are we all dying sweetly?

On average everyone consumes about 60kg (130 pounds) of sugar per year... that is 165g or 0,35 pounds PER DAY 

Now about 17% of that is the regular sugar we buy in bags of lumps but most of is coming from the hard to detect hidden additives in most other products we buy in the supermarket... So basically we are getting about 22 spoons per day where the daily recommended dose is about 6 to 9 spoons per day. And here I am not including the natural sugars that can be found in things like fruit or milk.

 Now we all know that sugar makes us fat but what else does it do to our body??

 1. Sugar not only fattens up our body but our organs as well. The fructose in added sugars makes sure that our livers store fat more efficiently and not just on the hips. It does not happen from today over tomorrow but a diet high in fructose makes it so that we get a lot of fat cumulating around our liver (that leads to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease) which was really rare before 1980. 

2. Every 150 cals of sugar give you an extra 1,1% chance to get diabetes and heart attacks are one of the main causes of death for type 2 patients 

3. Sugar gives you high colestorol, the more sugar you eat the more bad colestorol the liver produces 

4. Sugar makes the brain release dopamine, which is like a feel good chemical. The withdrawal looks a little bit like drug withdrawal showing similar signs if we do not get our daily 3 o clock chocolate bar. Your brain gets used to this happy feeling and keeps needing it, giving you that "got to have sweets" feeling after dinner. 

5. Sugar makes you feel hungry. It switches of the signal in the brain that tells us that we are full, so we keep eating... 

6. Sugar excess gives us about a 40% more chance to get depressions. The cycle of sugar rush to sugar crash leads to mood-swings that we do not really realize come from sweets and support the feelings of depression

 7. Sugar is really bad for the skin because when it gets in your bloodstream it forms harmful new molecules. These unwanted invaders attack nearby proteins like the components that keep your skin smooth and elastic. These bad molecules are called AGEs and they really do just that, they age your skin and increase the effects the sun has as well. 

8. sugar can effect sexual health, you read that right...To much consumption of sweets can impact the chain of events needed for an erection.  Your regular candy bar affects your circulatory system and that in turn controls the flow of blood throughout your body. If there is a break in that chain and it does not work properly it gets significantly harder (pun intended) to get and keep an erection.  

9. Fructose is used by cancer cells to increase their invasion in our bodies – it “feeds” the cancer cells, promoting cell division and speeding their growth, which allows the cancer to spread faster     

So, should we give up sugar all together??

 NO we should not but there are things on #howto cut back without to much trouble... Just following a couple of these measures will help you tremendously and do not really cost a lot of effort

  Here are the tips:

- read up about this topic, there are a lot of articles online and you getting all through this article is already a good beginning. educate yourself

- check the labels on the things you buy. There are over 56 different names used for added sugar including but not only: fructose, any kind of syrup, sucrose—or any word ending in "ose. If you have more then one in your product check to see if there is an alternative that has less. 

- This is one where the homesteaders here on STEEMIT have the advantage. Buy or grow fresh produce and use that in the kitchen instead of prepared meals (so basically start cooking again)

- one soda per day is responsible for about 30 pounds of sugar per year... so if you can skip your daily coke and swap it out with water you are really on the right way. No small sugar rush is worth all the effects mentioned above. If you really do not like water pure you can just take a big jug and add some fruit pieces or mint leaves to add some taste. (grow your own mint at home, its one of the easiest plants to take care of) 

- If you really cannot forego your chocolate addiction try to change over to the kind that contains 70% cocoa, that will also make a difference as well (the lighter the color of the chocolate, the worse it is for your health) 

- this tip is something that really helps for me... do not go shopping on an empty stomach. If you do go hungry you will see that you buy a lot more sweets then normal.  - simple and easy, just swap sweets with fruit where possible(not the dried kind though) even if you just eat half your candy-bar and save it for tomorrow and eat a piece of fruit to supplement. 

-have a savory breakfast. The sweeter the breakfast the bigger the cravings in the afternoon. (I can attest to that, I really eat a lot less candy since having a less sweet start to the day)

- try to make your spaghetti or tomato sauce fresh, all the cans are loaded with sweeteners and doing it yourself really isn't all that hard

- swap ketchup for salsa. Ketchup is more sugar then tomato and salsa tastes just as good/even better. 

- do not eat the white bread but go for the grainy stuff, less sugar and healthier to boot.

 - make your own salad dressings, jams, syrups so that you at least know what is in there 

- there are tons more tips out there but here we get back to tip number one, educate yourself and find the things that work for you.

 Are you STEEMIANS willing to implement any of these measures or are you already but did not realize it. Were you aware of all these effects that sugar has? If this post has given you some food for thought and sweetened your outlook on life please upvote, comment or resteem... The longer all STEEMIANS live the better for the community...