This post is more for myself cause this pregnancy i will have no soda of ANY kind, my sugar will be a minimal to pretty much NOTHING..
Now i am not writing this to make other pregnant moms feel bad, this is just a personal thing and some crazy facts about sugar. I am writing with good intentions not bad...Is sugar bad for you?The white crystalline substance we know of as sugar is an unnatural substance produced by industrial processes (mostly from sugar cane or sugar beets) by refining it down to pure sucrose, after stripping away all the vitamins, minerals, proteins, enzymes and other beneficial nutrients.
What is left is a concentrated unnatural substance which the human body is not able to handle, at least not in anywhere near the quantities that is now ingested in today's accepted lifestyle. Sugar is addictive. The average American now consumes approximately 115 lbs. of sugar per year. This is per man, woman and child.
The biggest reason sugar does more damage than any other poison, drug or narcotic is twofold: (a) It is considered a "food" and ingested in such massive quantities, and
(b) The damaging effects begin early, from the day a baby is born and is fed sugar in its formula. Even mothers milk is contaminated with it if the mother eats sugar, and
(c) Practically 95% of people are addicted to it to some degree or other.
Sugar is eaten to excess
It has been said that the criteria as to whether a substance (any substance) is harmful or medically beneficial is the quantity in which it is used in the human body. To point to a dramatic illustration: we all know that the venom of a rattlesnake, a cobra, water moccasin, coral, and other venomous snakes is deadly to the human system. There are some snakes whose bite is so deadly it can cause death within a matter of seconds. Nevertheless, even snake venom, deadly as it is, has been used for therapeutic, medical purposes when used in minute quantities.
History of sugarWhereas sugar had been around in minute quantities for several thousand years, it was practically unknown and formed an insignificant part of the average diet in the Classical civilizations of Egypt, Greece and Rome. The Greeks (who had a word for nearly everything!) did not even have a word for it. Even in medieval Europe it was practically unknown and then only a rare delicacy in the royal courts.
During the last major Crusade that ended in 1204 some of the Christian Crusaders were introduced to sugar freely used by the Saracens. The Moors when invading and colonizing the southern part of Spain grew sugar cane on Spanish soil and refined sugar. When Spain drove out the Moors, it inherited some of the cane plantations. It was during this time that Christendom took its first big bite of the forbidden fruit and liked it.
Sugar is an unnatural chemicalWhy is sugar so devastating to our health? One reason is it is pure chemical and (like heroin) through refining has been stripped of all the natural food nutrition that it originally had in the plant itself.
Heroin and sugar are arrived at by very similar processes of refinement. In producing heroin, the opium is first extracted from the poppy: The opium is then refined into morphine. The chemists then went to work on morphine and further refined it into heroin, proclaiming they had "discovered" a wonderful new pain-killer that was non-addictive. So they said.
Similarly, sugar is first pressed as a juice from the cane (or beet) and refined into molasses. Then it is refined into brown sugar, and finally into strange white crystals C12H22O, that are an alien chemical to the human system.
Sugar is addictiveA second reason that sugar is so harmful is that like heroin it is addictive, and being delectable and seductive to the taste, it is also habit forming. Starting with sugar in the baby's formula, people not only develop a strong taste for sugar but an insatiable craving for it so that they never seem to get enough of this poison.
Slow but insidious A third reason is that the damage sugar does is slow and insidious. It takes years before it ruins your pancreas, your adrenal glands, throws your whole endocrine system out of kilter and produces a huge list of damage.
Foods are loaded with sugarA fourth reason is the outrageous amounts of sugar civilized nations consume. Americans in particular are told how they are the best fed and best nourished people on the face of the earth. If we are talking about processed junk food - this is true.
If you examine the "foods" in any supermarket more closely and start reading labels, you will find just about everything contains sugar. Most of the foods are loaded with it - from cereals, to soups, to ketchup, to hotdogs. Even flue-cured tobacco can contain as much as 20% sugar by weight. Some cereals are as much as 50% sugar.
List of DamagesWe have stated that sugar is deleterious to your health: that it is more damaging than all other narcotics combined; that it is a long term chemical poison. Just what damage does sugar do to the human body? The list is endless.
When we talk about sugar, we are including bad nutrition as a whole, since anyone who indulges in sugar has bad dietary habits per se.
Sugar is by far the leading cause of dental deterioration - cavities in teeth, bleeding gums, failure of bone structure, and loss of teeth.
Sugar is the main cause of diabetes, hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia.
It is either a significant or contributory cause of heart disease, arteriosclerosis, mental illness, depression, senility, hypertension, cancer.
It has an extremely harmful effect in unbalancing the endocrine system and injuring its component glands such as the adrenal glands, pancreas and liver, causing the blood sugar level to fluctuate widely. It has a number of other extremely damaging effects on the human body.
