Sugar Elimination & Whole Body Support
Purpose of Program
Everyday the body is exposed to countless toxins. Whether from environmental or our own metabolic processes, when these toxins accumulate the body becomes overwhelmed and incapable of functioning up to par. For many Americans, a problematic toxin common in the diet is sugar. The average American consumes up to 32 teaspoons of sugar per day, much of this sugar is found in many processed foods and beverages (Lipski, p. 234). Many consume over three times the amount of sugar the body needs for necessary cell function, When this excess sugar metabolizes into body fat it overloads and damages the liver. Which puts the individual on the path for developing chronic disease such as hypertension, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, inflammation, high triglycerides and insulin resistance, diabetes, as well as causes damage to lipids, proteins and DNA thus contributing to the aging process (Brandis, Lustig, & Schmidt, 2012).
Although cells require sugar for energy, it is glucose the cells prefer as a source. However, much of the excess sugar consumed today is fructose. Excess fructose consumption has similar effects on the liver as excessive alcohol intake, as the liver metabolizes alcohol the same way as sugar and converting the carbohydrate into fat (Brandis, Lustig, & Schmidt, 2012). High concentrations of fructose is rare in nature and is typically found along side fiber. However, in the American diet, the fiber is
The past fifty years has seen a spike in the consumption of sugar, that number totaling a tripling increase. However, sugar is not the only risk factor here, alcohol and tobacco can also be attributed with the spike, albeit not as prevalent as sugar. The biggest question that Lustig et al. poses to its’ readers is this: “What aspects of the Western diet should be the focus of intervention”? (par. 3) The current USDA has been deemed “boogeymen” of diets, as well as the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Lustig et al. all believe that our attention should be turned towards “added sugar”, which is a sweetener that has fructose in it. Perhaps the biggest controversy from the past fifty years has been none other than a severe culprit that experts know as high fructose corn syrup or HFCS.
The American diet is based mostly in processed food which contains enormous amount of sugar. The excessive consumption of sugar can cause diseases such as obesity, heart diseases, alzheimer, liver diseases, diabetes and others. One of the problems with the consumption of sugar is that people get sick progressively without the knowledge that it is caused by sugar. In addition, sugar is an addictive food and life without it is almost impossible. As a result, processed foods are cheaper than healthy food. It is hard to avoid processed food when Americans do not have time to cook because of their life style. Americans need to know the way to change their diet and improve their lifestyles. Americans sometimes forget about the amount of sugar that a soda or flavored drink contains. These drinks are tasty, but it will not satisfy thirst. Sugar is equally dangerous and has the same health effects than smoke cigarettes. Consume sugar in excessive amounts per day have a significant effect in Americans ' daily life. Americans should be aware of the diseases caused by their eating habits, therefore; they should be more conscious of what they eat and change their diet.
Because of this Americans now eat 523 extra calories, and on average about 76 of those calories will come exclusively from the new sugars and sweeteners like HFCS. But the reason for this large increase in sugar intake is most likely because of the foods that it’s put in. The foods that HFCS is in are not food that people would associate sweetness with such as ketchup or bread (pbs.com). Apart from comparisons between HFCS and table sugar, there is evidence that the overconsumption of added sugar in any form, including HFCS, is a major health problem, especially for onset of obesity. Consuming added sugars, particularly as sweetened soft drinks, is strongly linked to weight gain. The World Health Organization has recommended that people limit their consumption of added sugars to 10% of calories, but experts say that typical consumption of empty calories in the United States is nearly twice that
Obesity and its subsequent ailments are regarded as the leading cause(s) of death in the United States and many other parts of the world. As such, much deserved attention and controversy has been brought worldwide. Many people place blame for this relatively recent epidemic on the shoulders of high-fructose corn syrup, an artificial sweetener whose use has increased for many years alongside the rates of childhood and adult obesity. While they are not entirely incorrect in assuming a widespread increase in added sugars would result in more calories per product, more calories consumed, and therefore more calories stored in bodily tissue, high-fructose corn syrup alone is not solely to blame for this phenomenon.
Tobacco, alcohol and poor diet are the main risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and respiratory disease that kills approximately 35 million per year. Out of the three risk factors, an inadequate diet was found to the culprit of more diseases than smoking and liquor consumption combined. In Aseem Malhorta’s (2014) article “Sugar is now enemy number one in the western diet”, he claims that added sugar should be regulated as it is a health hazard that has caused the increasing prevalence of diabetes and obesity. Malhorta only focuses on sugar being the main causative agent in causing negative health outcomes, he fails to address the fact that there are many other confounding factors associated with each disease
The body requires sugar (Espat, 2015). However, there is recent speculation that sugar can cause cancer. “More than one million people in the United States (US) get cancer each year” (American Cancer Society, 2016). Most Americans eat more than double the recommended daily intake of sugar each day (Espat, 2015). According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015-2020, individuals should not consume more than 10% of their calories from sugar (US Department of Agriculture, 2016). While increased sugar intake can lead to other issues, such as obesity, which is associated with cancer, “diabetes and cancer occur together more often than would be expected by chance alone” (Oncology Nutrition, 2016).
