With a little sugar the pill goes down … and your health too!


Like some news shortly. Maybe that’s why this day is not at all clear that sugar is the number one enemy of our food.

Easier to point the finger at animal protein, fats such as palm oil, salt or attributed to heavy metals water all our misfortunes. And you know why? Because it costs, less effort to give up all these factors together, rather than eliminate sugar from our nutrition.

Not by chance it is said that with a little sugar helps the medicine go down, and so sugar as they could to throw down the bitter pill of fatigue, stress, dissatisfaction and loneliness.

And sure, I know that there are many other “defects” in our diet but it is always wrong to forget to more serious ones to work only on the simplest. That is why even the majority of recipes, passed off as healthy, in the end are full of sugar. Otherwise, the cake would not be such and would remain disappointed!


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And if the use of various types of sugars add drinks, juices, refined grains, and even excessive use of fruit, you can understand why a huge number of people are overweight and have a tendency to develop metabolic syndrome.

So it defines a set of metabolic changes caused by chronically high insulin levels and able to increase the risk of developing many diseases including stroke, diabetes and cancer.

There is also another reason why the sugar in the diet should be eliminated: glycation, the process by which the sugar is “sticky” proteins and lipids in the body, damaging them.

The endogenous glycation (produced within the body) occurs when the sugar that circulates in the blood is too high; that exogenous (introduced from the outside of the body) occurs when sugars are cooked together with protein or fat to temperatures higher than 120° C or for very long times.

When a food is cooked and “darken” is undergoing a reaction of glycation, which forms of those toxins glycotoxins or AGEs, Advanced Glycation End-Products. The glycation reactions also form acrylamide, a carcinogenic molecule. So even for those who have an optimal regulation of blood glucose, glycation can rappresentareun problem if the cooking methods are not controlled.

AGEs are involved in damage to the endothelium (the inner wall of the arteries) and then in the development of cardiovascular disease, the damage to the collagen which hardens the arteries and causes high blood pressure in the deposition of amyloid plaques in Alzheimer’s disease, neuropathy angiopathy and diabetic and cancer. Furthermore, glycation, damaging important cellular components, increases the production of free radicals and thus oxidative stress. The levels of glycation are easily measured through a parameter called glycated hemoglobin (used for monitoring of diabetics). Beyond the possible genetic predispositions, a central factor of importance in the genesis of the metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance is the consumption of large amounts of sugars and refined carbohydrates.

You may also like to read another article on MenHealthCare: Refined Sugar: Damage, History and Substitutes

What to do in practice?

  1. Eliminate sugar from your daily diet
  2. Use only whole grains in moderate amounts (higher for those who make sport and needs energy and lower for sedentary)
  3. Avoid exceeding your fruit and better if you assume as a snack and in particular horse in physical activity when a little ‘sugar can be useful
  4. Do not believe the illusion of alternative sugars (cane sugar, mascobado, syrups and honey). Only stevia is free of metabolic effects but also has a taste not to everyone
  5. If you like to give yourself a sweet every now and then you need not worry too much, about how it was done and it contains sugar. If it’s really an exception is not a problem. Again, if you can better take the cake before or after exercise. Generally, much better a classic sweet occasionally a sweet pseudo-healthy too often

Do not forget that the sweetness we can get from so many other things in life, much healthier. Try starting from better treat your emotions and you will see that the desire of sugar will be much less.

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