You’ll also combat candida, depression, and heart disease in the process.
It’s no surprise that sugary foods increase the rates of diabetes and obesity. But did you realize that too much sugar intake can lead to chronic depression?
New European research with rats—animals remarkably like humans in many of their brain functions—links over-consumption of sugar with brain changes that resemble addictive behavior. Unlimited access to sugar in the lab makes animals vulnerable to reward-related psychiatric disorders.
Reviewing beverage consumption in this country, Harvard researchers also link sugary drinks—everything from soft drinks, sweetened teas and lemonade, fruitades, energy drinks, and even vitamin waters—to inflammation, insulin resistance, belly fat, and hypertension.
Several months ago, the American Heart Association advised consumers to reduce sugar consumption to protect against Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Since twice as many women as men die of coronary disease after a heart attack, it’s especially important that females watch their intake of sweets—starting in childhood and adolescence.
Dr. Ann Louise’s Take:
I’m not surprised that sugar is the underlying cause of so many disorders—including depression.
Sugar is as deadly as heroin—it just takes longer to kill you. Eating refined, non-nutritive sugar causes a biochemical chain reaction that temporarily increases the “feel good” hormone serotonin, helping us to feel relaxed and less stressed.
The key word here is temporary. Once the sugar high disappears, the body wants more, making you hungry again. You eat more sweets, which keeps the addictive pattern going, leading to weight gain and insulin resistance.
Sugary foods feed harmful bacteria and yeasts, resulting in bloating, constipation, diarrhea, hormonal imbalance, and yeast infections. This only increases the “feed me” signals, strengthening the addictive pattern. Sugar addiction has been linked to everything from depression to permanent cardiac, kidney, and respiratory problems.
In the early 1900s when people consumed a modest 60 pounds of sugar a year, the rates of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease were much lower than they are today. Obesity was rare. Today, Americans eat about 180 pounds of sugar—found in everything from aspirin and catsup to soft drinks and toothpaste—much of it in the form of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) that carries risks far beyond overweight.
Think Zinc
Not only does this manufactured sweetener contain the cumulative neurotoxin, mercury, but it also contributes to the loss of zinc, a mineral essential to the very metabolic processes required for mercury elimination. No wonder exposure to this toxic heavy metal has been found to alter neural function and increase oxidative stress among children with autism.
Essential to liver function and immunity, zinc also helps the beta cells in the pancreas store and release insulin. Pancreatic tissue of people with diabetes has only one-third of the zinc found in healthy individuals.
Do your pancreas a favor and eat small portions of zinc-rich, sugar-free high-protein foods. In addition to eggs, grass-fed meats, and poultry, consider Fat Flush Whey Protein, which contains healing substances like immunoglobulins and immune-enhancing elements, natural appetite suppressing proteins, and inulin (a prebiotic that nourishes beneficial bacteria in the GI tract.)
Both vegetarians and Smoothie Shakedown fans are raving about Fat Flush Body Protein, made from pea and rice protein (plus inulin and the calorie-free sweet herb stevia that doesn’t cause all the problems sugar does). A new Greek study shows that fortifying a low-carb diet with vegetarian protein is particularly effective in fighting belly fat, diabetes, hypertension, and overweight. What great confirmation for Fat Flush for Life!
Sources:
Fat Flush for Life
The Fat Flush Plan
www.healthiertalk.com/sugar-more-addictive-heroin-1374
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20153615
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20138901
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20174565
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20086073
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20126352
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19860886
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19171026
I gave up sugar for Lent without realizing how many foods contain some form of sugar. But I’ve already lost weight substituting fruit for sweetened desserts.
My toothpaste has Xylitol. Is that okay?
Great to hear you are losing weight already. You might want to check out the Fat Flush Plan or the Smoothie Shakedown to even have faster results in a healthy way.
Xylitol is a sugar alcohol. In a toothpaste it is helpful to wash bacteria from your gums, but I don’t think it is good as a sugar to ingest.
Is it OK to use Body Protein in smoothies as a dessert for my kids? I am trying to move my 8 year old away from craving sugary desserts. She has terrible mood swings and I think it has to be related. Offering fruit for dessert is not very enticing but I worry about putting a “diet” product in their drinks. (I sometimes sneak a whole-food based fruit or veggie capsule in there for extra insurance!)
Fruit smoothies with the Body Protein would make an excellent dessert for children. It is only considered a “diet” product when it is used as a meal replacement.
I just started Phase One and I continue to have cravings for sweets, salt and carbs. Any suggestions on how I get over these cravings?
Judith- It is not at all uncommon for people to have those cravings in phase one of the Fat Flush program as they “detox” from an excessively salty and sugary diet. Persistent sugar and carb cravings can be caused by yeast overgrowth, which can be controlled by the use of a good probiotic, like Probiotics 12-Plus and Y-C Cleanse, a homeopathic yeast cleanser sold by Uni Key Health Systems.
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