I came across this on the effects of sugar, real eye opener......."According to the American Heart Association (AHA), the average adult in the United States takes in 22 teaspoons of added sugar a day, or a whopping 150 pounds a year, while teens pile in 34 teaspoons a day. That’s more than twice the amount of sugar we should be eating.

“The average American is basically overdosing on sugar,” says Connie Bennett, author of Sugar Shock!, who believes that the AHA’s estimates of sugar consumption are conservative, and it’s closer to 50 teaspoons of added sugar a day.

The amount is shocking, and the potential health effects of excess sugar consumption are even scarier. Mounting evidence suggests that flooding your system with the sweet stuff can play a role in obesity, heart disease, and cancer. It can also impact how you look or feel, doing damage to your skin or altering your mood"

"Consuming sugar-sweetened beverages, such as soft drinks, fruit drinks, iced tea, and sports drinks, may increase your chances of developing type 2 diabetes. A recent study published in the journal Diabetes Care examined more than 310,000 patients and found that those who drank 1 to 2 servings of the sweet stuff a day were 26% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who drank it once a month or not at all. What’s more, University of California, San Francisco, researchers estimated that 130,000 new cases of diabetes between 1990 and 2000 can be attributed to the increase in Americans’ consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages.

The reason is twofold: Loading up on sugar-sweetened beverages tends to lead to weight gain, which is a risk factor for diabetes. Previous studies have found that those who toss back high-calorie drinks tend not to cut calories elsewhere from their meals. Second, sugar-loaded drinks deliver a quick rush of sugars to your body, which over time can lead to insulin resistance and inflammation...According to a 2008 study published in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, what you eat can affect your skin. The study’s Australian researchers measured the effects of high- and low-glycemic diets on the skin of teenage boys. The glycemic index of a food defines how quickly it’s broken down into glucose by the body. High-glycemic foods, such as refined carbs, sugary drinks, and even certain fruits high in natural sugars, cause large spikes in blood sugar when eaten. Low-glycemic foods, such as whole grains, are broken down into sugars more slowly, so they do not cause spikes in blood sugar. The researchers found that those who were on the low-glycemic diet experienced a 50% reduction in acne, while those who ate the high-glycemic diet experienced a 14% increase. Researchers speculate that insulin resistance—commonly associated with eating a high-glycemic diet—may fuel inflammation and the production of the acne-causing oil sebum....A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that people who took in more than 17.5% of their calories from added sugars were 20 to 30% more likely to have high levels of triglycerides, a type of fat that’s found in your blood. When you consume more sugar than you need for energy, the excess sugars form triglycerides, which are then stored in fat cells.

The same study found that people who got 25% or more of their calories from added sugars were more than 3 times more likely to have low levels of HDL (the good cholesterol that helps prevent plaque buildup by carrying cholesterol from your arteries to your liver where it is then excreted) than those whose diets included less than 5% sugar. Both high triglycerides and low HDL levels contribute to atherosclerosis—the hardening of your arteries—a condition that increases your risk of heart disease, stroke, and heart attack....in vitro studies that show cancer cells feed on sugar to fuel their growth and proliferation. “Researchers call them ‘glucose guzzlers.’” While it’s not proven that sugar fuels cancer growth in the body, we do know that obesity—a likely effect of eating too much sugar—increases your risk of developing a number of cancers, and that both sugar and insulin fuel cancer-cell growth.

A number of studies indicate a strong relationship between sugar consumption and an increased risk of cancer. For instance, University of Minnesota researchers looked at more than 60,000 patients over 14 years and found that people who drank two or more soft drinks a week had an 87% higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer. University of Buffalo researchers found that diabetic women had a 39% increased risk of developing breast cancer over those with a fasting glucose level below 100 mg/dl. That is, women with the highest blood sugar levels were much more likely to have breast cancer than those with the lowest levels.


" More later...

Thank you Rick!

Not all carbohydrates are bad. The body lives needs glucose. Ethanol is a carbohydrate, and it is bad. Yes, obesity, insulin resistance, inflammation, increased uric acid production, and hypertension can all be explained by the metabolism of the carbohydrate fructose. Yes, fructose is found in fruit, but it is packaged with the antidote, fiber. When you refine fruit by juicing it and removing the fiber, it is no different than other refined sugar. Sucrose, white table sugar, is 50% fructose. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS), is 55% fructose. There is no difference between white table sugar and HFCS, they are both bad, both toxins.

EGW on Sugar:
Could we know that animals were in perfect health, I would recommend that people eat flesh meats sooner than large quantities of milk and sugar. It would not do the injury that milk and sugar do. Sugar clogs the system. It hinders the working of the living machine. {2T 368.4}

She was deficient in this important branch of education; and as the result, the poorly cooked food not being sufficient to sustain the demands of the system, sugar was eaten immoderately, and this brought on a diseased condition of the entire system. {CTBH 158.2}

When I went to see the sick man, I tried to tell them as well as I could how to manage, and soon he began slowly to improve. But he imprudently exercised his strength when not able, ate a small amount not of the right quality, and was taken down again. This time there was no help for him. His system appeared to be a living mass of corruption. He died a victim to poor cooking. He tried to make sugar supply the place of good cooking, and it only made matters worse. {CD 328.1}
I frequently sit down to the tables of the brethren and sisters, and see that they use a great amount of milk and sugar. These clog the system, irritate the digestive organs, and affect the brain. Anything that hinders the active motion of the living machinery, affects the brain very directly. And from the light given me, sugar, when largely used, is more injurious than meat. These changes should be made cautiously, and the subject should be treated in a manner not calculated to disgust and prejudice those whom we would teach and help. {CD 328.2

