The Dangers of Sugar!

Sugar is one of the most seductive foods out there. It tastes good and it is in more foods than you can imagine. Worst of all, with some people it is addictive. They can’t get enough of it. The truth is sugar is a poison. It will eventually ruin your health, especially past the age of 35.

The sad thing is, everyone thinks they are immune to any kind of illness. They keep eating things that they like, because they like them. They don’t think about consequences down the road. I feel fine right now so that is all that counts.

Sugar is an emotional comfort. It brings comfort and pleasure when you’re tired, stressed or upset. Time for coffee and donuts at 10:30 to tide you over until lunch. It’s that Mars Bar at 3 in the afternoon when you’ve been slogging it out at the office all day. Or even that ice cream or box of chocolates when you’re watching your favorite TV show. It can’t hurt, I’ll eat better tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes.

Sugar creates a situation in your body called glycation. This is where sugar molecules in the cells and the blood stream bond to proteins and DNA. It is a “browning” reaction, like if you put sugar in a pan on the stove and heated it until it turned brown. Over time these sugar/protein combinations become chemically modified to become new molecules called Advanced Glycation End Products or A.G.E.’s, which can interfere with the normal function of proteins to which they become attached. Tissues become stiff, where they were once flexible. This can be noticed in joints and muscle tissue. Varicose veins are another place where this stiffening may be noticed. This process happens gradually over time and any tissue containing collagen and elastin such as skin, hair and nail tissue, can also be affected. Glycation affects the functioning of proteins and can result in irritating inflammatory and auto‐immune responses.
Research has implicated glycation in many progressive diseases normally associated with aging, including diseases of circulation such as atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, poor circulation in hands and feet and poor lung circulation. Further, glycation has been found to contribute to kidney disease, stiff skin and joints, arthritis, cataracts, erectile dysfunction, retinopathy, diabetes, cancer, neuropathy, dementia, Alzheimer’s. impaired wound healing, urinary incontinence, blindness, deafness, complications of diabetes, heart disease and congestive heart failure, among others.

That’s quite a shopping list that gets worse over time, just from enjoying sweets. Looking at the list causes one to think if it is worth it to enjoy it now, only to suffer later. This wide range of diseases is the result of the very basic way that sugar metabolizing into a glycation process, interfering with the normal functions of cells and their metabolism. If glycation conditions are right, a hydrogen peroxide by‐product is released which “rusts” the cells with its highly oxidizing action.

The bad news continues when researchers found that these AGE’s were eliminated from the body very slowly. Glycated substances take a long time to be broken down by the body and the kidneys have a tough time dealing with them. Researchers found that the half‐life of one of these substances in the body is approximately twice the average cell life. Red blood cells are known to have a life span of 120 days, so it may take you 240 days to get rid of the glycation from that piece of chocolate cake.

There are some cells in the body that are longer lived than blood cells, such as nerve and brain cells, eye crystalline and collagen , DNA, kidney cells, retina cells in the eyes, insulin producing cells in the pancreas, cells in the heart and blood vessels and the blood vessel cells in the brain. All of these tissues can accumulate more damage over time resulting in a breakdown in the normal functioning. Disease begins to appear as the damage accumulates. This is serious stuff. No wonder people are getting sicker and sicker. In 1999, the average American ate more sugar than ever before, consuming 158 pounds per man, woman and child, which is 30 percent higher than in 1983.

Sugar addiction happens because the body is acidic. Sugar forms acids in the body which actually make the body crave more sugar. It becomes a vicious cycle. One way to break the cycle is to alkalize the body. It means eating more vegetables and less sweets, fruit, fruit juices, desserts and carbonated beverages. If you can eliminate one of the above every week and substitute more healthy choices into your diet, you can gradually change your diet without shocking your system.

One way to make this transition easier is to add Cerra  alkaline, ionized water to your diet. This type of water is quite pleasant to drink and your body will begin to crave it as your thirst mechanism is turned back on. It will gradually decrease the acidosis in your body and return your body back to a more neutral terrain. In addition, it will provide more available oxygen to your body and act as an antioxidant, reducing glycation damage more quickly than would normally happen. It will take a while to repair the abuse, it will not happen overnight. This water is in smaller bunches and the cells readily absorb it. People need to rid their bodies of this poison called sugar. Read labels, discipline yourself and drink your Cerra water.