Why is sugar added to almost everything today? Sugar harms you may not have known about
Today there is a lot of information on the Internet about sugar and its harms. Almost everyone knows and has heard that sugar is harmful. But at the same time the number of sweet tooth is steadily increasing every day, the confectionery industry is expanding, and sugar is now present not only in sweets and baked goods, but also in almost all sauces, sausages, meat, drinks and even medicines. Who is actively introducing sugar into our lives and do people consciously want to get sick? There appeared a desire to sort out this question, as well as to consider the basic mechanisms of the negative effects of sugar on our bodies, which are far from always heard about, and I will also try to answer the question of why, in my opinion, people today are so actively drawn to sweets, and why sugar is deliberately added everywhere possible? So, here we go.
We know that refined sugar is a simple carbohydrate that allows us to quickly replenish energy, and when we eat sweets, we are sure to feel pleasure and enjoyment. Can we replenish our energy reserves without sweets? Absolutely! To do this, you just need to organize your diet completely and correctly, and as a source of energy give preference to complex carbohydrates in moderation and fruits with berries, honey, if there are no contraindications for them. You can easily find out more about this. As for pleasure, it has long been no secret that eating sweets is actually accompanied by a release of endorphins (pleasure hormones) into the blood, but let us further examine what is the prize of this.
No one doubts that systematic overeating of sweets leads to obesity. But have you ever wondered why this happens and how sugar affects the body of a person who is not prone to obesity? Most people with slim bodies are convinced that since they do not gain weight, there is no harm. But that is, to put it mildly, not true. Even if you do not tend to gain weight and eat a lot of sweets every day, according to the laws of biochemistry excess glucose (the end product of any carbohydrate) goes to the synthesis of so-called harmful cholesterol (or rather, low and very low density lipoproteins), which at regular high concentrations in the blood causes changes in the vascular wall, activating the processes of atherosclerosis, that is vascular changes, leading to death. In addition, it is well established that excess sugar causes glycation (gluing) of intercellular matrix proteins and destruction of collagen and elastin fibers. The latter are present in all organs and tissues and are responsible for the well-being and life of the cells themselves, but most noticeably it affects the skin in the form of the appearance of premature wrinkles and the same vessels, which become less elastic and more fragile. Young people, for example, may have various vascular disorders in the form of changes in blood pressure, headaches, and so on. As for older people it can provoke hypertension, angina pectoris, varicose veins, Alzheimer's disease and many other vascular diseases. Regarding people with plump shapes: for some reason many people think that their fat is limited by subcutaneous fat, but unfortunately their blood vessels and internal organs will in any case be saturated with cholesterol inclusions formed from excess glucose, alas.
Do you think that's all the trouble that the daily presence of sugar in your diet causes? No.
As already mentioned, glucose turns into cholesterol, and cholesterol is part of our bile. And the more saturated it is with cholesterol, the less fluid it becomes, and, as a result, it leads to bile duct dyskinesia,a cholelithiasis, and always, next to it, pancreatitis, come out of it. Regular presence of excess sugar in the diet over time often turns into the development of insulin resistance (i.e. impairment of normal glucose absorption by cells). And insulin resistance, in turn, is the foundation for the development of many endocrine disorders, especially at a young age, such as acne (acne disease), polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, mastopathy, hyperandrogenism, and with age – and diabetes mellitus.
Scientists have also found a correlation between the development of insulin resistance and an increase in uric acid levels, which leads to such a disease as gout. Patients with this pathology are often advised to limit meat, alcohol, and coffee, rather than sweets, which is the reason for the unsuccessful treatment of this disease.
If you often get colds, then ask yourself: Do you eat too many sweets, flour products and bakery? Yes, sugar also affects the immune system - weakening primarily the so-called intestinal immunity, actively supporting pathogenic intestinal microflora, as a result of which our useful and protective microflora is suppressed, and with it the protective functions of our body.
Also, sugar makes our bones brittle. Yes, such a condition as osteoporosis is not so much a consequence of age-related changes and calcium deficiency in your diet (almost all foods are rich in calcium, so deficiency is almost impossible), but rather a consequence of decreased blood pH (acid-base balance) and calcium digestion in the intestines. By sweets the body is forced to compensate for acidity by releasing alkaline elements, primarily by removing calcium from bone depots, in an effort to maintain a constant optimum pH. And the active growth of pathogenic microflora in the small intestine against the consumption of the same sugar leads to the development of malabsorption syndrome (disorders of absorption) and reduced absorption of calcium and, unfortunately, other important nutrients: iron, magnesium, zinc, vitamins A, D, B vitamins and others, deficiency of which is now quite common.
In 1931, a study by Otto Warburg, which was later awarded the Nobel Prize, demonstrated that cancer cells thrive in the absence of oxygen and an excess of sugar! And recent new researches show that one in four human tumors has an excess of glucose receptors on the membranes of cancer cells, which confirms its need for cancer formation. Draw your own conclusions.
