Blog Posts

10 Disturbing Reasons Why Sugar is Bad For You

4/23/2016

This is the second of three articles we were asked by Alicia Owen at ImproveEdu last week to add to our site. She wrote:

“I’m a tutor with ImprovEDU. I have been working with a group of students on a project where they are learning about healthy eating and the sugar content in various foods; we found your site carried a variety of useful information including the Mother Jones page which is excellent.

Whilst carrying out group research we came across a number of articles that may also be of interest to you:

Article 2: 10 Disturbing Reasons Why Sugar is Bad For You

Found on: AuthorityNutrition.com
Posted by: Kris Gunnars, BSc

Kris’s take is that added sugar is the single worst ingredient in the modern diet.

However, it’s only true because of the excessive amount we consume most days, whether consciously or unconsciously. Unconsciously? Well, yes, when it is part of our favorite foods, like the ones in our previous post, 15 Foods You Wouldn’t Expect To Have Dangerous Amounts of Sugar.

So what are these 10 reasons according to Kris Gunnars?

1. Added sugar contains no essential nutrients and is bad for your teeth

2. Added sugar is high in fructose, which can overload your liver

3. Overloading the liver with fructose can cause non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

4. Sugar can cause insulin resistance, a stepping stone
towards metabolic syndrome and diabetes

5. Insulin resistance can progress to Type II diabetes

6. Sugar can give you cancer

7. Due to its effects on hormones and the brain, sugar has unique fat-promoting effects

8. Because it causes massive dopamine release in the brain, sugar is highly addictive

9. Sugar is a leading contributor to obesity in children and adults

10. It ain’t fat… it’s SUGAR that raises your cholesterol and gives you heart disease

Link: https://authoritynutrition.com/10-disturbing-reasons-why-sugar-is-bad/

About raising your cholesterol level, I’m sure she means the bad (low density) type….

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15 Foods You Wouldn’t Expect To Have Dangerous Amounts of Sugar

4/23/2016

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This is the first of three articles we were asked by Alicia Owen at ImproveEdu last week to add to our site. She wrote:

“I’m a tutor with ImprovEDU. I have been working with a group of students on a project where they are learning about healthy eating and the sugar content in various foods; we found your site carried a variety of useful information including the Mother Jones page which is excellent.

Whilst carrying out group research we came across a number of articles that may also be of interest to you:

Article 1: 15 Foods You Wouldn’t Expect To Have Dangerous Amounts of Sugar

Found on: NutritionSecrets.com
Posted by: Mike Kamo

According to the writer, Mike Kamo, a major contributor to consuming the unhealthy amount of sugar we do is, that they are cleverly buried in foods marketed as “healthy and wholesome.”

The reality is starkly different, as the list of his 15 foods shows:

1. Flavored yogurt
2. Fruit juices
3. Sports drinks
4. Energy drinks
5. Ketchup
6. Barbecue sauce
7. Pasta sauce
8. Asian sauce
9. Salad dressings
10. Fat free anything
11. Oatmeal
12. Smoothies
13. Dried fruit
14. Breads
15. Baked beans

Link: http://www.nutritionsecrets.com/15-foods-you-wouldnt-expect-to-have-dangerous-amounts-of-sugar/

You wonder though - why do we, as a society, spend so much money on nutritional labeling, and not take advantage of it? After all, each of these products provides the exact amount of sugar and carbs right on the package….

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Sugarlesse™ Supports RocketClub

4/8/2016

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RocketClub allows you to earn startup company shares. NO money required - just your time!

WHAT IS ROCKETCLUB ABOUT?

RocketClub wants to give you a real stake in the companies and products you want to use and love, before they go public and make everybody else rich.

As they say “It sounds crazy and audacious, but upside in startups should not be limited to investors and company employees. Money is not the only resource startups need -- we help to provide them with early believers. Our mission is to make startup ownership available to everyone. After all, user adoption is the lifeblood of all products.”

WHY ROCKET CLUB?

9 out of 10 startups fail.

Startups have a HARD time getting the attention and feedback of users. The #1 reason startups fail is because no one wants their product. They lack the support from early users to refine their offering, build word of mouth momentum, and attract investor confidence.

Needless to say, early users play a huge role throughout the early stages of new startups. But whether it is Facebook, Oculus, Uber, or Snapchat, the ones who supported their products early did not get any upside. We believe that you, as a future user and customer should share in the financial upside of products you decide to support and help to grow.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

RocketClub enables startups to attract and build a community of early and engaged users.

Startups launch campaigns, explaining what they do, the number and type of users they are looking for, and how many shares each user will earn for completing a set of objectives.

