I would like to welcome
The Organic Blonde to Between the Lines. The Organic Blonde explores the hidden dangers in our food, cosmetics products, and households and giving natural, healthier and sometimes even cheaper alternatives to improve our health and the health of those we love.I explore alternative health treatment, holistic therapies and remedies, and even give tips and tricks to maintain beauty in a natural but effective way. This is not your ordinary health and beauty blog. This is a lifestyle with the aim of making you, those you love healthier and happier and doing our part to make Mother Earth greener. After reading this wonderful post written by Jacqueline, please show her some love by visiting her
blog and reading more of her wonderful articles.
Sugar...the Sweet Poison
I realize these days we ALL have heard about the dangers of processed foods. I know we have all gotten tired of hearing that we have to give up white sugar. The fact is, people, the average American eats 158 POUNDS of sugar a year. Now before you go saying. "I don't eat that much sugar" bear in mind that though only roughly 30 pounds of that is actually from the sugar bowl, think of all the "hidden" sugars in your food.
For every regular soda you drink, that is 8 ounces of simple sugar. There is, more than likely, sugar in the cereal you have for breakfast, in the crackers you snack on at a party, in the ketchup you have with your fries, in the reduced fat cookies you with which you innocently stuff your face thinking they are the virtuous choice, instead actually being loaded with up to four times more sugar to make up for the fat they don't contain. In fact, I picked up a can of Swanson's Chicken broth the other day to find that the third ingredient was sugar. In chicken broth people!!!
Now forget for awhile the obesity epidemic. We all know now that sugar makes you fat. But it can also do the following:
1) Interferes with calcium and magnesium absorption, which weakens bones
2) Raises bad cholesterol and triglycerides and lowers good cholesterol
3) Causes loss of connective tissue elasticity
4) Feeds cancer cells and has been connected with breast, prostate, stomach, and ovarian cancer
5) Makes children anxious, hyperactive, cranky, and causes difficulty concentrating
6) Causes premature aging
7) Causes alcoholism (it's already addictive so if you add alcohol, also a sugar, it can make THAT addictive!)
Causes varicose veins
9) Can contribute to osteoporosis
10) Interferes with absorption of protein
11) Causes food allergies
12) Can cause nearsightedness and cataracts
13) Can cause emphysema
14) Causes fluid retention
15) Can cause kidney stones
16) Can cause problems with bowel movements
17) Can cause headaches, including migraines
18) Can cause gum disease
19) Can promote emotional instability
If the above reasons aren't enough there are plenty more to make you want to throw out the sugar bowl or anything with the suffixes "-ose or -ase", ie. dextrose, sucrose, maltose, glucose, fructose, and let's not forget corn syrup and it's evil offspring high fructose corn syrup which deserves a post all its own and is one of the most prevalent ingredients in foods today. But I hope you saw the biggest reason for dramatically reducing your refined sugar intake...
