Do you know that those sugary food and drinks you cherish may be killing you slowly? This is the bitter truth about sugar. Recent studies have shown that diets high in sugar are strongly linked to an increased risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, elevated triglycerides, low HDL (good) cholesterol, cancer, and heart disease. Sugar intake has also been linked to depression, migraine, poor eyesight, arthritis, gout, and osteoporosis.
At least half of the sugar we consume come from soft drinks, fruit drinks, and sports drinks. The rest come into our diets in the form of cakes, ice cream, cookies, chocolate milk, ketchup, sweets and even breakfast cereals. Do we have the willpower to say no to these items of food and drinks and preserve our health?
Some people consume brown sugar thinking it is safer. Raw sugar comes from sugar cane. It is brownish because of molasses. Manufacturers bleach the sugar to remove the molasses and this makes the sugar white. White sugar is actually 99.9% pure sucrose while brown sugar is 97% sucrose, 2% water and other substances. The molasses in brown sugar contain a number of minerals, which include calcium, potassium, magnesium and iron in small quantities. Both brown and white sugar do not contain much to promote health.
Sugar is both a fat and a carbohydrate and this uniqueness drives obesity-related disease rates world-wide.
