: dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine

�15
Sugar can cause hypoglycemia

�16
Sugar can produce an acidic digestive tract

�17
Sugar can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline levels in children

�18
Sugar malabsorption is frequent in patients with functional bowel disease

�19
Sugar can cause premature aging

�20
Sugar can lead to alcoholism

�21
Sugar can cause tooth decay

�22
Sugar contributes to obesity

�23
High intake of sugar increases the risk of Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis

�24
Sugar can cause changes frequently found in those with gastric or duodenal ulcers

�25
Sugar can cause arthritis

�26
Sugar can cause asthma

�27
Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections)

�28
Sugar can cause gallstones

�29
Sugar can cause heart disease

�30
Sugar can cause appendicitis

�31
Sugar can cause multiple sclerosis

�32
Sugar can cause hemorrhoids

�33
Sugar can cause varicose veins

�34
Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses in oral contraceptive users

�35
Sugar can lead to periodontal disease

�36
Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis

�37
Sugar contributes to saliva acidity

�38
Sugar can cause a decrease in insulin sensitivity

�39
Sugar can lower the amount of Vitamin E in the blood

�40
Sugar can decrease growth hormone

�41
Sugar can increase total cholesterol

�42
Sugar can increase your systolic blood pressure

�43
Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children

�44
High sugar intake increases advanced glycation end products (AGEs)(Sugar bound non- enzymatically to protein)

�45
Sugar can interfere with the absorption of protein

�46
Sugar causes food allergies

�47
Sugar can contribute to diabetes

�48
Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy

�49
Sugar can contribute to eczema in children

�50
Sugar can cause cardiovascular disease

�51
Sugar can impair the structure of DNA

�52
Sugar can change the structure of protein

�53
Sugar can make your skin age by changing the structure of your collagen

�54
Sugar can cause cataracts

�55
Sugar can cause emphysema

�56
Sugar can cause atherosclerosis

�57
Sugar can promote an elevation of low density lipoproteins (LDL)

�58
High sugar intake can impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in the body

�59
Sugar lowers your enzymes ability to function properly

�60
Sugar intake is higher in people with Parkinson�s disease

�61
Sugar can cause a permanent altering in the way the proteins act in your body

�62
Sugar can increase the size of the liver by making the liver cells divide

�63
Sugar can increase the amount of liver fat

�64
Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in your kidney

�65
Sugar can damage your pancreas

�66
Sugar can increase your body's fluid retention

�67
Sugar is enemy #1 of a good bowel movement

�68
Sugar can cause myopia (nearsightedness)

�69
Sugar can compromise the lining of your capillaries

�70
Sugar can make your tendons more brittle

�71
Sugar can cause headaches, including migraine

�72
Sugar plays a role in pancreatic cancer in women

�73
Sugar can adversely affect school children's grades and cause learning disorders

�74
Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha, and theta brain waves

�75
Sugar can cause depression

�76
Sugar increases the risk of gastric cancer

�77
Sugar and cause dyspepsia (indigestion)

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Sugar can increase your risk of getting gout

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Sugar can increase the levels of glucose in an oral glucose tolerance test over the ingestion of complex carbohydrates

�80
Sugar can increase your insulin response if you eat high-sugar diets compared to low sugar diets

�81
High refined sugar diet reduces learning capacity

�82
Sugar can cause less effective functioning of two blood proteins, albumin, and lipoproteins, which may reduce the body�s ability to handle fat and cholesterol

�83
Sugar can contribute to Alzheimer�s disease

�84
Sugar can cause platelet adhesiveness

�85
Sugar can cause hormonal imbalance; some hormones become underactive and others become overactive

�86
Sugar can lead to the formation of kidney stones

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Sugar can lead to the hypothalamus to become highly sensitive to a large variety of stimuli

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Sugar can lead to dizziness

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Diets high in sugar can cause free radicals and oxidative stress

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High sucrose diets of subjects with peripheral vascular disease significantly increases platelet adhesion

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High sugar diet can lead to biliary tract cancer

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Sugar feeds cancer

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High sugar consumption of pregnant adolescents is associated with a twofold increased risk for delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant

�94
High sugar consumption can lead to substantial decrease in gestation duration among adolescents

�95
Sugar slows food's travel time through the gastrointestinal tract

�96
Sugar increases the concentration of bile acids in stools and bacterial enzymes in the colon

