THE SUGAR DILEMMA – Part II

THE SUGAR DILEMMA – Part II

Foods that affect blood sugar also contribute to heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, inflammation, and even cancer, etc. That is right! Sugar is cancer’s favorite food. The National Institute of Health looked into sugar’s link to 24 different cancers and found an increase in the risk of esophageal, small intestine, colon and breast cancers.

Studies also showed that sugar increased breast cancer metastasis to the lungs. To top it off, sugar greatly interferes with your immune system’s ability to function, making you more vulnerable to all kinds of illnesses and diseases that the immune system would normally attack.

Bacteria and yeast also feed on sugar, so not only are you decreasing your immune system, but you are encouraging the growth of the very things your immune system would normally want to tackle.

Also, something else you’ve probably never heard about, is that sugar increases stress. It does. When we’re under stress, our bodies release a large number of hormones due to the fight or flight response. Well, the body does the same thing when blood sugar is low. After eating a sweet snack, stress hormones (like cortisol) begin to make up for the crash we experience by raising our blood sugar, creating anxiousness, irritability and shakiness.

Four Things to Help with Sugar Cravings.

• Increase your fiber. High fiber will help you stay fuller longer and is helpful in detoxifying the gut and reducing the candida overgrowth that takes off with sugar for fuel. Since candida fungi want sugar to grow, you crave it. High fiber foods from vegetables, nuts and seeds are great sources.
• Eat plenty of protein. Meaning don’t skip meals or cut back on how much you are supposed to eat. Protein will help balance out your blood sugar, so it naturally helps with cravings.
• Make sure to get healthy fat at each meal. Eating healthy fat, especially Kerry Gold butter, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil or MCT oil, causes your body to have to burn fat for fuel, which not only helps with weight loss, but also stops sugar cravings as you are not feeding into the sugar burning cycle that keeps demanding more.
• Include sour foods into your diet. As for sour foods, probiotic-rich and fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi, Bragg’s apple cider vinegar and even lemon squeezed in your water throughout the day can decrease sugar cravings. The good bacteria in the fermented products help to reduce candida, which reduces your craving for sugar, and the lemon juice slows down digestion, keeping blood sugar from spiking and crashing. Plus, it also improves nutrient absorption.

Being armed with this kind of information helps when you are standing there looking at sweets and treats. Knowing that sugar is more than just calories or something that may cause you to gain weight, but that it possesses the ability to wreak havoc on your body in many ways is important in helping you to say “no.”