How Refined Sugar is Causing Inflammation
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How Refined Sugar is Causing Inflammation in Your Body (And How to Stop It)
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Learn about the dangers of refined sugar and the foods you must avoid for your best health.
If you’re trying to get in your best health, one of the most important things you can do is avoid refined sugar. However, many times you may not even be aware that this has been added to your food.
Consuming large amounts of refined sugar has been linked to excess belly fat and obesity, which puts you at greater risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Additionally, with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), it can make you resistant to leptin, the hormone in your body that tell you when to eat and when to stop eating.
Why Refined Sugar is Bad for You
Refined sugars are not the same as natural sugars, like the kinds you’d get from eating fresh fruits. This is because foods with refined sugars are heavily processed. These sugars are added to improve taste, but they’re all empty calories, lacking vitamins, minerals, fiber, fat, protein, and other nutritious compounds.
When your diet is filled with refined sugars at every turn, you have a greater risk of being overweight or obese. Even worse, serious health conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, liver disease, certain types of cancer, and dementia can develop.
These foods are horrible for your body and mind. Refined sugar causes inflammation which is the root cause of these chronic diseases. That is why you must take steps to keep them off your plate at all costs.
How Does Refined Sugar Cause Inflammation?
Some foods can increase inflammation just as other foods will reduce it. Experts say that a diet that is high in refined sugar is linked to chronic inflammation. The worst offenders are sugary drinks. In studies, those with a higher intake of refined sugar had more inflammatory markers in their blood.
But how does this happen? Because sugar stimulates the production of free fatty acids within your liver, these compounds are responsible for triggering inflammatory actions.
Perhaps you’re not even aware of how much refined sugar you’re consuming, but you can look for the signs. Those with chronic inflammation tend to suffer from depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders.
Additionally, you may have body pains, feel constantly fatigued, suffer from insomnia, digestive issues, weight gain, or frequent infections. Chronic inflammation is dangerous at any age, but as you get older, it gives you a higher risk of death. This is why you must save your health immediately by avoiding refined sugar.
Food and Beverages to Avoid with Refined Sugar
Since refined sugars are added to most processed foods, you need to be vigilant with reading the labels. While you may see ‘sugar’ listed, you may also see other hidden names for it such as high fructose corn syrup, cane juice, molasses, cane sugar, glucose, dextrose, and maltose.
A safer bet is to just avoid the common foods that contain refined sugars:
– Sodas, sports drinks, energy drinks, specialty coffees, and certain fruit drinks
– Sugary cereals and granola
– Baked goods
– Canned beans, vegetables, and fruits
– Jams and spreads
– Low fat options like yogurt (which add refined sugar to correct the flavor)
– Store-bought sauces and condiments like ketchup, salad dressings, and pasta sauces
– Ready-made meals from fresh to frozen
Now that you know what you shouldn’t be eating, you might be wondering how to reduce inflammation and save your health. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to do it!
An Anti-Inflammatory Diet is the Answer
With an anti-inflammatory diet, you’re eating fresh foods and healthy fats to take a holistic approach to your health. In this way, you’re giving your body the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants it needs to tame inflammation.
While short-term inflammation is a normal response in the body during times of healing, long-term or chronic inflammation is dangerous. If you feel random pains, are always fatigued, have sleep troubles or gastrointestinal issues, brain fog, keep gaining weight, and suffer from anxiety or depression, you need to be on an anti-inflammatory diet.
The majority of diets focus on weight loss, but an anti-inflammatory diet focuses on your whole health and leads to weight loss. Plus, you won’t have to restrict foods or count calories, all while feeling better overall.
How to Start an Anti-Inflammatory Diet
While there are many anti-inflammatory diets out there, you need one that considers your metrics and lifestyle. This is the key to your success in taming inflammation and getting your health and weight back on track. Changing the way you eat is going to be a huge factor in this because inflammation can keep you from losing weight even if you exercise regularly.
Now that you know how dangerous refined sugar is and that it is causing inflammation, follow a step-by-step process to eliminate inflammation with an anti-inflammatory diet.
Answer a quick quiz and discover which weight-loss approach suits you best!