How sugar is
affecting our health
Kristy Curtis
I remember reading a book by David Gillespie called ‘Sweet
Poison’ which totally changed my view on eating processed
sugar. This book was written by a 40kg overweight, sleep
deprived father of four that had run out of diet options to lose
weight. One day he decided to eliminate sugar out of his diet
completely and the changes not just physically but mentally
to the way he felt was radical. David started to investigate
the link between our soaring obesity rates and the worrying
diseases that were emerging in the 21st century. He found
links between the introduction of processed sugar in the
1940’s and the increase of heart disease and diabetes. kristycurtishealth.com
A background of poor health is what also drove Sarah Wilson to quit
sugar and start a successful company and movement in the process
with her ‘IQuitsugar.com’ online program and books. The I quit sugar
movement proved to fill a gap in the market with over 1.5million
people in over 113 countries joining her online program to learn
the tools to successfully ditch sugar for good. The results from her
devotees are astonishing, with some displaying increases in fertility,
decreased symptoms of chronic and auto-immune diseases whilst
for others it has assisted with the management of diabetes and
helped many others lose that stubborn belly fat for good. In 1924 there was a German Scientist named Otto Warburg who
discovered that cancerous cells need a lot more sugar to grow
and divide than normal cells this became known as the ‘Warburg
Effect’. Cancerous cells metabolise sugar differently to normal
cells and there has been a lot of research as of late to discover new
treatments for this process.
So knowing all of this lets look at specifically how sugar affects our
overall health.
1
Sugar is stored as excess fat around the mid section:
According to the Heart Foundation (heartfoundation.org.au)
more than 64% of Australians are overweight or obese and
more than 1 in 4 children. These are worrying statistics as
being overweight lends itself to the likelihood of having chronic
diseases such as cardio thoracic diseases and diabetes.
There are 2 types of belly fat the first one is called subcutaneous
fat that is fat located just under the skin. Subcutaneous fat is often
referred to as ‘ love handles’, ‘saddlebags’ or ‘back fat’. Whilst
66 Complete Health
carrying excess weight around the mid section is not ideal with
changes to your diet and moving more it is possible to reduce this
area.
The second more concerning fat is called visceral fat which is
generally indicated by a ‘pot belly’ or an apple shape. This type of fat
is of concern as it is much deeper under the skin and surrounds the
vital organs. Visceral fat can cause changes to our hormonal profiles
and has links to both cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
2
Sugar may promote cancerous cells and recurrence:
Let it be known however that eating sugar directly does not cause
cancer however, there is an indirect link between cancer risk and
sugar. We know this because having a diet high in sugar lends itself
to being overweight or obese. According to the Cancer Research UK,
being overweight or obese increases the risk of 13 different types of
cancer. In fact, after smoking, obesity is the second most preventable
form of cancer in the UK.
There have been some further research groups which looked at
the recurrence rates of women with breast cancer. A ‘PREDIMED’
study followed 300 breast cancer survivors for 3 years, 199 eating
a ‘normal’ healthy diet as advised by dieticians and 108 eating a
Mediterranean style diet comprising of 4 serves of vegetables, 3
serves of fruit, 1 serve of whole grains and plenty of olive oil, fish and
seafood 3-4 times a week and a little red meat.
11 patients experienced a recurrence whilst on the normal diet