124 Ways Sugan Can Destroy Your Health

The following is a listing of some of sugar's metabolic consequences from a variety of medical journals and other scientific publications.

1. Sugar can suppress the immune system
2. Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in the body
3. Sugar can cause hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children
4. Sugar can produce a significant rise in triglycerides
5. Sugar contributes to the reduction in defense against bacterial infection (infectious diseases)
6. Sugar causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function, the more sugar you eat the more elasticity and function you loose
7. Sugar reduces high density lipoproteins
8. Sugar leads to chromium deficiency
9. Sugar leads to cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostrate, and rectum
10. Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose
11. Sugar causes copper deficiency
12. Sugar interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium
13. Sugar can weaken eyesight
14. Sugar raises the level of a neurotransmitters: dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine
15. Sugar can cause hypoglycemia
16. Sugar can produce an acidic digestive tract
17. Sugar can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline levels in children
18. Sugar malabsorption is frequent in patients with functional bowel disease
19. Sugar can cause premature aging
20. Sugar can lead to alcoholism
21. Sugar can cause tooth decay
22. Sugar contributes to obesity
23. High intake of sugar increases the risk of Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis
24. Sugar can cause changes frequently found in person with gastric or duodenal ulcers
25. Sugar can cause arthritis
26. Sugar can cause asthma
27. Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections)
28. Sugar can cause gallstones
29. Sugar can cause heart disease
30. Sugar can cause appendicitis
31. Sugar can cause multiple sclerosis
32. Sugar can cause hemorrhoids
33. Sugar can cause varicose veins
34. Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses in oral contraceptive users
35. Sugar can lead to periodontal disease
36. Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis
37. Sugar contributes to saliva acidity
38. Sugar can cause a decrease in insulin sensitivity
39. Sugar can lower the amount of Vitamin E in the blood
40. Sugar can decrease growth hormone
41. Sugar can increase cholesterol
42. Sugar can increase the systolic blood pressure
43. Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children
44. High sugar intake increases advanced glycation end products (AGEs)(Sugar bound non- enzymatically to protein)
45. Sugar can interfere with the absorption of protein
46. Sugar causes food allergies
47. Sugar can contribute to diabetes
48. Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy
49. Sugar can contribute to eczema in children
50. Sugar can cause cardiovascular disease
51. Sugar can impair the structure of DNA
52. Sugar can change the structure of protein
53. Sugar can make our skin age by changing the structure of collagen
54. Sugar can cause cataracts
55. Sugar can cause emphysema
56. Sugar can cause atherosclerosis
57. Sugar can promote an elevation of low density lipoproteins (LDL)
58. High sugar intake can impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in the body
59. Sugar lowers the enzymes ability to function
60. Sugar intake is higher in people with Parkinson's disease
61. Sugar can cause a permanent altering the way the proteins act in the body
62. Sugar can increase the size of the liver by making the liver cells divide
63. Sugar can increase the amount of liver fat
64. Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney
65. Sugar can damage the pancreas
66. Sugar can increase the body's fluid retention
67. Sugar is enemy #1 of the bowel movement
68. Sugar can cause myopia (nearsightedness)
69. Sugar can compromise the lining of the capillaries
70. Sugar can make the tendons more brittle
71. Sugar can cause headaches, including migraine
72. Sugar plays a role in pancreatic cancer in women
73. Sugar can adversely affect school children's grades and cause learning disorders
74. Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha, and theta brain waves
75. Sugar can cause depression
76. Sugar increases the risk of gastric cancer
77. Sugar and cause dyspepsia (indigestion)
78. Sugar can increase your risk of getting gout
79. Sugar can increase the levels of glucose in an oral glucose tolerance test over the ingestion of complex carbohydrates
80. Sugar can increase the insulin responses in humans consuming high-sugar diets compared to low sugar diets
81. High refined sugar diet reduces learning capacity
82. Sugar can cause less effective functioning of two blood proteins, albumin, and lipoproteins, which may reduce the body's ability to handle fat and cholesterol
83. Sugar can contribute to Alzheimer's disease
84. Sugar can cause platelet adhesiveness
85. Sugar can cause hormonal imbalance; some hormones become underactive and others become overactive
86. Sugar can lead to the formation of kidney stones
87. Sugar can lead to the hypothalamus to become highly sensitive to a large variety of stimuli
88. Sugar can lead to dizziness
89. Diets high in sugar can cause free radicals and oxidative stress
90. High sucrose diets of subjects with peripheral vascular disease significantly increases platelet adhesion
91. High sugar diet can lead to biliary tract cancer
92. Sugar feeds cancer
93. High sugar consumption of pregnant adolescents is associated with a twofold increased risk for delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant
94. High sugar consumption can lead to substantial decrease in gestation duration among adolescents
95. Sugar slows food's travel time through the gastrointestinal tract
96. Sugar increases the concentration of bile acids in stools and bacterial enzymes in the colon
97. Sugar increases estradiol (the most potent form of naturally occurring estrogen) in men
98. Sugar combines and destroys phosphatase, an enzyme, which makes the process of digestion more difficult
99. Sugar can be a risk factor of gallbladder cancer
100. Sugar is an addictive substance
101. Sugar can be intoxicating, similar to alcohol
102. Sugar can exacerbate PMS
103. Sugar given to premature babies can affect the amount of carbon dioxide they produce
104. Decrease in sugar intake can increase emotional stability
105. The body changes sugar into 2 to 5 times more fat in the bloodstream than it does starch
106. The rapid absorption of sugar promotes excessive food intake in obese subjects
107. Sugar can worsen the symptoms of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
108. Sugar adversely affects urinary electrolyte composition
109. Sugar can slow down the ability of the adrenal glands to function
110. Sugar has the potential of inducing abnormal metabolic processes in a normal healthy individual and to promote chronic degenerative diseases
111. I.Vs (intravenous feedings) of sugar water can cut off oxygen to the brain
112. High sucrose intake could be an important risk factor in lung cancer
113. Sugar increases the risk of polio
114. High sugar intake can cause epileptic seizures
115. Sugar causes high blood pressure in obese people
116. In Intensive Care Units: Limiting sugar saves lives
117. Sugar may induce cell death
118. Sugar may impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in living organisms
119. In juvenile rehabilitation camps, when children were put on a low sugar diet, there was a 44% drop in antisocial behavior
120. Sugar can cause gastric cancer
121. Sugar dehydrates newborns
122. Sugar can cause gum disease
123. Sugar increases the estradiol in young men
124. Sugar can cause low birth weight babies

