by Christina Sarich
(NaturalSociety.com) Do you reach for a ‘sports drink’ full of refined sugar right before or after a workout? Do you rely on candy bars (even those with peanuts) when you are feeling an afternoon slump? Join the crowd. More than 7 in 10 Americans eat too much sugar, sometimes for an energy burst. But the truth is that refined sugar robs you of energy (in addition to fueling numerous disease), it doesn’t provide it. Here’s why.
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When you eat refined sugar, it destroys your body’s ability to metabolize food properly. It’s the synthetic stuff that kills you, quite literally. Sugar isn’t just empty calories. A researcher who helped the World Health Organization figure out just how damaging sugar is, said,
“Dietary fructose reduces circulating insulin and leptin, attenuates postprandial suppression of ghrelin, and increases triglycerides in women.” In other words, after you eat fructose, your body never gets the message, “You’ve eaten enough, now stop.” As for those increased triglycerides, well… another word for triglyceride is “fat.”
Guess which foods are highest in fructose? Soft drinks made by Coca-Cola and Pepsi, among others, canned apple sauce, bottled juices, cereals, and even some baby foods.
Natural sugars, however, at least have some nutrients in them. Refined sugars – not so much.
Refined sugar also leaches your body of precious vitamins and minerals. In order to metabolize refined sugar, the body uses some of its stored nutrients (like magnesium) to neutralize some of the toxins (toxic metabolites) that are released. These metabolites are great for destroying the respiration process of cells.