�97
Sugar increases estradiol (the most potent form of naturally occurring estrogen) in men

�98
Sugar combines and destroys phosphatase, an enzyme, which makes the process of digestion more difficult

�99
Sugar can be a risk factor of gallbladder cancer

100
Sugar is an addictive substance

101
Sugar can be intoxicating, similar to alcohol

101
Sugar can exacerbate PMS

103
Sugar given to premature babies can affect the amount of carbon dioxide they produce

104
Decrease in sugar intake can increase emotional stability

105
Your body changes sugar into 2 to 5 times more fat in the bloodstream than it does starch

106
The rapid absorption of sugar promotes excessive food intake in obese subjects

107
Sugar can worsen the symptoms of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

108
Sugar adversely affects urinary electrolyte composition

109
Sugar can slow down the ability of your adrenal glands to function

110
Sugar has the potential of inducing abnormal metabolic processes in a normal healthy individual and to promote chronic degenerative diseases

111
IVs (intravenous feedings) of sugar water can cut off oxygen to the brain

112
High sucrose intake could be an important risk factor in lung cancer

113
Sugar increases the risk of polio

114
High sugar intake can cause epileptic seizures

115
Sugar causes high blood pressure in obese people

115
In Intensive Care Units: Limiting sugar saves lives

117
Sugar may induce cell death

118
Sugar may impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in living organisms

119
In juvenile rehabilitation camps, when children were put on a low sugar diet, there was a 44 percent drop in antisocial behavior

120
Sugar can cause gastric cancer

121
Sugar dehydrates newborns

122
Sugar can cause gum disease

123
Sugar increases the estradiol in young men


Blissed be, Annie
bodybybliss@gmail.com

How does sugar cause myopia?

Also I think sugar as a powder burns easily! (Honey doesn't.)

I guess that means you advocate eliminating not only all fruit, but all vegetables, nuts, and seeds as well, because they all contain sugars. The only plant food without sugar is oil.

I guess you have to buy the book to find out how sugar causes emphysema, huh? All this time, I thought it was cigarettes.

Judy

Let's just stop eating! All food is bad for us. Maybe we can survive on vitamin and mineral supplements.

Love,
Uma

Given that sugar is a cooked food, how does this article apply to this forum?

Sugar is an empty calorie food. By empty I mean other than the sugar, there are no other nutrients. Oils are also a empty calorie food. By empty I mean other than the fat, there are no other nutrients.

Bryan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
Oils are also a empty calorie food. By
> empty I mean other than the fat, there are no
> other nutrients.


Even hemp & flax oil?

Judy

Hello

I think what bodybybliss is refering to (in general) is refined white cane sugar. and not only does it undermine your health, it is an ongoing environmental concern, using 28,100 gallons of water to create one ton of cane sugar.

And i believe what the point bodybybliss was trying to highlight was that we are definately on the right path avoiding all this negative things as we dont consume the crap! hehe

the wikipedia definition of sugar is as follows: In non-scientific use, the term sugar refers to sucrose (also called "table sugar" or "saccharose" — a white crystalline solid disaccharide. Humans most commonly use sucrose as their sugar of choice for altering the flavor and properties (such as mouthfeel, preservation, and texture) of beverages and food. Commercially-produced table sugar comes either from sugar-cane or from sugar-beet.

In science, sugar refers to any monosaccharide or disaccharide. Monosaccharides (also called "simple sugars", such as glucose, store energy which biological cells use and consume. In a list of ingredients, any word that ends with "ose" probably denotes a sugar.

In culinary terms, the foodstuff known as sugar delivers one of the primary taste sensations, that of sweetness. More types of sugar are Glucose, Sucrose, Fructose, Saccharose, Dextrose, Lactose, and Maltose.