A few months ago I watched an interesting documentary on sugar and the world’s health crisis called that sugar film. It is about an Australian man who consumed a diet of no processed sugars as his usual diet and then ate a diet that contained the average person’s amount of sugar for two months to watch the transformation of his body; however the crazy part was that he ate all foods that one may normally consider healthy but still contain the hidden sugars like low fat yogurts, juices, and granola bars. By the end of the experiment the man had all sorts of ailments like pre-diabetes and fatty liver disease which really surprised me since the foods were considered healthy. This lead me to reassess my personal diet as well as my family’s before
The introduction of low fat diets along with the flood of reduced fat foods has not facilitated the reduction of obesity and cardiovascular disease. The majority of processed food identified as “reduced fat” alternatively contains sugar as an added ingredient to cause the low fat food to be more palatable, according to Lustig. He additionally claims that when considering the potential detrimental health effects, sugar is worse than fat. Ingestion of either sugar or fat results in high levels of artery-clogging fats produced by the liver which are then dumped into the bloodstream. However fructose instigates even more damage to the liver and to structural proteins of the body while engaging in
In addition to obesity and poor dental health, sugary foods and drinks can lead to other, more deadly health problems. Cancer is a major threat, affecting individuals
Sugar impacts your oral health hugely but also has a major impact on your overall health. Recent studies have shown that our high levels of sugar consumption are now making the sweet flavoured ingredient a major toxin that’s actually proving to be quite the driving force behind a number of diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, colon cancer and
Fructose is said to be toxic to the liver. Only liver cells break down fructose in the body. Fructose is found in its normal state when you bite into a fruit. Now manufactures are producing fructose from corn, sugarcane, and beets, but they strip fiber and good nutrients in the process of doing so. Fiber is what slows down the fructose processing in the liver. In the liver when fructose is broken down, triglycerides are formed when an excess amount of fructose is consumed, more then the body can handle. Triglycerides build up in the liver and can potentially take away the livers ability to perform all its basic functions. Triglycerides can too travel to surrounding organs as well as the bloodstream. What this leads to is non-alcoholic steatohepatitis
Americans drink a very large 130 pounds of added sugar. That’s 22 teaspoons a day and over the max level for the heart by the american association in 2009. The added sugar in high fructose corn syrup gives fat more efficiently to the liver and in strange places the article says. Small chunks of fat around your liver, a precursor to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, something more prevalent after the 1980’s. Avoid drinks with tons of added sugar including healthy sounding sugars. You’re better off when the fructose in your diet comes from natural sources like fruit- the fiber helps make dull of the sugar shock to your system. Plus a fruit has way less sugar than the added sugar in commercial smoothies. You can easily stop drinking beverages
There is less controversy concerning the effects of fructose on components of metabolic syndrome; consumption of fructose has been shown to increase visceral adipose deposition and de novo lipogenesis (DNL), produce dyslipidemia, and decrease insulin sensitivity in older, overweight/obese subjects. 83,84 Bray and his colleagues study the relation between the intake of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and the development of obesity. They analyzed food consumption patterns by using US Department of Agriculture food consumption tables from 1967 to 2000. The consumption of HFCS increased > 1000% between 1970 and 1990, far exceeding the changes in intake of any other food or food group. HFCS now represents > 40% of caloric sweeteners added to foods and beverages and is the sole caloric sweetener in soft drinks in the United States. Their estimation of the consumption of HFCS indicates a daily average of 132 kcal for all Americans aged ≥ 2 y, and the top 20% of consumers of caloric sweeteners ingest 316 kcal from HFCS/d. The increased use of HFCS in the United States mirrors the rapid increase in obesity. The digestion, absorption, and metabolism of fructose differ from those of glucose. Hepatic metabolism of fructose favors de novo lipogenesis. In addition, unlike glucose, fructose does not stimulate insulin secretion or enhance leptin production. Because insulin and leptin act as key afferent
Sugar is the culprit for most chronic illnesses. We now recognize that excess sugar molecules in the bloodstream can combine with proteins and certain fats to produce compounds, called glycation end products (AGEs), which the body does not recognize as normal. The immune response sets off inflammation reactions. Excess
Advertisement and commercial industries portray table sugar, and other artificial sweeteners as fuel needed by the body. Though body and body cells need sugar as fuel source. The body mechanism is just like the case of engine, there are bad fuels which can destroy engine. Table sugar is just a bad fuel for the body. Several research studies have arraigned sugar first culprit for the epidemics of complicated health problems such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease and cancer. Worst of it, several research now ranking sugar as addictive substance as drugs.