We always hear that refined sugar is bad for the health and can cause all sorts of diseases. And yet, refined sugar is still one of the most in demand products anywhere in the world. Obviously, this means that refined sugar isn’t bad enough for people to stop consuming them. In fact, it might even be at the top of your guilty indulgences yourself!
I’m not about to stop short and commit the same mistake by telling you that refined sugar is bad. Instead, I’m going to tell you why it is unhealthy and how it will ruin your health in more ways than one.
How Refined Sugar will Poison Your Body
During the process of “refinement”, refined sugar is depleted of its natural properties, including proteins, vitamins and minerals that were previously present. The final result—the refined sugar—consists of refined carbohydrates, otherwise known as naked calories.
Aside from the absence of nutrients, refined sugar will cause an acid-alkaline imbalance in your body. As you eat food replete in refined sugar, your body will attempt to release vitamins, minerals and neutral acids to rectify the imbalance and return your body to its normal state. Because of refined sugar alone, your body will be drained of healthy nutrients. Worse, it will take up so much energy through bodily processes like digestion. In other words, by eating empty, naked sugar, you will even lose priceless nutrients necessary for your body to function.
That’s not the end of it. As you continue to take in food with refined sugar, which you more likely will, your body will take calcium from where it is stored: your teeth and bones. This will lead to slow but sure decay and weakening of the body.
Your organs will be affected by excessive refined sugar intake as well. The refined sugar will be stored in your liver in the form of glycogen for as long as it can take. However, once the amount becomes unacceptable, your liver will expand and the undeposited glycogen will be return to your blood circulation as fatty acids. These fatty acids will be distributed to different parts of your body, including your thighs and belly among a few. If the situation gets worse, the glycogen will be distributed to your heart and kidneys, degenerating these tissues and causing serious heart and kidney problems.
Before you know it, you will have consumed enough refined sugar to suppress your immune system and your nervous system will have been paralyzed. Yes, all because of refined sugar.
Why Brown Sugar isn’t a Healthy Alternative
You must be setting your sights on brown sugar, now that you realize how harmful refined sugar is to your body. I hate to disappoint, but the two are only marginally different to insignificantly different.
The brown sugar you’ve been advised to buy as an alternative in your grocery store is simply refined sugar added with molasses. These molasses give the refined sugar its brown color and, as a matter of fact, only accounts for 3% to 6.5% of an entire pack of brown sugar. In fact, you can even make brown sugar yourself at home by mixing a tablespoon of molasses for a cup of white sugar.
The molasses themselves may contain a certain amount of calcium, potassium, and magnesium (all of which refined sugar does not have) but the mineral content is so microscopic that there’s barely a difference! Unless, of course, you consume gigantic proportions of brown sugar—doing which will lead to all the poisonous effects of white sugar. So trust me, you’re not doing any better by buying brown sugar instead.
And before you even think of raw sugar, let me stop you cold. Usually sold in packets and colored in light brown, raw sugar isn’t nearly as raw as you think; raw sugar is only less processed. To be fair, it does have some minerals, a dash of Vitamin B6, and a reasonable amount of iron. However, as you can read in the raw sugar packets themselves, they are “not a significant source” of nutrients. In fact, they go as far as saying that raw sugar contains “very small amounts of nutrients”, which is better than none, but second to useless.
What to Substitute Sugar With
Admittedly, you can’t just let sugar go. In many ways, they make virtually all meals tasteful in one way or another. For that, you can instead opt for natural substitutes for sugar:
Raw Honey – Filled with enzymes and nutrients, raw, non-pasteurized honey will not only give that sweet taste to meals, it is also known for its healing capabilities. It doesn’t hurt that they’re fairly inexpensive, too.
Dehydrated Cane Sugar – A result of dried out cane sugar juice, dehydrated cane sugar or rapadura is all-natural and has not gone to one refinement process brown or white sugar has.
Molasses – I’ve already touched on the vitamins and minerals molasses contain. By substituting a small amount for sugar, molasses will provide that sweet taste your meal needs.
As in everything that concerns you health, use these sugar substitutes sparingly. They are also converted by your body to glycogen and, if consumed excessively, your body will be just as poisoned. However, these substitutes provide nutrients that refined sugar does not. For that reason alone, you should go ahead to your nearest grocery and stock up on these sugar substitutes.
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