Some of the other effects of sugar on the body are: Increases overgrowth of candida yeast organism
Increases chronic fatigue
Can trigger binge eating in those with bulima
Increases PMS symptoms
Increases hyperactivity in about 50% of children
Increases tooth decay
Increases anxiety and irritability
Can increase or intensify symptoms of anxiety and panic in susceptible women
Can make it difficult to lose weight because of constantly high insulin levels, which causes the body to store excess carbs as fat.
Sugar can suppress your immune system and impair your defenses against infectious disease.1,2
Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in your body: causes chromium and copper deficiencies and interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium. 3,4,5,6
Sugar can cause can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline, hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children.7,8
Sugar can produce a significant rise in total cholesterol, triglycerides and bad cholesterol and a decrease in good cholesterol.9,10,11,12
Sugar causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function.13
Sugar feeds cancer cells and has been connected with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, biliary tract, lung, gallbladder and stomach.14,15,16,17,18,19,20
Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose and can cause reactive hypoglycemia.21,22
Sugar can weaken eyesight.23
Sugar can cause many problems with the gastrointestinal tract including: an acidic digestive tract, indigestion, malabsorption in patients with functional bowel disease, increased risk of Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis.24,25,26,27,28
Sugar can cause premature aging.29
Sugar can lead to alcoholism.30
Sugar can cause your saliva to become acidic, tooth decay, and periodontal disease.31,32,33
Sugar contributes to obesity.34
Sugar can cause autoimmune diseases such as: arthritis, asthma, multiple sclerosis.35,36,37
Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections)38
Sugar can cause gallstones.39
Sugar can cause appendicitis.40
Sugar can cause hemorrhoids.41
Sugar can cause varicose veins.42
Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses in oral contraceptive users.43
Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis.44
Sugar can cause a decrease in your insulin sensitivity thereby causing an abnormally high insulin levels and eventually diabetes.45,46,47
Sugar can lower your Vitamin E levels.48
Sugar can increase your systolic blood pressure.49
Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children.50
High sugar intake increases advanced glycation end products (AGEs)(Sugar molecules attaching to and thereby damaging proteins in the body).51
Sugar can interfere with your absorption of protein.52
Sugar causes food allergies.53
Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy.54
Sugar can contribute to eczema in children.55
Sugar can cause atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.56,57
Sugar can impair the structure of your DNA.58
Sugar can change the structure of protein and cause a permanent alteration of the way the proteins act in your body.59,60
Sugar can make your skin age by changing the structure of collagen.61
Sugar can cause cataracts and nearsightedness.62,63
Sugar can cause emphysema.64
High sugar intake can impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in your body.65
Sugar lowers the ability of enzymes to function.66
Sugar intake is higher in people with Parkinson's disease.67
Sugar can increase the size of your liver by making your liver cells divide and it can increase the amount of liver fat.68,69
Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney such as the formation of kidney stones.70,71
Sugar can damage your pancreas.72
Sugar can increase your body's fluid retention.73
Sugar is enemy #1 of your bowel movement.74
Sugar can compromise the lining of your capillaries.75
Sugar can make your tendons more brittle.76
Sugar can cause headaches, including migraines.77
Sugar can reduce the learning capacity, adversely affect school children's grades and cause learning disorders.78,79
Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha, and theta brain waves which can alter your mind's ability to think clearly.80
Sugar can cause depression.81
Sugar can increase your risk of gout.82
Sugar can increase your risk of Alzheimer's disease.83
Sugar can cause hormonal imbalances such as: increasing estrogen in men, exacerbating PMS, and decreasing growth hormone.84,85,86,87
Sugar can lead to dizziness.88
Diets high in sugar will increase free radicals and oxidative stress.89
High sucrose diets of subjects with peripheral vascular disease significantly increases platelet adhesion.90
High sugar consumption of pregnant adolescents can lead to substantial decrease in gestation duration and is associated with a twofold increased risk for delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant.91,92
Sugar is an addictive substance.93
Sugar can be intoxicating, similar to alcohol.94
Sugar given to premature babies can affect the amount of carbon dioxide they produce.95
Decrease in sugar intake can increase emotional stability.96
Your body changes sugar into 2 to 5 times more fat in the bloodstream than it does starch.97
The rapid absorption of sugar promotes excessive food intake in obese subjects.98
Sugar can worsen the symptoms of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).99
Sugar adversely affects urinary electrolyte composition.100
Sugar can slow down the ability of your adrenal glands to function.101
Sugar has the potential of inducing abnormal metabolic processes in a normal healthy individual and to promote chronic degenerative diseases.102
I.V.s (intravenous feedings) of sugar water can cut off oxygen to your brain.103
Sugar increases your risk of polio.104
High sugar intake can cause epileptic seizures.105
Sugar causes high blood pressure in obese people.106
In intensive care units: Limiting sugar saves lives.107
Sugar may induce cell death.108
In juvenile rehabilitation camps, when children were put on a low sugar diet, there was a 44 percent drop in antisocial behavior.109
Sugar dehydrates newborns.110
Sugar can cause gum disease.111
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