The Trouble With Sugar

The trouble with sugar is not simply that it adds empty calories to your diet and contributes to weight gain and Type II Diabetes. The trouble with sugar is that is REALLY harmful to your bones contributing seriously to osteoporosis – which is a killer of post-menopausal women.

Sugar is processed. In the processing of the sugar the minerals – particularly calcium – that the body would use to digest the sugar are removed. In order to digest the sugar your body has to rob from its own calcium supply – it takes from those places where calcium is plentiful – teeth and bones. Osteoporosis is a result of loss of calcium from the bones. One half of women over 65 run the risk of hip fractures because of osteoporosis.

There are a number of lifestyle activities that contribute to osteoporosis: alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, lack of weight bearing activity, lack of sunshine and vitamin D – are examples.

At the turn of the 19th century, sweeteners, like sugar were kept under lock and key and used only for VERY special purposes. The average American might have ingested a couple of tablespoons of sugar a year. Today, we consume over 150 pounds – that’s POUNDS – of sugar a year. So many things have sugar in them that absolutely don’t need it. Most processed foods have some form of sweetener in them – mostly high fructose corn syrup – which is a real contributor to Diabetes. Even something like vinaigrette salad dressing has 2 grams of sugar in each bottle. You can’t taste the sugar. It doesn’t do anything for the dressing. It’s just there making trouble for the body.

How do you avoid it? Don’t eat any processed food - period. Start by staying away from things you know contain sugar – soft drinks, fruit drinks, candy bars, cakes, pies and cookies. Read labels as if your life depended on it. Avoid things that say sugar, sucrose, lactose, fructose, dextrose and every other kind of -trose on it. Figure out how to cook from scratch. It takes a little doing but the food tastes better and you really can taste the flavor of the ingredients. It also saves money. When you buy processed anything you are paying for the cost of the cooking that you aren’t doing yourself.

Most processed foods are “Food Like Substances” in the words of Michael Pollen. You want to switch to food. You want to eat the way your ancestor’s ate – fresh, alive, whole foods. Your health and your quality of life depend on it.