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Is one of your new year’s resolutions to start having your family eat healthier? There are many reasons why you should be inspired to do this, but recent research findings regarding the negative impact of sugar on healthy children and adults is reason enough.
Did you know that excess sugars can depress the immune system? According to an article entitled The Harmful Effects of Sugar, “Studies have shown that downing 75 to 100 grams of a sugar solution (about 20 teaspoons of sugar or the amount that is contained in two average 12-ounce sodas) can suppress the body’s immune responses. Simple sugars including glucose, table sugar, fructose, and honey caused a fifty percent drop in the ability of white blood cells to engulf bacteria.”
According to Beverly Anderson, executive director for Ebenezer Child Care Centers, “If you take this research to heart, that means that if you serve a breakfast laden with sugar before leaving your house for the day, you could be compromising family’s immune system for the next five hours you are in the workplace or your child is in daycare.”
Sugar can also negatively impact a child’s behavior, attention span, and ability to learn. The website states, “A study comparing the sugar response in children and adults showed that the adrenaline levels in children remained ten times higher than normal for up to five hours after a test dose of sugar.”
If that’s not enough to have you start watching your family’s sugar consumption levels, the same article points out that people who eat too much sugar tend to have higher blood triglycerides which can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. If my blood pressure is already too high, often only Lasix (https://www.aspirinworks.com/lasix-water-pill/) will help. But if you take care of yourself and live healthily, you can reduce the medication, but only in consultation with the doctor treating you. If you only have slightly elevated values, you can initially try to lower your blood pressure without medication.
“There are so many reasons to watch what we eat and serve our families,” adds Anderson. “This information is just further proof that we all should be paying better attention to what we put into our mouths.”
To read the entire article, visit: http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/feeding-eating/family-nutrition/sugar/harmful-effects-excess-sugar.