Well, you made it through another Halloween – did the neighborhood kids leave you with a full bowl of sugar-laden treats? Get rid of them – now – seriously it’s been a week! I mean, give them away, send them to the military overseas, trade them at the dentist’s office for a toy, or throw it away – anything but eat yourself into a sugar coma.
Sure, it may give you a temporary burst of energy (sugar high), but when it wears off…yikes! You will likely feel sluggish, it can lead to weight gain, stomach pain and a whole host of other problems. Sugar is NOT your friend, especially if you are on your journey toward better health and overall fitness.
Check out these sugar-related facts before you take one more bite of that chocolate bar:
- Fructose can make your organs fat – wait, what?! Did you even know that was a “thing”? It triggers your liver to store more fat around the outside of the organ, which, left unchecked over time, could lead to non-alcohol related fatty liver syndrome.
- Sugar can lead to diabetes – “A PLoS One study found that for every extra 150 calories from sugar available per person each day, diabetes prevalence rises by 1.1%”.
- Sugar can lead to heart disease and stroke – as a side effect of long term diabetes, excess sugar in your bloodstream leads to a hardening of the muscles around your blood vessels.
- The Journal of the American Medical Association released a study that found a link between sugar increasing the liver’s storage of fat AND a decrease in the body’s ability to get rid of it.
- Sugar can cause addiction – Just like a street drug, the more you have, the more you want.
- Sugar makes you ravenous – It messes with your ability to tell when you are hungry or full.
- Sugar highs make for huge sugar crashes – it takes less than 30 minutes for your body to crash after a quick burst of energy from sugar.
- Sugar can lead to depression – researchers have found a link between diets high in sugar content and depression.
Put down the candy bar and reach for some natural sugar found in whole fruit such as apples, berries and bananas. It won’t cause the same crash as artificial sugars and you’ll feel full longer.