Time for a post-Halloween reality check: BEWARE OF SUGAR. I know. I know. But I'm not preaching, just sharing...
We have heard bad news about sugar before, right? Well, new reports continue to come out that we all should listen to. Especially as it relates to our children around Halloween time. Turns out even short term reduction in sugar can bring big health benefits.
A medical research team at the University of California, San Francisco, looked at the effects of reducing sugar in children for just 10 days. In only this short time, blood sugar insulin levels normalized, reducing the risk factors for diabetes; blood pressure lowered; and blood triglycerides reduced by 33%.
I am not a sugar nazi. But I am wondering what child needs a 5 pound bag of candy to graze on after Halloween – especially since sugar is loaded in our normal diets anyway. With the health improvements noted by reducing sugar for just 10 days, there is no doubt that jacking up the sugar intake is a bad idea.
How much sugar do we consume every year? Only about 130 POUNDS! Some of that is hidden in our foods, shaping our palates to seek sweet flavors. Worse yet it that much of that intake is in the form of high fructose corn syrup. The thing with fructose is that is flies under the hunger radar. You can consume fructose, and your body does not release the hormone, called gherkin, normally released when consuming glucose (the sugar your brain uses for fuel and the one found in table sugar), so you can consume more and more sugar without feeling full. Another problem with fructose is that it hits the pleasure center in your brain so that it actually increases your sugar cravings.
The interesting thing about the study from UCSF was that the health benefits came with the reduction of sugar -- not the reduction of calories. Reducing sugar was key. Reducing sugar improves health.
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