Soft drinks are more dangerous than you can imagine.
igorovsyannykov / Pixabay – Soft drinks are more dangerous than you can imagine.

What we don’t know can seriously harm us – healthwise. We’ve heard for years that cholesterol is something to monitor because it will cause cardiovascular problems. Not true! We’ve heard that fat is bad for us. Again, not the whole truth. Products are made now without fat. Manufacturers substituted sugar for the fat removed. It is the worse case scenario that you don’t know about. Your health is at risk!

I believe that when sugars replaced fats from foods, it led to the epidemic we have today with obesity. Additionally, there has been a concurrent increase in diabetes, heart disease, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

Simple sugar is not so simple. Sucrose is composed of glucose and fructose. Our bodies can digest the sucrose without much difficulty. Our blood sugar rises as a result. Insulin is required to transfer the blood glucose to the cells.

However, fructose is metabolized in your liver. No insulin is required. The amount of fructose in fruits is insignificant compared to the fructose contained in high fructose corn syrup. Fructose is harmful in large amounts. Eating lots of fruit is not dangerous.

The liver metabolizes fructose in much the same way it does alcohol. There are toxic issues with each. Long-term consumption of large amounts of alcohol or fructose can damage your liver and create other health problems.

The chronic consumption of both alcohol and fructose can be the genesis of hypertension, cardiomyopathy, dyslipidemia, pancreatitis, obesity, hepatic dysfunction, fetal alcohol or insulin resistance, and addiction (in the case of alcohol) or habituation (in the case of fructose).

Scientific American reported that NAFLD affects nearly twenty-five percent of all Americans. More specifically, it affects almost twenty percent of children who have never had alcohol. Most infant formulas contain sugar equal to a can of soda. Baby food has a similar danger. It also includes trans fats. We wonder why we see obese children. They start out their lives eating vast amounts of added sugars.

As a sedentary society, we allow our bodies to store fat. We, as a society, eat more sugar than can be reasonably burned through regular exercising. Awareness and education are required to make a dent in this societal health spiral. Even knowing what to do is not enough. Our parents might tell us not to eat something. As we get older and leave home, we exploit the eating options that were forbidden when we were younger.

Comfort and fast foods become the norm. Add unregulated and untreated stress, and we grow wider with each generation. Become aware of the hidden sugars in the foods you choose to eat. Start by cutting the amount of sugar-laden foods and drinks in half. You don’t have to eat the whole thing. You don’t have to super-size your order.

Leave a significant portion of your food on the plate when you are eating out. Yes, you paid for it. Take it home if you must. Splitting it into two meals makes more sense than eating everything at one time. Don’t begin your personal epidemic with something that you can control.

 

 

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