February
26
You’ll also combat candida, depression, and heart disease in the process.
It’s no surprise that sugary foods increase the rates of diabetes and obesity. But did you realize that too much sugar intake can lead to chronic depression?
New European research with rats—animals remarkably like humans in many of their brain functions—links over-consumption of sugar with brain changes that resemble addictive behavior. Unlimited access to sugar in the lab makes animals vulnerable to reward-related psychiatric disorders.
Reviewing beverage consumption in this country, Harvard researchers also link sugary drinks—everything from soft drinks, sweetened teas and lemonade, fruitades, energy drinks, and even vitamin waters—to inflammation, insulin resistance, belly fat, and hypertension.
Several months ago, the American Heart Association advised consumers to reduce sugar consumption to protect against Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Since twice as many women as men die of coronary disease after a heart attack, it’s especially important that females watch their intake of sweets—starting in childhood and adolescence.
Dr. Ann Louise’s Take:
I’m not surprised that sugar is the underlying cause of so many disorders—including depression.
Sugar is as deadly as heroin—it just takes longer to kill you. Eating refined, non-nutritive sugar causes a biochemical chain reaction that temporarily increases the “feel good” hormone serotonin, helping us to feel relaxed and less stressed.
The key word here is temporary. Once the sugar high disappears, the body wants more, making you hungry again. You eat more sweets, which keeps the addictive pattern going, leading to weight gain and insulin resistance.
Sugary foods feed harmful bacteria and yeasts, resulting in bloating, constipation, diarrhea, hormonal imbalance, and yeast infections. This only increases the “feed me” signals, strengthening the addictive pattern. Sugar addiction has been linked to everything from depression to permanent cardiac, kidney, and respiratory problems.
In the early 1900s when people consumed a modest 60 pounds of sugar a year, the rates of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease were much lower than they are today. Obesity was rare. Today, Americans eat about 180 pounds of sugar—found in everything from aspirin and catsup to soft drinks and toothpaste—much of it in the form of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) that carries risks far beyond overweight.
Think Zinc
Not only does this manufactured sweetener contain the cumulative neurotoxin, mercury, but it also contributes to the loss of zinc, a mineral essential to the very metabolic processes required for mercury elimination. No wonder exposure to this toxic heavy metal has been found to alter neural function and increase oxidative stress among children with autism.
Essential to liver function and immunity, zinc also helps the beta cells in the pancreas store and release insulin. Pancreatic tissue of people with diabetes has only one-third of the zinc found in healthy individuals.
Do your pancreas a favor and eat small portions of zinc-rich, sugar-free high-protein foods. In addition to eggs, grass-fed meats, and poultry, consider Accell, which contains healing substances like immunoglobulins and immune-enhancing elements, natural appetite suppressing proteins, and inulin (a prebiotic that nourishes beneficial bacteria in the GI tract.)
I reccommend Systemic Formulas Accell, make with rice protein (plus inulin and the calorie-free sweet herb stevia that doesn’t cause all the problems sugar does). A new Greek study shows that fortifying a low-carb diet with vegetarian protein is particularly effective in fighting belly fat, diabetes, hypertension, and overweight.
