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Why Are You Addicted to Sugar?

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Published: 02Mar2008
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Like many people, you may think you are addicted to carbohydrates, such as bread, cakes, cookies, just because you like eating them. However, truthfully, you may be addicted to sugar - the sugar in these carbohydrates.

For example, eating a donut loaded with sugar will cause a blood sugar spike in your bloodstream, giving you the "feeling good" experience that might make you want to reach out for yet another donut. The explanation is simple: your sudden blood sugar spike giving you that "feeling good" sensation is almost immediately followed by a blood sugar drop that drives the craving to experience that sensation again.

Sugar triggers the release of opiates (addictive substances) from your brain, causing a magnetic effect on you, which may be the beginning of sugar addiction. Food manufacturers have found out that adding fat in food will further enhance the effect of food seduction on a consumer. In other words, fat and sugar complement each other in increasing your food addiction, making you want to consume more, and that is why sugar and fat are main ingredients in most processed foods.

Consumers are often misled into thinking that carbohydrates make them fat. No, good carbohydrates, such as bread, pasta, and rice do not make you fat. For one thing, healthy carbohydrates, being modest in calories, may fill you up before you can eat more. For another, even if you do overeat occasionally, those extra calories are most likely stored as glycogen for your energy use, or dissipated during exercise or any vigorous physical activity.

It is the sugar which is often added to carbohydrates - such as jam in bread, sugar coating in a donut - that makes you fat. Remember, sugar is concentrated calories. A 20-ounce soda may have 250 calories of sugar. On the other hand, a cup of rice has fewer calories than a cup of soda. Drinking a cup of soda will not assuage your hunger, while eating a cup of brown rice may fill you up.

Sugar is addictive. Sugar is one of the common toxic foods. In addition to causing blood sugar imbalance as previously mentioned, too much sugar may also overburden your pancreas, rendering it incapable of clearing sugar from you blood efficiently, and thus potentially leading to diabetes.

Too much sugar may cause anxiety, irritability, nervous tension, and even depression due to depletion of your body's B-complex vitamins, especially for women progressing to menopause.

Too much sugar may suppress your immune system and upset your body's mineral balance, making it more acidic, which is the underlying cause of many diseases.

Sugar is hidden in most commercial processed foods and drinks, such as salad dressing, ketchup, mixed sweet drinks, and sodas, among others. Sugar may come in many different forms: corn syrup (made from cornstarch, composed mainly of glucose), high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)(modified form of corn syrup with increased level of fructose), and aspartame (a low-calorie artificial sweetener).

Look at all food and drink labels before you consume them.

Also, avoid all sugar traps that may look "healthy" to you.

Organic brown sugar, made from cane sugar, is only slightly better than white table sugar. The word "organic" is not synonymous with "healthy."

Unrefined brown sugar is no more than white sugar dyed with molasses. It is still highly processed. Do not be misled by the term "unrefined." Brown sugar is mostly sucrose.

Honey is no more than "expensive" sugar with little nutritional value. That liquid honey does not spoil is due to its high sugar concentration, which kills bacteria by plasmolysis, and this fact may often give people the impression that honey is good because it does not spoil easily. However, honey is still sugar. Costing more does not make it any better or healthier.

White table sugar is the worst form of sugar because it is highly processed with zero nutritional value.

A recent U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) survey revealed that the average American consumes the equivalent of 160 pounds of sugar a year - that is something like over 50 heaped teaspoons of sugar per person per day. If this is not too much, then what is?

Sugar addiction is mainly due to the standard American diet (SAD), which is high in protein, dairy, and salt.

If you have an insatiable sugar craving, your body system is most probably toxic, if not already unhealthy. To stop sugar addiction, you must consume more healthy carbohydrates, such as bread, pasta, and rice, instead of meat and animal products. The reason is that your body needs fiber so that you will eat less, and decreased intake of salt and fat will also eliminate the sugar addiction.

Stephen Lau is a researcher, writing medical research for doctors and scientists. His publications include "NO MIRACLE CURES" a book on healing and wellness. He has also created several websites on health and healing, including the following: http://www.longevityforyou.com http://www.rethinkyourdepression.com

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