my perception of it is - Natural sugars (those occuring in fruit) are healthy, processed ones are not. i think its really quite simple.



~~~ You say you love animals, but you eat them..
You say you love birds, but you cage them in..
You say you love trees, but you chop them down..
You say you love flowers, but you pick them..
Now I am afraid, that you will say.. "I love you"~~~

If the oils are refined, there won't be any other nutrients. If there is some cloudy stuff in the oil, then maybe. Go to fitday. Compare the nutrients (carbs, protein, fat, fiber, vitamin, mineral, water) in the following 3 meals:

2000 calories of table sugar
2000 calories of flaxseed oil
2000 calories of navel oranges.

I think you will be surprised.

Maybe I'm stupid, but I don't see any way to compare anything on fitday.com. I'm not really sure I would be surprised as it wouuld rather be like comparing oranges to, well, oil & sugar. I would not expect oil to have the same nutritional value of oranges since it is a totally different animal.

I consume a very moderate amount of oil for the fatty acids - is that misguided?And of course the oils would be cold-pressed and processed as little as possible.

Jest curious.... ;o)

Judy

Judy,

Here's what I mean by empty calories (I used a nifty tool called CronOMeter to calculate these nutrients):

2000 calories of table sugar: 516g carb, 0g protein, 0g fat, 0g fiber, 0.15g water, 4% selenium, 5% B2

2000 calories flaxseed oil: 0g carb, 0g protein, 226g fat, 0g fiber, 0g water, 131% Vit E

2000 calories oranges: 512g carb, 37g protein, 6g fat, 90g fiber, 3500g water, 175% calcium, 79% copper, 29% iron, 112% magnesium, 59% phosphorus, 93% potassium, 1% sodium, 21% zinc, 201% Vit A, 347% folate, 185% B1, 122% B2, 86% B3, 106% B6, 4000% C, 20% E

It is possible to get all of our fatty acids from eating whole foods alone. Every mammal in nature gets all of their fatty acids from eating whole foods alone.

The oil you are eating, if they are refined, could be rancid. However, because the elements that give away oil racidity are taken out in the refinement process, you can't taste the oil rancidity. Rancid oil have free radicals that play havoc with the cells in the body.

Some oils, like flax, go rancid at body temperature (98 degrees Fahrenheit).

Also, cold pressed oil can get to temperatures we raw foodists would consider cooking temperatures from the pressures in the cold presses. There may only be a few oils on the market that are processed below these temperatures, and they are very expensive (like Bariani's).

Sapote, that is what I assumed too! lol! Great minds think alike! lol

Bryan, the flax seed oil lists 131% Vit E. That is a typo right? Or is hthat compared to the daily requirement?

Ahhh, OK... thanks once again for a well written explanation.

One more question.... it would be a totally different animal to eat the flax or hemp seed then, would it not?

Judy

Sapote,

In another post, bodybybliss gave the same material as the original post here, plus added

Quote

Re: candida from fruit only
Posted by: bodybyblis (71.222.146.44)
Date: January 25, 2007 01:55PM

You must be careful with fruit - many, way too many people have underlying candida issues, simply due to exposure to heavy metals. So I would SLOWLY move into fruits. Truly, I believe balance is best - until you know truly where your body is.

Here's a few things to consider about SUGAR PERIOD. Whether or not its a glyconutrient almost doesn't matter. Unless you are really healthy. IMO.

Blissed be, Annie
bodybybliss@gmail.com

Given her education and bias from Brian Clements, this makes sense that she would say this. However, her education and bias is somewhat limited, as we have many people on this forum who are enjoying fruit as their main source of energy and nutrients, and some of them eat exclusively fruit. Brian Clements recommend eating no more than 80% raw (probably by volume), which means you can get a lot of carbohydrates from eating starch. What I don't get, from all these people who say don't eat fruit, is don't they realize that starch gets converted into glucose, as does fats and proteins. Don't they realize that eating 50 grams of protein raises the blood sugar and insulin levels in diabetics as much as 50 grams of sugar? Perhaps some of the raw food proponents haven't studied nutrition.

Most nutritionists say eat more fruits and vegetables to be healthier. The only folk saying don't eat fruits are raw food proponents like Gabriel Cousens and Brian Clements et al. I wonder what these 2 gentlemen know that is eluding all the other nutritionist in the world?

VeganLife,

Yes, that is %RDA of Vit E. So there are some nutrients in flaxseed oil besides fat. Just as there are some nutrients in sugar besides carbohydrates.

Bryan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Most nutritionists say eat more fruits and
> vegetables to be healthier. The only folk saying
> don't eat fruits are raw food proponents like
> Gabriel Cousens and Brian Clements et al. I wonder
> what these 2 gentlemen know that is eluding all
> the other nutritionist in the world?

Their concerns againt fruit cannot totally be dismissed.