HOW DOES IT WORK FOR YOU?

EXAMPLE

RocketClub is running a campaign NOW on its own platform to seek early members, offering 5% of the company to members.

PLUS

Earning RocketClub shares will also give you a small stake in all future companies on the platform. Cool, isn’t it?

OTHER EXAMPLES

RealTime Clinic - the most effective way to use telemedicine.

Pillow - follow-along sensual adventures for couples

Help to make it happen for them and you!

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Happy Holidays!

12/24/2015

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Happy Holidays and sweet dreams! Found this floating in cyberspace from unknown creator….

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Sweet Comparison of Sweeteners? See the Infographic and Decide

3/5/2015

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It's hard to know, with all the pro and con studies, spin-meistering and outright skullduggery by people interested in maintaining the status quo, which sweeteners are actually good for your health.

To cut through the knee-deep fog, Northwest Pharmacy (www.northwestpharmacy.com) has created the infographic entitled “A Comprehensive Comparison of Sweeteners”, that you can see below. OK, only the top section of it - go to their website for the rest.

While not the least comprehensive, it does give you an easy-to-reference list of some alternative sweeteners, along with how these substances can help – or hurt you and the environment too.

Even I didn't realize the detrimental effects that Aspartame and Splenda can have on you AND the environment. The effects of these and other food ingredients flowing back into the environment is hardly ever discussed or made part of full product lifecycle studies. That must change ASAP - and if you want it to, send the link to this blog post to all the people you know, who do care about the health of our planet as well as their own!

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Is There Such a Thing as a Healthy Fudge?

1/20/2015

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There is now. But why is that important?

Because traditional fudge and chocolate fudge are some of the highest calorie, sugar, and fat laden sweets known to man. With obesity and diabetes on a constant rise, it is imperative to find healthy alternatives that give you the same taste and richness.

That's what our ChocoFudge chocolates are about. And more. Much more.

Let's talk about traditional chocolate fudge.

Which is, essentially, a melted glob of chocolate, sugar, butter, and cream. It is to food what heroin is to Tylenol. (Okay, that's a bit strong of an analogy, but you get the idea.) One can only ingest, at most, a two-cubic-inch chunk of fudge before slipping into a diabetic coma. At $17 per pound, it seems to defy common sense that even a popular town's supply of tourists could buy the stuff at a clip that would support erecting an entire store dedicated to making and selling it. Yet, there is at least one, if not more stores in every picturesque town we'd go out of our way to find.

Despite the simplicity of its ingredients, fudge made with sugar is quite difficult to produce. The reason is that its creamy texture depends on the degree of crystallization sugar undergoes in the production process. If it is too much, or the crystals are too large, fudge will have a gritty texture and become too hard. Not enough crystallization and it won’t be fudge, but rather a thick, syrupy goo.

Thanks to SUGARLESSe™, it is very easy for us to produce both a healthy and true to goodness fudge that goes into all of our chocolates.

Why love our SUGARLESSe™ Chocolate Fudge?

Because it turns a dessert of your childhood memories, that your parents and grandparents indulged (bribed?) you with, into a healthy treat that you can actually enjoy guilt-free.

So, if you love fudge, but don’t want all the added sugar (except the sweetness, of course), these healthy, sugar-free creations are the way to go. Our chocolatiers spent more time than I'm prepared to admit to bring them into existence. The rascals!

Never mind. Thanks to their dedication and skills, now you can choose from 4 flavors:

Find your favorite - order the Variety 8-Pack with 2 squares of each flavor.

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Artificial Sweeteners Do Induce Glucose Intolerance, Resulting in Obesity and Diabetes

1/16/2015

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Saccharine, Aspartame, and sucralose

I came across two articles recently from the same authors in different scientific journals about how the consumption of the three most commonly used non-caloric artificial sweeteners — saccharin, sucralose and aspartame (Sweet-n-Low, Equal & Splenda)— directly induces a propensity for obesity and glucose intolerance in mice AND people, by changing the gut microbiome in a way that leads to absorption of more calories.

This is the abstract of the article from the Nature magazine (online edition):

"Non-caloric artificial sweeteners (NAS) are among the most widely used food additives worldwide, regularly consumed by lean and obese individuals alike. NAS consumption is considered safe and beneficial owing to their low caloric content, yet supporting scientific data remain sparse and controversial.

Here we demonstrate that consumption of commonly used NAS formulations drives the development of glucose intolerance through induction of compositional and functional alterations to the intestinal microbiota.

We identify NAS-altered microbial metabolic pathways that are linked to host susceptibility to metabolic disease, and demonstrate similar NAS-induced dysbiosis and glucose intolerance in healthy human subjects.

