Thursday’s Tip: What Are Refined Sugars?

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that excess sugar is bad for you. However, being that sugars are in nearly everything we eat, I always thought that it was okay in moderation. With recent light shed on refined sugars being toxic, I needed to find out what these refined sugars were and how to avoid them.

Refined sugars are the sugars we are most familiar with. There are many varieties from super refined sugar in sodas, granulated sugar used in baking and cooking, sanding sugar used commonly in cake decorations and powdered sugar. The refining of the sugars removes minerals and any other materials, providing empty calories lacking in nutrition.

Why do these sugars harm us? They trick the pancreas into producing a surge of insulin. Insulin brings down the blood sugar levels. Refined sugars lack enough fiber to optimize the absorption of glucose from the intestines in a controlled manner, this causes blood sugar levels to plummet too fast and too far. At high levels, insulin becomes an inflammatory agent, which in turn causes inflammation and oxidation in all fifty to one hundred trillion cells in our bodies. When our cells are inflamed, they become rigid on the outside creating a casing preventing the release of toxins, like a rag in an exhaust pipe. Our bodies depend on every cell do do their job well, when they don’t, we simply don’t function optimally (Licking Sweet Death, Hugo Rodier, MD).

Tags | cellular function, fiber, insulin, Insulin Resistance, Pancreas, Refined Sugars