Childhood Diabetes

Diabetes in children

Reviewed by Dr Stephen Greene, consultant paediatrician, Professor Ian Campbell, consultant physician and Dr Soon Song, consultant physician

The last 30 years has seen a rise in childhood diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes in children: 90-95 per cent of under 16s with diabetes have this type.
It is caused by the inability of the pancreas to produce insulin.
Type 1 diabetes is classified as an autoimmune disease, meaning a condition in which the body's immune system 'attacks' one of the body's own tissues or organs.
In Type 1 diabetes it's the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas that are destroyed.

How common is it?

Childhood diabetes isn't common, but there are marked variations around the world:

• in England and Wales 17 children per 100,000 develop diabetes each year
• in Scotland the figure is 25 per 100,000
• in Finland it's 43 per 100,000
• in Japan it's 3 per 100,000.

The last 30 years has seen a threefold increase in the number of cases of childhood diabetes.
In Europe and America, Type 2 diabetes has been seen for the first time in young people. This is probably in part caused by the increasing trend towards obesity in our society.
But obesity doesn't explain the increase in the numbers of Type 1 diabetes in children - who make up the majority of new cases.

What causes childhood diabetes?

As with adults, the cause of childhood diabetes is not understood. It probably involves a combination of genes and environmental triggers.
The majority of children who develop Type 1 don't have a family history of diabetes.

What are the symptoms?

The main symptoms are the same as in adults. They tend to come on over a few weeks:

• thirst
• weight loss
• tiredness
• frequent urination.

Symptoms that are more typical for children include:

• tummy pains
• headaches
• behaviour problems.

Sometimes diabetic acidosis occurs before diabetes is diagnosed, although this happens less often in the UK due to better awareness of the symptoms to look out for.
Doctors should consider the possibility of diabetes in any child who has an otherwise unexplained history of illness or tummy pains for a few weeks.
If diabetes is diagnosed, your child should be referred to the regional specialist in childhood diabetes.

How is diabetes treated in children?

The specialised nature of managing childhood diabetes means that most children are cared for by the hospital rather than by their GP.
Most children with diabetes need insulin treatment. If this is the case, your child will need an individual insulin routine, which will be planned with the diabetes team.

• Most now use frequent daily dosage regimes of fast-acting insulin during the day and slow-acting insulin at night.
• Very small children normally don't need an injection at night, but will need one as they grow older.
• Increasing numbers of older children use continuous insulin pumps.

Often in the first year after diagnosis, your child may need only a small dose of insulin. This is referred to as 'the honeymoon period'.
As well as insulin treatment, good glucose control and avoidance of ‘hypos’ (low blood glucose attacks) is important. This is because many of the complications of diabetes increase with the length of time diabetes has been present.

What can parents do?

Living with diabetes can put families under considerable strain, so access to backup support is crucial. This may be from your GP, the hospital team or social services.
Understanding all the different aspects of diabetes and its treatment requires patience, but will benefit your child and family life.
The diabetes team at the hospital can help you with the list below.

• Learn how to administer insulin injections. Insulin is usually injected into the skin over the abdomen or the thighs.
• Know the symptoms of low blood glucose and diabetic acidosis and what to do about them.
• Make sure glucose is always available.
• Measure blood glucose levels and teach your child how to do this as soon as they are old enough.
• Teach your child how to self-administer insulin injections as soon as they are old enough - around the age of nine is typical.
• See the doctor on a regular basis, and particularly if your child becomes ill for any reason - treatment is likely to need adjusting.
• Inform the school and friends about the symptoms of low blood glucose and what to do about them.
• Contact your local diabetes association for help and support.

Diet

Diet guidelines

Current recommendations for children with diabetes:

• three main meals
• two to three snacks
• the whole family eats the same meals.

A trained dietician is usually one of the members of the hospital diabetes team.
It's important to give your child a healthy balanced diet that is high in fibre and carbohydrates.
A healthy diet is the same for everyone, whether or not they have diabetes.
How much your child should eat depends on age and weight. The dietician and parents should determine this together.
Sweets are no longer off limits because the 'diabetic diet' is now a relic of the past.
Once your child gets to know how her body responds to eating and taking insulin, sweets in moderation are possible - accompanied by the appropriate dose of insulin.

Physical activity

Physical activity is important for children with diabetes, who should try to exercise every day.
Physical activity lowers the blood sugar level, so if your child takes insulin, she may need to reduce the dose.
This is because a combination of too much insulin and exercise can lower the blood sugar level and lead to hypos. To counter this, your child should always carry sugar.
Physical activity also affects how much your child can eat. Before your child exercises or plays sport, give extra bread, juice or other carbohydrates.

In the long term

A child who develops diabetes will live with the condition longer than someone who develops diabetes in adulthood.
The longer diabetes is present, the higher the risk of long-term complications such as those affecting the eyes and kidneys.
These can start after puberty, but are usually a concern only in later life.
Regular checkups for late-stage complications begin around the age of nine. From then on, this checkup is done every year.