Be more informed:

Sugar’s Deadly Effects

Dr. Bruce Eichelberger, OMD has this article, Sugar's Surprisingly Large Number of Deadly Effects. See his website: (http://renoalternativemedicine.com/dna-smackdown.html )

1. Sugar speeds up the aging process.

2. Sugar boosts blood pressure, meaning it contributes to a greater likelihood of stroke or heart attack.

3. Consuming excessive amounts of refined sugar aggravates Crohn’s Disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Eating too much sugar increases the risk of gallstones. Sugar directly irritates the stomach and impairs protein digestion. In turn, this prevents the body from healing as quickly because proteins are the building blocks of cellular repair.

4. Eating sugar increases the likelihood of kidney stones.

5. Sugar reduces the body’s production of antibodies. Excessive consumption of sugar interferes with the function of neutrophils. Neutrophils reduce inflammation. Excessive consumption of sugar interferes with the function of phagocytes (literally "big eaters") that circulate through the body gobbling up toxic and dangerous materials.

6. Sugar reduces the body's ability to fight off cancer. Sugar increases the risk of breast cancer by defeating the ability of the body to fight abnormally multiplying cells. Sugar increases the risk of colon cancer - just one teaspoon of additional sugar per day increases colon cancer risk by 40% and an additional three teaspoons or more increases the risk of colon cancer by 100%.

7. Sugar can initiate cross-linking of proteins and sugars, forming a sticky, caramel-like substance in the tissues (AGEs) that block healthy metabolism and lead to pain and other health problems.

8. Sugar ramps up production of free radicals within the body, which have multiple negative effects on health, including increasing inflammation, aggravating heart disease and multiplying the likelihood of strokes.

9. Excessive consumption of sugar can cause insulin resistance, a hallmark of metabolic syndrome and a precursor to diabetes.

10. Excessive consumption of sugar exacerbates obesity by increasing the formation of body fat. In a diet too low in fat, it substitutes for dietary fats in energy production. Ironically, this leads to the accumulation of fat around the internal organs, which interferes with their natural functioning.

11. Sugar increases circulating triglycerides in the blood. Recent research implicates elevated triglycerides as aggravating a wide variety of chronic and ultimately deadly diseases such as heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and pancreatitis.

12. Sugar causes tooth decay.

13. Excessive sugar intake accelerates the development of wrinkles because of the cross-linking of sugar and protein. The result has the apt acronym, AGE.

14. Sugar increases the production of cholesterol in the body. Since 80% of the cholesterol we have is made inside the body, this is a major contributing factor.

15. Sugar increases the production of cortisol, aka the 'stress hormone.' Chronically elevated cortisol has a long list of negative effects including weight gain, elevated blood pressure, sleeplessness, impaired learning and memory, and lowered immunity.

Wow, that's quite a list! Given what you now know about the effects of sugar in your body, I hope you'll be more careful.