Diet Diary

SUGAR!

Most Americans are addicted to sugar. Unfortunately, refined sugar is an anti-food. Not only is it devoid of nutrients, but sugar actually robs your body of nutrients, resulting in a negative balance of nutrients with ingestion.

Sugar is also responsible for making your body more susceptible to disease and illness. It decreases the effectiveness of the immune system to destroy foreign particles including bacteria by up to 50%.

The inhibition begins within 30 minutes of consuming sugar and lasts for up to 5 hours afterwards. This effect is linear so that the more sugar you consume the more you inhibit your immune system.

This inhibitory effect comes from refined sugars as well as honey and fruit juices. Minimizing your consumption of these will help you stay healthy during cold and flu season and during allergy season.

When you just have to have something sweet, choose unrefined sugar or natural sweeteners. They contain small amounts of nutrients and so won’t deplete your system as much as refined sugar.