Sugar is everywhere. It's highly addictive. It's wreaking havoc with our health, and in surprising ways. Here are four ways sugar isn't so sweet:
Sugar lowers your sex drive! This isn't common knowledge but it should be. If your libido is suffering, there could be many factors, but one we tend to overlook is diet. When you ingest sugar, your body secretes insulin. When you secrete insulin, your testosterone levels drop, by as much as 25%. Consider reducing or eliminating sugar in your diet to bring your testosterone levels into balance.
Sugar increases inflammation in the body. Inflammation, which is often silent and undetected, has been shown to lead to long-term health problems, including type 2 diabetes. Studies are now being done to examine links between the rise of autoimmune diseases in our society and sugar consumption as part of a Western diet. The short of it is, if you have general pain and discomfort in your body, explore eliminating sugar as a way to help your body heal.
Sugar increases depression. The cycle of consuming sugar and sugar crashing has a negative impact on our mental health, leading to an increase in depression (and, scarily, schizophrenia). If you are prone to feeling sad (I am!), removing sugar from your diet is a cheap and easy way to improve your mental health.
Sugar hinders cognition. When sugar is consumed in amounts we are unable to properly process and we create a cycle of too much insulin secretion, that insulin hinders communication between brain cells, especially in the areas of learning and memory. If you find you have brain fog more often than not, sugar might be to blame.
If reading this is serving as a wake up call to changes you'd like to make in your diet, the Cleveland Clinic and Dr. Mark Hyman have developed this handy infographic about how to kick your sugar habit. If you need support to do this, contact me so I can help you.
Sugar lowers your sex drive! This isn't common knowledge but it should be. If your libido is suffering, there could be many factors, but one we tend to overlook is diet. When you ingest sugar, your body secretes insulin. When you secrete insulin, your testosterone levels drop, by as much as 25%. Consider reducing or eliminating sugar in your diet to bring your testosterone levels into balance.
Sugar increases inflammation in the body. Inflammation, which is often silent and undetected, has been shown to lead to long-term health problems, including type 2 diabetes. Studies are now being done to examine links between the rise of autoimmune diseases in our society and sugar consumption as part of a Western diet. The short of it is, if you have general pain and discomfort in your body, explore eliminating sugar as a way to help your body heal.
Sugar increases depression. The cycle of consuming sugar and sugar crashing has a negative impact on our mental health, leading to an increase in depression (and, scarily, schizophrenia). If you are prone to feeling sad (I am!), removing sugar from your diet is a cheap and easy way to improve your mental health.
Sugar hinders cognition. When sugar is consumed in amounts we are unable to properly process and we create a cycle of too much insulin secretion, that insulin hinders communication between brain cells, especially in the areas of learning and memory. If you find you have brain fog more often than not, sugar might be to blame.
If reading this is serving as a wake up call to changes you'd like to make in your diet, the Cleveland Clinic and Dr. Mark Hyman have developed this handy infographic about how to kick your sugar habit. If you need support to do this, contact me so I can help you.
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