You’ll find sugar in the obvious places like candies, baked goods, cakes, chocolate, pies, dessert and pop but then it’s hidden in many places including sauces, dressings, ketchup, fruit juices, protein powders and processed foods.

The average American (I’m sure the Canadian statistics are not far behind), consumes about 152 pounds of sugar a year, this is roughly about 22 tsp per day and children are consuming about 34 tsp every day.

Here are the 6 Problems with White Refined Sugar:

  1. Zero Nutritional Value. Sugar does starts off as a natural plant from sugar cane or sugar beets, then through heating, mechanical and chemical processing all vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, enzymes and fiber are removed until only the sugar remains. Sugar is stripped of all nutrients therefore provides zero nutritional value to the body. What is left is a highly refined isolated concentrated chemically manipulated version of a plant source. All the manipulation actually makes it an unnatural product. White refined sugar is not a food, it has zero nutritional value, it is a chemical extracted from plant sources.
  2. Depletes our immune system, which is a body’s self-protective mechanism against foreign substances, infections, toxins and even cancer cells, tearing down our internal army and leaving us vulnerable. Sugar decrease the function of white blood cells, decreases the production of antibodies, which are the proteins that bind and inactivate foreign invaders in the body. Sugar interferes in the transport of vitamin C into cells, which is a nutrient that plays a vital role in the functioning of the immune system. Sugar causes mineral imbalances, which weaken the immune system.
  3. Sugar feeds the unhealthy bacteria and fungi in the gut, which leads to an overgrowth of unhealthy bacteria and fungi and causes an imbalance in the microbiome.
  4. Rapidly increases blood sugar. Weakens the pancreas. Leaves you more susceptible to diabetes.
  5. Sugar is 8 times more addictive than cocaine. On brain scans, sugar consumption lit up the addiction centre of the brain.
  6. Causes inflammation. Damages every cell. Can cause severe long-term damage to the body.

Natural sweeteners such as raw honey, real maple syrup, stevia and coconut palm sugar are acceptable alternatives to get your sugar fix without all the negative effects on your immune system.