Most fruits are hybridized for sugar content. They are not given time to ripen on the plant. This makes fruitarianism very risky in the long run.
Doug Graham is far less convincing than Brian Clement from what I read



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2007 05:32AM by djatchi.

djatchi,

Reading doesn't matter. Words don't matter. How I can I distinguish the truth from one person words verus another's.

What matters to me is my experience. I've been living on mostly fruit for nearly 5 years. And I see that my health is better than people who don't live on mostly fruit. David Zane Mason has been living on fruits exclusively for years. And he is the healthiest person he knows.

If someone says fruit is damaging to health, and yet my experiences tells me that I can live on fruit. who should I listen to? Clements and Cousens? Or my own personal experience?

If I didn't have my experience, I would not be able to give Doug Graham's words any more credence that I could for Cousens or Clements. But Graham's words match my personal experience. So I listen to him.

Each of us is god in our own universe. What we believe to be true about ourselves does come true. If we believe that the world is a dangerous place and we are helpless before it, then this is our truth, and it becomes our reality. If we on the other hand believe that we are the cause of our own reality, then this becomes true for us.

So if a person not knowing any better is told that fruit is dangerous, and this person happens to believe the whoever told them this, then for that person, fruit will be dangerous.

And my experience in my life was that fruit was something I enjoyed as a young child, but over the years, grew away from its consumption. And when I was eating the high fat diet, I still couldn't keep myself away from fruit, even though David Wolfe (who I was reading at the time) recommended not eating too much fruit. And I had never heard of Graham until I was 100% raw. I was drawn to fruit, and at the time, I thought I was eating a lot of fruit (it was 50 percent of the volume, but probably only less than 20% of the calories).

If your experience tells you that fruit is bad for you, then don't eat it. You aren't going to hurt my feeling if you don't want to eat fruit.

Again, the anti fruit promoters have a diet, which if followed, causes fruit to cause symptoms in the body. If you were to randomly choose a different recipe in the RGLFC recipe guide and eat only that recipe for your meal, and each and every meal would be a different randomly chosen recipe from that book, over time, you would become very sick, and not be able to eat any fruit. Why? Because those recipes are 70% fat or more. If you don't believe this, try putting in 10 random recipes (choose entrees, not condiments like how to make mustard or pickles) from this guide into fitday to see what the fat content is.

Judy,

Yes, eating the whole seed is going to have a much higher nutrient content that eating just the oil. When I make salad dressing with some fats in it, I use whole seeds or nuts or avocados. Grinding the seeds in a $10 coffee grinder makes them easy to blend if you don't have a high powered 3HP blender.

Bryan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> djatchi,
>
> Reading doesn't matter. Words don't matter. How I
> can I distinguish the truth from one person words
> verus another's.
>
> What matters to me is my experience. I've been
> living on mostly fruit for nearly 5 years. And I
> see that my health is better than people who don't
> live on mostly fruit. David Zane Mason has been
> living on fruits exclusively for years. And he is
> the healthiest person he knows.
>
Here is a quote from david mason website on a diet plan

[eat.rawfood.com]

Quote

44. Can you give me a basic daily meal plan? Sure:

· Breakfast: ½ Cantaloupe and/or 16 oz fresh Orange Juice

· Snacks: 2 Apples, ½ cup Carrot and Celery Sticks, ½ pound of Grapes, 2 Bananas

· Lunch: Fresh chopped spinach and walnut salad – with assorted veggies

· Snack: 2 Pears, Assorted cut veggies

· Dinner: Watermelon, Papaya or Romaine Veggie wraps and fresh-made salsa and guacamole (see recipe section)

45. What do you feel are the best raw foods? I find light fruits and fruit juices to be the most sustaining. Leafy greens and above-ground vegetables tend to be in the middle. Fatty foods like nuts and heavy root vegetables seem to be on the lower end. This is just my opinion.

That is not exclusively fruit.

We are our own judge on a raw diet and when it does not works we change it. I do not follow a guru, I follow my own common sense, intuition and feelings. For me greens and living sprouts work better than fruit and I do eat fruit but it is not a big part of my diet. My point is that we cannot just dismiss the arguments of Clements and others on fruit because they disagree with our personal philosophy.

djatchi,

I do not follow a guru either. I just do what works for me. Right now, in my body, eating a lot of fruit works for me. So when I read people saying that fruit is unhealthy, I certainly have to laugh, because I am eating a lot of fruit.

