7 Reasons You Should STOP Sugar
Causes Deposition of Fat in Your Liver
When you eat fructose, it goes to the liver. If liver glycogen is low, such as after a run, the fructose will be used to replenish it.
However, most people aren’t consuming fructose after a long workout and their livers are already full of glycogen.
When this happens, the liver turns the fructose into fat. Some of the fat gets shipped out, but part of it remains in the liver. The fat can build up over time and ultimately lead to Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.
Kills Your Immune System
Sugar suppresses the immune system through decreasing activity in immune system cells that attack bacteria.
Causes Insulin Resistance
The main function of insulin is to drive glucose from the bloodstream into cells. But when we eat a Western diet, the cells tend to become resistant to the effects of insulin.
When this happens, the pancreas start secreting even more insulin to remove the glucose from the bloodstream, because elevated blood glucose is toxic.
Kills Your Brain Health and Mood
If you’ve read David Perlmutter’s incisive critique of carbohydrates and sugar on brain health, “Grain Brain” you already know that sugar has powerful effects on mood and long-term brain health.
Additionally, since B vitamins are required to metabolize sugar and carbohydrates, sugar consumption can lead to deficiencies in the mood-boosting B-complex vitamins.
Causes Heart Problem
Sugar raises the bad cholesterol, triglycerides and causes various other issues that can ultimately lead to heart disease
Mineral Balance
Sugar inhibits mineral absorption, depriving the body of key minerals necessary for health, and depletes the body of magnesium, which is required for proper functioning of every single cell in the human body and essential for calcium absorption and utilization
Causes Resistance to a Hormone Called Leptin
Leptin is a hormone that is secreted by our fat cells. The more fat we have, the more leptin is secreted.
This is supposed to function as a signal to tell the brain that we’re full and need to stop eating. It is also supposed to raise our energy expenditure.
Obese individuals actually have high levels of leptin, but the problem is that the leptin isn’t working.
This is called leptin resistance and is a major reason why people eat more calories than they burn and become obese.