Collectively, our results link NAS consumption, dysbiosis and metabolic abnormalities, thereby calling for a reassessment of massive NAS usage."

And this is Seth Bilazarian, MD's insight:

"We have been using non-caloric artificial sweeteners for more than a century. Today the food industry is using them in ever-greater quantities in 'diet' foodstuffs and they are recommended for weight loss and for individuals with glucose intolerance and type 2 diabetes mellitus. This report shows that the three most commonly used non-caloric artificial sweeteners: saccharin, sucralose and aspartame change the gut microbiome in a way that leads to absorption of more calories and that compromises glucose tolerance."

Isn't it high time to develop new nutritional strategies tailored to the maintenance of healthy gut microbiota? Just like what SUGARLESSe™ offers?

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10 Ways Sugar Can Kill You - Sugar is Definitely Making Us Fat

1/8/2015

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I figured I'd leave the most obvious fact for last - that too many calories from any sugar and carbohydrate source get converted into stored fat if not burned. There are long biochemical, health, and human performance explanations for that. Here is the short version:

Your body stores fat when your insulin/blood sugar levels are elevated.
Eating sugar, of any kind, rapidly raises your insulin/blood sugar levels.
Therefore, your body will store fat it converts from the sugar you eat.

Sugar does give you the calories, but not the feeling that you've had enough. That's why you can have an entire king-size bag of licorice (with its sky high glycemic index) at the movies and come out afterwards ready to go for dinner. So it’s hard to make the connection that the lack of other nutrients in most high-sugar foods actually contributes to eating gobs of them with no physical effects to warn us of the lurking dangers.

So, what’s the solution?

Avoid sugar in all forms.
Look at the nutrition labels. Don’t buy if sugar is listed.
Minimize or eliminate all other carbohydrates too. The body turns them into sugars.

Carbohydrates are often thought of as “essential” macro-nutrients. Essential means - you need them to live. This is simply not true.

If you don’t eat carbohydrates, guess what happens? Do you die? No.

You burn fat.
There’s a lot of biochemistry involved, but it’s basically that simple:

If you don’t eat carbohydrates you are forced to burn body fat for energy. You could burn fat the ENTIRE DAY by just avoiding sugar and other carbohydrates.

Say good by to diabetes and obesity. Welcome to a new you.

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10 Ways Sugar Can Kill You - An Overload of Sugar (Specifically in Beverages) Will Shorten Your Life

1/6/2015

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A 2013 study estimated that 180,000 deaths worldwide may be attributed to sweetened beverage consumption. The United States alone accounted for 25,000 deaths in 2010. The authors summarize that deaths occurred due to the association with sugar-sweetened beverages and chronic disease risk such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

This is what happens:

What does exactly sugar do once it enters your body? Sugar is a sticky substance and if it stays in the bloodstream, the particles will start to stick to the cells. The consequence: large amounts of sugar can lead to more wrinkles, a lack of mobility in the joints, dry brittle nails and hair not to mention other health problems.

Additionally, the rise in blood sugar can damage every cell in your body. When blood sugar levels rise too high, sugar can stick to the surface of cell membranes. Once stuck there, it can’t be removed. In a series of chemical reactions, glucose (the only sugar that circulates in your bloodstream) is converted to another sugar called fructose and eventually to a sugar alcohol, called sorbitol, that starts destroying cells to cause every know side effect of diabetes: blindness, deafness, heart attacks, strokes, kidney damage and so forth.

And an American Journal of Public Health study points out that sugar can also interfere with the functioning of a person’s genes, which can speed up the aging process.

Enough said? I Hope!

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10 Ways Sugar Can Kill You - Sugar is Hidden in Many Everyday Foods We’d Not Suspect

1/4/2015

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While many of us strive to avoid the "normal" sugary culprits (candy, cookies, cake, etc.) these days, we often are duped when we discover that most of our favorite foods also contain lots of sugar, especially in the form of corn or high fructose corn syrups.

Examples include tomato sauce, fat free dressing, tonic water, marinates, crackers and even bread. Worse, we went to a sushi place in a nearby mall a while ago and found that even the ring of rice was sweetened! Subsequently, we started to check the ingredient list of sushi and other traditional Japanese foods, as well as kimchi (a traditional Korean condiment) at Mitsuwa, a Japanese supermarket in Edgewater, NJ. Guess what? Most had sugar, corn syrup, or high fructose corn syrup listed.

So much about traditional, fresh, and fermented foods considered to be the pinnacle of healthy and wholesome fare - and never contained any sugar or other sweetener, much less corn and high fructose corn syrup before.

It’s truly “buyer beware” now - so be careful!