Key Points
- Cutting added sugars can improve a child’s health in as little as 10 days, reducing triglycerides by 33 points, and lowering blood sugar by 53 percent.
- Eating just one junk food treat per day for one month is enough to trigger metabolic syndrome in healthy people
- Growing research supports sugar as a primary factor causing obesity, chronic disease, and lethal diseases
- The average American consumes 12 teaspoons of sugar per day equaling nearly 2 tons during their lifetime
- Sugar tricks your body into gaining weight by turning off your appetite-control system leading to weight gain and metabolic disorders
The Not So Sweet Side of Sugar
Sugar is one of the most addictive substances known to man it is as addictive and in some cases more addictive, than cocaine. Currently, disease rates in America lead to the American health care system spending trillions of dollars per year. Growing evidence is showing that sugar may be the primary cause of not only obesity but chronic and lethal disease as well. Fructose, a form of sugar, is the number one source of calories in the US. The main reason for this is because it is so cheap and is used heavily in nearly all processed foods. Due to the high level of use of sugars in our foods, the average person consumes 1/3 of a pound of sugar daily. Half of which is fructose and that amount of fructose is 300% more than the necessary amount to trigger biochemical havoc destroying your metabolic health. And that is just the average. This equates to 70% of individuals in the US falling into the overweight category making the US the fattest of 33 countries.
Fructose elevates uric acid, thereby decreasing nitric oxide, raising angiotensin, and causing smooth muscle cells in your body to contract. This raises your blood pressure and potentially damages your kidneys. When uric acid is increased it leads to chronic, low-level inflammation. Inflammation is the cause of disease, for example, when blood vessels are chronically inflamed it leads to heart attacks and strokes. On top of that, there is also solid evidence that some cancers are also caused by chronic inflammation. When we consume fructose, it does not stimulate insulin appropriately which prevents the suppression of ghrelin (the hunger hormone) and prevents the stimulation of leptin (the satiety hormone) causing you to eat more and develop insulin resistance. It leads to rapid weight gain, abdominal obesity, decreased HDL (“good” cholesterol), increased LDL (“bad” cholesterol), elevated triglycerides, elevated blood sugar, and high blood pressure- classic metabolic syndrome.
Taking Action
When talking about sugar, it is important to recognize that all sugars are included such as fructose, sucrose, glucose, galactose, lactose, maltose, etc. Other types of sugars need to be considered as well such as high fructose corn syrup, honey, and agave which are common in processed foods. A study done in children aged 8-18 found that reducing the amount of added sugars from an average of 27% of daily calories down to about 10% found significant improvements in biomarkers associated with health in just 10 days. On average they saw their LDL fall by 10 points, diastolic blood pressure fell 5 points, triglycerides went down 33 points, fasting blood sugar decreased by 53%, and their insulin levels also significantly improved. This was done with specific steps for the children to take which ensured their success.
That is exactly what we do as well. We provide you with the specific, necessary steps, and guidance to help you make the needed changes to reduce your sugar intake and to improve and reclaim your metabolic health. This often leads to improved biomarkers, increased energy, increased mental focus and clarity, better sleep, and decreased aches, pains, and tightness. We will help you every step of the way with any of your questions or concerns. We focus on a 3 phased approach to healing your gut and establish a metabolic reset to promote health and vitality from the inside out without the use of drugs or surgery.
PHASE 1: Here we extinguish and seal the gut. For the gut to begin healing and to allow metabolic issues to improve we must first rid the body of the things that were causing the damage in the first place. An analogy we like to use is this- if your house was on fire, you wouldn’t call the carpenters first. First, you would call the fire department to put out the fire that is damaging your home.
Phase 2: From there we need to help the gut and body begin to detoxify from all of the toxins that have built up over the years. This is comparable to cleaning up the aftermath of the fire that damaged your home. We need to get in and clean up all of the debris before we can begin rebuilding and reconstructing the framework to be more efficient.
Phase 3: Finally, we can begin rebuilding the gut. Here we get to call in the carpenters to restore and improve the situation. This will help the body become leaner and more improved.
All of these phases are carried out with immense detail, tracking, and specificity to ensure high-quality care and excellent results. The entire metabolic reset process is individualized and physician-supervised to make sure we help improve your digestive health and migraines. Our team is ready to help you with your diet, metabolic, and digestive health goals. Contact us to see how we can help you. https://www.abundantlifechiropractor.com/metabolic/
