Islander
09-09-09, 09:23 PM
Processed sugar is one of the worst things you could possibly put into your body. Those innocent and tasty little white grains not only weaken your immune system, but they fuel cancer cells and jack up your risk of diabetes, heart disease, and all manner of other health problems.
That's why the American Heart Association recently released some guidelines for sugar consumption. According to the AHA, women should have no more than 100 calories of sugar each day; men are allowed only slightly more -- 150 calories per day.
You'd be surprised at how quickly those numbers can add up.
Along with those guidelines, the AHA released a list of foods that they consider "surprisingly high" in sugar. It's a long list that includes ketchup, fortune cookies, flavored alcohols, baked beans, barbeque sauce, lemonade, flavored popcorn, and granola bars.
Just one 12-ounce can of non-diet soda has about 130 calories that come solely from sugar. And think about how much sugar people dump into their morning coffees.
Salad dressings are deceptive, too. Everyone gets the idea that a salad is always a healthy option, but drenching it with reduced-fat salad dressing can be like sprinkling your greens with chocolate. Just one cup of reduced-calorie French dressing contains a whopping 58 grams of sugar.
With the list of sugar's negative health effects piling up, it's time to think twice about what you're funneling down your throat.
Remember, sugar can lead to increased risk of breast and colon cancers, diabetes, kidney damage, depression, hypertension, moodiness, migraines, and more.
And the excess pounds that sugar causes you to pack on have their own dangers.
There are certain diseases that everyone knows go hand-in-hand with obesity: diabetes, cancer, and heart disease come to mind. But here's a new one to add to the list:
Obesity can contribute to Alzheimer's and other cognitive disorders.
Researchers at UCLA studied the brain images of 94 people in their 70s over five years. They found that clinically obese people had 8 percent less brain tissue, and overweight people had 4 percent less brain tissue. Apparently their brains even looked 16 years older than those of normal-weight people.
The researchers noted that most of the loss tissue came from the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain -- the area responsible for decision-making and memory.
With nearly one third of American adults tipping the obese scale, it's no wonder so many diseases like these are on the rise.
Now if that's not a good reason to cut down on the sugar, I don't know what is.
Giving you the not-so-sweet truth about sugar,
William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.
from his e-letter:
realhealth@healthiernews.com
That's why the American Heart Association recently released some guidelines for sugar consumption. According to the AHA, women should have no more than 100 calories of sugar each day; men are allowed only slightly more -- 150 calories per day.
You'd be surprised at how quickly those numbers can add up.
Along with those guidelines, the AHA released a list of foods that they consider "surprisingly high" in sugar. It's a long list that includes ketchup, fortune cookies, flavored alcohols, baked beans, barbeque sauce, lemonade, flavored popcorn, and granola bars.
Just one 12-ounce can of non-diet soda has about 130 calories that come solely from sugar. And think about how much sugar people dump into their morning coffees.
Salad dressings are deceptive, too. Everyone gets the idea that a salad is always a healthy option, but drenching it with reduced-fat salad dressing can be like sprinkling your greens with chocolate. Just one cup of reduced-calorie French dressing contains a whopping 58 grams of sugar.
With the list of sugar's negative health effects piling up, it's time to think twice about what you're funneling down your throat.
Remember, sugar can lead to increased risk of breast and colon cancers, diabetes, kidney damage, depression, hypertension, moodiness, migraines, and more.
And the excess pounds that sugar causes you to pack on have their own dangers.
There are certain diseases that everyone knows go hand-in-hand with obesity: diabetes, cancer, and heart disease come to mind. But here's a new one to add to the list:
Obesity can contribute to Alzheimer's and other cognitive disorders.
Researchers at UCLA studied the brain images of 94 people in their 70s over five years. They found that clinically obese people had 8 percent less brain tissue, and overweight people had 4 percent less brain tissue. Apparently their brains even looked 16 years older than those of normal-weight people.
The researchers noted that most of the loss tissue came from the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain -- the area responsible for decision-making and memory.
With nearly one third of American adults tipping the obese scale, it's no wonder so many diseases like these are on the rise.
Now if that's not a good reason to cut down on the sugar, I don't know what is.
Giving you the not-so-sweet truth about sugar,
William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.
from his e-letter:
realhealth@healthiernews.com