Refined sugar is of course the worst culprit, It doesn’t contain any fibre, vitamins, minerals, protein, fat or enzymes. Nothing your body needs, just empty calories. When you take refined sugar in your diet, your body ends up borrowing important nutrients - calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium - from your healthy cells, for example from the bones, to metabolize the sugar.
When the body becomes overly acidic, a domino effect starts - even more minerals are pulled out of the bones to correct the imbalance, leading to brittle bones.
The even more immediate negative effect of taking refined sugar is the fact that it causes a spike in blood sugar levels. Blood sugar levels are constantly rising and falling sharply when you ingest too much sugar, which the body counters by releasing more insulin from the pancreas to return the blood sugar levels to equilibrium.
What happens is that you get a fast rush of energy from the sugar as it’s processed and released into the bloodstream. This is rapidly followed by a rapid drop in energy as the insulin does its work. You then eat more sugary food or drink to regain your “high” and the process begins again. This puts great strain on your pancreas in the constant creation and release of insulin. Insulin production then becomes erratic; the body is not able to regulate blood sugar levels effectively, leading to the onset of type II diabetes.
Increased insulin levels also decreases the production of growth hormones which in turn depresses our immune system, which of course, leads to a whole lot of other health problems.
Too much sugar also causes the blood to become thick and sticky which inhibits blood flow. The body starts lacking vital nutrients that are needed to eliminate toxic waste, which then leads to cellular death and premature aging.
Sugar plays a role in asthma, joint pain, arthritis, mood swings, depression, nervous disorders, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cancer, obesity and tooth decay... in fact, almost every degenerative disease.
This is because the root cause of all these diseases has been found to be inflammation. And on e of the biggest contributors to inflammation in the cells is sugar.
When waste material starts to build up which speeds up cellular death = Premature Aging.
Sugar plays a role in asthma, mood swings, gallstones, heart disease, headaches, joint pain, diabetes, arthritis, nervous disorders, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and tooth decay.
If the sugar we ingest isn’t immediately used by our bodies for energy… it gets stored. So if we eat a food high in refined sugar, about 50% of the glucose is used for energy, 10% gets stored in the liver and muscles and 40% stored as fat.
So what are the alternatives? Thankfully there are many natural and healthy sugar substitutes - Xylitol, Stevia, Yacon syrup, and my favourite is coconut palm sugar.
Why I prefer coconut sugar or coco sugar - it’s plentiful in Asia, where I live and thus totally sustainable and easy on the environment, it looks and tastes just like brown sugar or muscovado - easy to add to my coffee or for cooking.
The sweet nectar comes not from the coconut itself but is harvested by hand twice a day directly from the flower. The nectar/syrup is heated a bit more until all the moisture is evaporated off and crystals remain.
Coconut sugar has a low glycemic index of 35, which means it is metabolized more slowly and can be easier on the system.
Coconut sugar is especially high in Potassium, Magnesium, Zinc and Iron and is a natural source of the vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, C.
For more information on how you can get coconut sugar in Singapore and Malaysia, write to: Health Coach International.
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