Dr. Robert Lustig, from UCSF, a neuroendocrinologist did a lecture on sugar in 2009, titled, "Sugar - the Bitter Truth". It is on the University of California TV network.

http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=16717

No speaking of affecting the brain, look at this..."researchers from Baylor College of Medicine found a correlation between sugar consumption and the annual rate of depression in six countries. While the exact mechanism that triggers excess sugar to negatively affect your mood is unknown, some believe that insulin resistance may force the release of the stress hormones cortisol and GLP-1.

Moreover, research published in the British Journal of Psychiatry found that people who were diagnosed with schizophrenia and ate a sugar-heavy diet were more likely to be hospitalized in a 2-year follow-up period. “Behavioral disorders, in general, are affected by massive swings in sugar,” says Teitelbaum. “When you eat a lot of sugar , your blood sugar levels shoot way up and then go way low. These fluctuations drive your metabolism and mood nuts"

You try to tell that to a doctor and I guarrantee you he will give you a blank stare, they just havent picked up on it...

My sugar file is replete with information on this favorite food of so many. Consider the following:

* There is a correlation between the consumption of refined white sugar and breast cancer. Yes, breast cancer mortality correlates with sugar consumption in different countries.

* Hyperactive children should shun sugar. It's also associated with other behavior problems.

* Arthritis pain gone with the elimination of sugar.

* Dr. Lendon Smith, the pediatritian, says: "An allergist should refuse to treat patients if they eat white sugar and white flour. Sugar should not be in any home."

* Inspiration: "Sugar is not good for the stomach. It causes fermentation, and this clouds the brain and brings peevishness into the disposition....Sugar clogs the system. It hinders the working of the living machine....And from the light given me, sugar, when largely used, is more injurious than meat." --Ellen White, Counsels on Diet and Foods, 327, 328.

* Okay, so we know that too much sugar is unhealthy, but so many crave the stuff! Is there any help for sugar addicts? Yes! Try substituting fruit for sweets. After several months you'll find that your favorite dainties are simply too sweet.

* A high sugar diet is linked to elevated cholesterol, triglycerides and other blood fats.

* The Journal of the American Medial Association presented a blistering indictment of refined white sugar, and flour as contributing to heart disease, gallbladder disease, appendicitis, diverticulosis, clotting in deep veis, varicose veins, hiatal hernia, and cancer of the large intestines.

* Too much sugar can result in unhappy mental reactions. Adolph Hitler, Napoleon, and Ivan the Terrible were all sugar fanatics.

* Sugar--a fatal attraction: People crave sugar like taking drugs.

Suzanne

Actually, APL, ethanol is not a carbohydrate, strictly. It is an alcohol. Ethanol's formula is CH3-CH2-OH. Molecules with a CH2-OH group are alcohols.

The body metabolizes carbos into sugar. It does not metabolize alcohols into sugar.

Yes, of course you are correct. Strictly, a carbohydrate is of the form Cx(H2O)y, a hydrate of carbon. A purist will balk at the loose definition of carbohydrate as being a compound of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. Alcohol is not a hydrate of carbon, though made up of just carbon, oxygen and hydrogen.

"Sugar" IS a carbohydrate. There are simple sugars, and complex. Starch is a complex carbohydrate with a long chain of glucose molecues. The body metabolizes various sugars differently, and that it the real point with "sugar". There are various types of "sugar". Glucose is a sugar. Fructose is a sugar, Sucrose (white table sugar) is sugar. Sucrose is a "disaccharide" composed of one glucose molecule and one fructose molecule. And there are many others "sugars", Maltose, Lactose, etc.

The point of my comment above is the type of "sugar" is important, and not all sugars are metabolized the same. Sugar is not just "empty calories". The metabolites of various sugars have implications on health. The body runs on glucose and can be metabolized anywhere in the body. Fructose however, is metabolized only by the liver. Alcohol is primarily metabolized in the liver, though some can be metabolized in the brain. The metabolites of fructose and alcohol are similar and bad. As Dr. Lustig says, fructose is alcohol without the buzz. So sugar, and commonly known white table sugar, is bad, high fructose corn syrup is bad, for exactly the same reasons, and there is not difference between white sugar and HFCS. Do note though, where ever fructose if found in nature, it is packages with the anitdote, fiber. Eat whole foods, not processed...

Good job on the clarification.

There is a sweetener available in some countries which is not sugar. It is the leaves of stevia which is 300% sweeter than sugar. The sugar industy in many countries have managed to get the use of stevia made illegal, at least in its natural condition.

We never have sugar in our house except for Thanksgiving and Christmas when family brings it, but I unfortunately have diabetics on both sides of my family. So now if I drink or eat anything with it, withing minutes I have a reaction, and no doctor can stop it with their pills or injections. It is the worst torture possible as everything you can imageing that taste good either has sugar or turns into it very quickly, so its just death by a thousand cuts. Every bite knowing will affect some part of your body...