Why Processed Sugar In Your Diet Is Dangerous And Will Continue To Be So

Many of us don't realise how much processed sugar is in their diet. This is something most people overlook. Added sugar is in just about in everything we consume.

Having too much sugar in your diet is a major cause of many health problems. This includes various types of cancer and heart problems. Sugar consumption is a key factor with people who are over weight. Consuming too much sugar is bad for you and is major cause of an unhealthy life style. Of course the manufacturers of sugar don't want you to fully understand this.

According to certain estimates the average person living in the USA consumes approximately 152 pounds of sugar per year. This amount of sugar is equal to three pounds of sugar consumed in one week. In fact nutritionists suggest that we should only consume sugar to get ten percent of our calories. This equal to about 67 grams per day. This equals about 2.4 ounces or 0.15 pounds.

About 200 years ago, daily consumption of sugar was under 15 grams. That was before the Industrial Revolution and people before that era where far more physically active than most people are today. After the Industrial Revolution consumption of sugar started to reach dangerous levels with regards to having a healthy life style.

It turns out that our average sugar intake has really become out of control since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. From 1977 to 2010, the average adult's consumption of added sugars increased by more than 30 percent in the U.S according to the Obesity Society. The amount of sugar considered to be consumed the average American is estimated to be greater than the average weight of those living in that country. That is a lot of sugar.

Of course over consumption of sugar promotes body fat storage. It used to be thought or promoted, that eating fat was the number one cause of becoming over weight. As a result many low-fat and diet products were developed and became very popular. Well these products contain sugar. Today it is well understood that these products contribute to being over weight and developing other serious health problems.

According to certain experts consuming processed sugar has been found to cause a major rush of dopamine, which is the pleasure neurotransmitter. Well this is very interesting since drugs and alcohol trigger certain responses in our metabolism, that can be very be addictive.

What sugar does to our metabolism is to create what is known as a reward response. This reward response causes the brain to make you think you need to keep consuming sugar to maintain the high it is giving you. Eventually your brain becomes somewhat desensitized to the sugar you are consuming. As a result to this condition your brain tells you need more of it to achieve that same reward feeling. Does that not sound like addiction?

Some health experts have started to understand that eating certain types of sugar can trigger the release of opioids and dopamine in the brain, just like consuming potentially addictive drugs. Apparently sugar is a very addictive substance. Many people who have overcome their addiction to alcohol become addicted to the caffeine and sugar in their coffee. They might even become addicted to the sugar in the donuts they eat with their coffee.

Because human have a desire for sweet tasting foods, whether natural or by promotion from the industrial complex is up for debate. But it's not the sugar in fruits, vegetables, dairy products and other whole foods that's the problem, according to experts. It's the stuff that's added to processed foods.

Most of the food we purchase from our local grocery store contains added sugar. Of course we know about the foods that contain high amounts of sugar such fruit drinks, cookies and flavoured yogurt. However we often don't suspect such food items as ketchup, salad dressing, peanut butter, pasta sauce and soups. These food really don't have no nutritional, value but are loaded with calories most people will never burn off. But they contain sugar which will increase the consumers craving for it.

The processed food producers clued into this many years ago. Because of this they started adding sugar into every processed food they produced. People in our society have become addicted to sugar as a result. These food processing industries aren't about to stop this process anytime some because it would ruin their profit margin. It also worth noting eating healthy food is more expensive than eating the cheaper processed food.

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