High sugar diets have been linked to: high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, inflammation, diabetes. When you take too much sugar into your body, the result is extra insulin goes into your bloodstream. This can affect the arteries all over your body. It causes the walls of your arteries to get inflamed, grow thicker than normal and be more stiff. Over time this puts stress on your heart and damages it.
Diets high in sugar can lead to higher levels of LDL Cholesterol, commonly called “Bad Cholesterol,” which causes artery clogging plaque. High sugar insulin levels, which in turn activate the Sympathetic (fight/flight response) nervous system, leading to an increase in blood pressure and heart rate. High blood pressure makes your heart and arteries work harder, which gradually damages the whole circulatory system (the system that takes blood around your body to give you life).
The role of insulin in the nervous system is expressed in different regions of the brain, which react to changes to your feeding behaviour, body weight homeostasis (Balance) and cognitive (ability to focus) ability. So consuming sugar equals insulin release in the bloodstream, which causes you to feel different, out of sorts, tired after the sugar spike is over, as well as the physiological aspects such as heart disease, diabetes etc. It also triggers your flight or fight response, which may not be needed in your life at that time. Sugar excess therefore affects the arteries in the muscles of your heart, the blood going to your eyes, the soles of your feet etc.
So why do we eat too much sugar?
The critical question is whether sugar is an addictive substance? There can be no doubt in my mind but sugar is a highly addictive substance to the human species. Sugar, according to Gary Tubes, in his book “the Case Against Sugar” says: “Sugar is one of a handful of drug foods that came out of the tropics and on which European empires were built from the 16th century onwards. The others being tea, coffee, chocolate, rum and tobacco. Tea, coffee, and chocolate were not consumed with sweeteners in their regions of origin. In the 17th century sugar was added as a sweetener to these items in Europe and consumption of them exploded.”
This sparked a planet wide addiction which has led the population of the planet into sickness and disease, which was never heard of before that time, not to the degree it is today.
You need to take steps to control your intake of Sugar in all its forms.
Tips:
- Write down all the sugars you consume in any one week, whether in tea, coffee, pastries, processed food etc. Then make a decision to cut down by 50% immediately and do so.
- Exercise 20 minutes each day, especially when you are off work and have time to do so. Make this your no 1 action when you get up in the morning.
- Come to Get Back Health Chiropractic and Wellness Clinic and get your spine and nervous system realigned. Your nervous system controls all the other body systems, so it makes sense to regularly align your spine.
Yours in Health,
John Keane, Spinologist