The one food we should stop eating altogether

Even though we know food additives are terrible for our health, there's one food hiding in plain sight and literally ruining our bodies : sugar.

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Even though I don't think cutting back on one food/food group entirely is a good idea, sugar is the only exception. White (refined) sugar contains NOTHING interesting for our bodies. Like, really.

I'm not going to go all over again on the diabetes + weight gain linked to a high sugar consumption because I think everyone told you already, so today I'm going to tell you the ugly truth about sugar that no one told you before.
And if someone told you already ; this person is a keeper.

☞   Sugar affects our mood

When we eat sugary foods (containing glucose), our bodies produce insulin to even our blood sugar levels. When there's too much, sugar gets stored as fat. 

Imagine your body as a jogger ; if the jogger goes to a slow pace on an even road, it will be less of an effort. On the other hand, if the jogger has to rush, stop, sprint (intermittent training anyone ?) up and downhill, he will be totally exhausted very quickly.

Eating sugary foods do the same on our bodies : it makes them exhausted. After a sugar rush (when the sugar hits and you feel energized), our body has to work quickly to produce insulin. And then comes the crash ; fatigue, trouble thinking, blurry vision, feeling sluggish...

This causes stress in our bodies, and if you're suffering from anxiety, eating sugar will worsen your symptoms.

☞   Sugar creates inflammation, making us age faster

Sugar heightens the concentration of cytokines in our blood and generates advanced glycation end products (AGE) which are both pro-inflammatory, therefore generating oxidative stress.
Oxidative stress is the situation in which your cells are not able to detoxify from the harmful compounds and/or repair themselves as fast as they're being altered (aka : damaged).

If we had to simplify the aging process, we could say that our cells are being altered overtime. Sugar  just alters them faster.

Also : inflammation makes acne worse... Another beauty reason to ditch it !

☞   Sugar makes us crave more sugar

Sugar has been shown to be more addictive than cocaine in an experiment done on rats. Yup, that's how bad it is... The more we eat it, the more we get accustomed to it, the more we crave it. Vicious circle.
If you are a sugar junkie, cutting back on your sugar intake is probably going to make you experience withdrawal symptoms : being cranky, feeling tired, stressed and hypersensitive.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE : once you cut back your sugar intake, you'll notice that you need less and less sugar in your food for it to be up to your taste. The key is to take baby steps, and that is going to be the subject of another article soon.



Hope you liked reading this article, let me know if you have any further question, I'll do my best to answer it !

Take care,

Millie