Sugar, Hormones & Weight Gain | Part 3 of 3
10 Changes Sugar Can Cause In Your Body
Sugar is a very powerful drug. So is white flour, but I digress – that deserves its own series!
1. Sugar is a drug and can cause drug-like addiction
But it doesn’t start out that way. The truth is, as you know, Mother Nature grows sugar as edible food.
However, once humans get their hands on it and process all the goodness, it turns from food to foe.
In fact, refined sugar and refined flour go through the same process as heroin and cocaine. Hence the very real withdrawals you’ll go through giving it up.
Science has spoken
In a study involving mice, sugar, saccharin and cocaine, 94 per cent of the mice (actually I think they were rats) chose sugar over cocaine.
NaturalNews.com refer to the above study that was reported in a paper published in the journal PLOS ONE back in 2007. It explains how rats were given the option to choose between drinking water sweetened with saccharin (Sweet’n Low) or intravenous cocaine. And they almost always chose the water.
As a result, a number of scientific evaluations have discovered that both sugar and synthetic sweeteners can trigger the same or stronger responses in the brain than illegal drugs. What’s more, in terms of habitual consumption the draw is much harder to break.
Dr Serge Ahmed and his research team from the University of Bordeaux in France said their findings:
“Clearly demonstrate that intense sweetness can surpass cocaine reward, even in drug-sensitised and drug-addicted individuals. So when society finally discovers that refined sugar is just another white powder, along with pure cocaine, it will change its mind and attitude toward refined food addiction”.
They went on to say that
“refined sugars i.e. sucrose, fructose, were absent in the diets of most people in human history until recently. Today overconsumption of diets rich in sugars contributes – together with other factors – to the current obesity epidemic”.
It’s disturbing, isn’t it?
And strange to think we can be addicted to something that’s so readily available. Mind blowing!
However, that’s the science, and that’s the reported facts.
I guess it’s a bit like alcohol and cigarettes.
Although they’re addictive and bad for health they make a lot of money so they haven’t been outlawed.
2. Sugar can lead to bone weakness
Another thing that sugar can trigger is the release of calcium and magnesium thereby distorting the ratios.
So, in order to balance it out the body will pull calcium from the teeth and bones. This is certainly not ideal when we are most prone to osteoporosis after menopause.
3. Ditching sugar may reverse cancer(!)
According to NaturalNews.com, researchers found that interfering with the amount of sugar available to cancer cells helps reverse the disease.
Indeed, they reported that preventing cancer cells from accessing sugar led to the cells returning to their normal, pre-cancerous state!
Bonus benefits ditching sugar creates in your body?
4. You’ll no longer be addicted
5. The worst of your peri / menopause signs may disappear
6. Your weight will decrease naturally
7. You’ll have more energy
8. Your brain fog will depart
9. And your libido may come back
10. Let’s save our kids’ teeth
A couple of years ago in New Zealand TV One’s Sunday ran a story called ‘Bittersweet’ with Dr Rob Beaglehole talking about sugar.
During the programme, Dr Beaglehole said that the number one reason children are admitted to New Zealand hospitals is for removal of their teeth by anaesthetic due to sugar.
Furthermore, he said that most of the children are under four years old. And some are as young as 18 months old!
Additionally, Dr Beaglehole agrees that sugar can be as addictive as cocaine and there’s robust evidence it can increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.
Conclusion
I personally don’t eat sugar much at all now.
Of course, occasionally I’ll have some, but mostly I choose not to.
Be that as it may, I don’t beat myself up if I have a piece of something. (We’ve got to be kind to ourselves and ditch the inner mean girl ladies!)
Although I find it interesting that once you’ve avoided sugar for a while you taste how sweet fruit is. Blueberries are God’s candy. Even carrots taste a bit like sweets and anything like packaged sweets are waaaaaaaaayyyyy to sweet.
And it feels good. Trust me.
So that, my friends, is the end of the sugar series. Did you learn something? Will you look at sugar in a new light?
About the three-part sugar series
The reason we’ve done a three-part series about sugar is because we care about your health.
Further, we care about the symptoms and body changes you may experience during the menopause transition.
So, if just a little bit of this info helps convince you that getting rid of sugar could change your life then we’ll have done our job.
Because avoiding sugar will release some of your meno symptoms.
Read Part 1 on how sugar works in the body here
Part 2 for how getting rid of sugar from your diet will improve your life.
Jennifer is a certified integrative health and menopause coach with a specialty in 40+ women, peri/menopause and hormone balance for weight loss. If you have questions email here.