There are a lot of folk in the raw world who will not eat fruit because they read what Clements or Cousens has to say. Many of them want to be all raw, so without fruit in their diet, what choice does that leave them. Are you saying that a person can get enough calories from eating sprouts?

Or do your recommend that people not bother to try all raw, that eating 20% of your food by volume as cooked is the best for their health? Is that your experience? Are you willing to say this? Certainly Brian Clements is willing. Again I have to laugh, as I've been eating all raw for over 5 years, and loving it.

David has said many times that he eats only fruits. While he may have this diet, he may recommend to others that they try eating greens and fat. I don't see any conflict in this.

Eating only fruits takes a huge leap of faith. I don't have experience of eating only fruits for more than 3 weeks straight. But I do have the experience of eating mostly fruits (say over 90% of my calories) for over 4.5 years.

I don't dismiss Clements. He offers suggestions for a raw diet to which he himself admits is not sustainable at 100%. With his program, eating 20% of your food by volume as cooked foods works the best.

I don't dismiss Cousens. He says a lot of things that are inconsistent. He says that too much fat is not healthy, yet the recipes he publishes are chock full of fat. He says to eat an all raw diet, but he says don't eat sweet fruit. So where is a person to get their energy (calories) from? The sun? I wonder if there is anyone who is doing the Cousens program for 5 years who can eat a banana without having a total candida overgrowth from that single banana?

Fruit is important to the diet, there is no dispute on that but for me it is not the main course. I have not read Cousens much but Clement from what I read is only saying to reduce fruit consumption.
Fruits are not the only source of calories in plants, greens provide calories and more nutrients, cows are doing very well on a diet of grass

djatchi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> cows are doing very well on a diet of grass

and insects. Why does everyone conveniently forget this ;-)

Rob

--
Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]

True but the point was as an argument against fruit as the major source of calories.

There's a lot of points and arguings going on.. I used to just be interested in this too until I finally found something that started working for me and that I felt had potential to work long-term.

I tried the low-fruit raw thing for several years. I was a patient of Gabriel's for two years and then after I gave up on that one, went to Hippocrates with Clement for 3 weeks, shoving wheatgrass up my ass every day and all the rest. Then I contiued on the program for several months. Neither program worked for me.

I thought I was hypoglycemic, and since I'd had candida and all that, and was so brainwashed against any and all sugar, I was convinced fruit would always be bad for me. But then a friend convinced me to take a leap of faith.

Once I learned that the fruit wasn't causing the problems people blame fruit for, but rather it was the effects of poorly combining fats with fruit, or including too much fruit on a high-fat diet, I cut my fat way down, followed food combining, and focused on eating high fruit. My whole world shifted.

So, it's easy to argue and be defensive if you haven't really found something that works for you yet (oh boy do I know from personal experience!). I was quite the anti-fruit scholar for years, as my health and life force were spiraling down the drain. Near dead, I finally decided to step outside the belief systems I was so sure of. I'm grateful for this experience to show me what does and doesn't work. I guess each person needs to reach their own edge that pushes them to let go of old belief systems and no one else can convince them to do it if they aren't ready. (and as i write these words i'm saying them to myself! thanks for the opportunity!)

Love,
Uma

Bodybliss, when Nancy talks about sugar, she clearly means refined sugar, not fruit. I would expect from a person in your position to be very particular in making sure that no misrepresenting of any information occurs. I must unfortunately admit that your comments do not satisfy this requirement.

Also, do you really think having a Dr in nutrition in front of one's name is the evidence of one's understanding of health? Here is the recipe from Nancy Appleton's website:

Recipe for Carob Mousse taken from
THE SECRETS OF NATURAL HEALING WITH FOOD
(A guide to balanced body chemistry!)


Carob Mousse

3 large sweet potatoes

1/2 cup carob powder ( or to taste)

1 teaspoon vanilla (or to taste)

1/2 cup whipping cream

Bake or steam the sweet potatoes until tender. Peel and fluff with carob powder and vanilla. Blend well. Whip cream and fold gently into mixture, blending well. Spoon into champaign glasses or demitasses. chill and serve cold. makes 6 servings.




Yes, eat that way, and you will pave your way to health ... NOT.

Gosia


RawGosia channel
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2007 11:49PM by rawgosia.