How does sugar affect the body? What happens inside?
Many people have probably noticed how various allergic reactions occur in the body after eating sweets (most often skin itching and rashes on the body). We usually say that it's "sugar rash. What's really going on? There are often many opportunistic and pathogenic bacteria, fungi, protozoa and helminths In our gastrointestinal tract, mainly in the intestines and biliary tract as well as in the blood, unnoticed by ourselves, most of which feed on sugar. The parasitic creatures living in us release their toxin-containing waste products right where they are, eventually ending up in our blood. It turns out that the more we feed them with sweet things, the more toxins get into our bloodstream. The body tries to cleanse itself and flush them out in every way possible, including through the skin and mucous membranes. And here we come not only to one of the causes of allergies, but also to the causes of sugar addiction. Parasitic toxins also have the property of stimulating the desire to eat sweets, flour and dairy products (since the latter are also good nutrient substrates for them), i.e. they simply, in a way, control us. In nature, there are many such instances, for example, in the same way the cordyceps mushroom, having embedded in the ant's body, controls its further actions, prompting it to leave the anthill, climb on a certain plant and there freeze, allowing the mushroom to germinate in the most favorable conditions. This is why it turns out that the more we eat sweets, the more we crave them; parasite toxins contribute to this. There is also a hormonal mechanism involved: in response to a rapid increase in blood glucose (when eating sweets in large amount, as well as when consuming products on glucose syrups, which are now particularly widely used) there is a sharp release of the insulin hormone, so that after a while blood sugar drops sharply and there is a physical need to urgently replenish it, such a vicious circle develops...
And let me remind you that sugar, of course, is the main provocateur of tooth decay.
I would also like to add that all the above described mechanisms and processes will also develop with excessive consumption of sweet fruits, dried fruits and honey. Well, parasites don't care at all what kind of sweets you eat, as long as glucose is supplied to the organism.
Although these products certainly have significant advantages in the form of vitamins and antioxidants in their composition, which sugar cannot boast of. But there must be a measure for everything.
Why don't people talk about the harms of sugar?
Now comes the fun part. For all the harmfulness of sugar, no one has sounded the alarm about it; on the contrary, as already mentioned, sugar is added almost everywhere today, even in the salting of meat they use sugar-containing mixtures. As we have already learned, if a person regularly consumes sugar, this will sooner or later lead to illness. In order to understand who benefits from this, let's look at it from different angles: a sweets-lover will end up getting sick and will be forced to seek medical care more often and need to purchase medications, most of which are nowadays not without side effects. Thus, he will take the medication, but at the same time, due to the side effects, there is already a probability of acquiring a new disease, which also needs to be treated. And this explains why the medical-pharmacological field does not contribute much to the education of health workers and, of course, patients themselves about the true harms of sugar, moreover, many cause-and-effect mechanisms in the development of diseases are deliberately ignored. As far as the food industry is concerned, everything is also quite obvious, given that the sweeter the product, the more enjoyable it is and, accordingly, the more likely it is to be purchased.
Manufacturers are interested in sales and profits, so in addition to sugar, they use anything that will keep the product as long as possible and enhance its taste, even at the expense of our health. Why is it that no one really cares about our health today? Why are we fed unhealthy foods, while conventional medicine cannot completely cure ANY chronic disease, but can only offer lifelong or at best periodic medication? After all, we are well aware that it is possible to produce healthy and safe products, and treatment can be done in a way that does no harm, and recovery, and medicine can be made accessible, preventive and effective.
The only thing we lack in the world for that is to change our consumer format, which, unfortunately, is ingrained in our minds since childhood and is focused on gaining benefit for ourselves in any way, and in the end it turns out that at the cost of human health and life! Artificially, for the man there were created conditions under which he needs constantly to survive and fuss; at the same time it's cool to be shameless and go over heads. But by changing the conditions, we can change everything. After all, it wasn't always like this; there was a time when people knew that human life is the most valuable thing!
There is a way out – the Creative Society!
Today a great number of people all over the world have already realized the destructiveness of the modern consumer format of society and by the efforts of the people themselves in more than 180 countries the global international project "The Creative Society" has been developed and implemented, which gives the opportunity really to change our world today and create a society where the greatest value is human life, and where there can be no artificially created diseases, wars and crises. As millions of opinion polls of ALLATRA International Public Movement volunteers have shown, most people want this, regardless of their social status, profession, place of residence, we all, without exception, are victims of the prevailing consumer order in society and we can only change the situation by joining our efforts!
Today we truly have the opportunity to build a world not for a select few, but for all mankind, the world where people can live in unity with one another, happily and safely. Join in! And learn more about the Creative Society Project at allatraunites.com.
Maria Mikhalskaya, gastroenterologist, participant of ALLATRA IPM
