124 reasons not to eat sugar

Contributed by Nancy Appleton, Ph.D., www.nancyappleton.comAuthor of the book "Lick The Sugar Habit"

In addition to throwing off the body's homeostasis, excess sugar may result in a number of other significant consequences. The following is a listing of some of sugar's metabolic consequences
from a variety of medical journals and other scientific publications.

Sugar can suppress the immune system
Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in the body
Sugar can cause hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children
Sugar can produce a significant rise in triglycerides
Sugar contributes to the reduction in defense against bacterial infection (infectious diseases)
Sugar causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function, the more sugar you eat the more elasticity and function you loose
Sugar reduces high density lipoproteins
Sugar leads to chromium deficiency
Sugar leads to cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostrate, and rectum
Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose
Sugar causes copper deficiency
Sugar interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium
Sugar can weaken eyesight
Sugar raises the level of a neurotransmitters: dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine
Sugar can cause hypoglycemia
Sugar can produce an acidic digestive tract
Sugar can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline levels in children
Sugar malabsorption is frequent in patients with functional bowel disease
Sugar can cause premature aging
Sugar can lead to alcoholism
Sugar can cause tooth decay
Sugar contributes to obesity
High intake of sugar increases the risk of Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis
Sugar can cause changes frequently found in person with gastric or duodenal ulcers
Sugar can cause arthritis
Sugar can cause asthma
Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections)
Sugar can cause gallstones
Sugar can cause heart disease
Sugar can cause appendicitis
Sugar can cause multiple sclerosis
Sugar can cause hemorrhoids
Sugar can cause varicose veins
Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses in oral contraceptive users
Sugar can lead to periodontal disease
Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis
Sugar contributes to saliva acidity
Sugar can cause a decrease in insulin sensitivity
Sugar can lower the amount of Vitamin E in the blood
Sugar can decrease growth hormone
Sugar can increase cholesterol
Sugar can increase the systolic blood pressure
Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children
High sugar intake increases advanced glycation end products (AGEs)(Sugar bound non- enzymatically to protein)
Sugar can interfere with the absorption of protein
Sugar causes food allergies
Sugar can contribute to diabetes
Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy
Sugar can contribute to eczema in children
Sugar can cause cardiovascular disease
Sugar can impair the structure of DNA
Sugar can change the structure of protein
Sugar can make our skin age by changing the structure of collagen
Sugar can cause cataracts
Sugar can cause emphysema
Sugar can cause atherosclerosis
Sugar can promote an elevation of low density lipoproteins (LDL)
High sugar intake can impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in the body
Sugar lowers the enzymes ability to function
Sugar intake is higher in people with Parkinson’s disease
Sugar can cause a permanent altering the way the proteins act in the body
Sugar can increase the size of the liver by making the liver cells divide
Sugar can increase the amount of liver fat
Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney
Sugar can damage the pancreas
Sugar can increase the body's fluid retention
Sugar is enemy #1 of the bowel movement
Sugar can cause myopia (nearsightedness)
Sugar can compromise the lining of the capillaries
Sugar can make the tendons more brittle
Sugar can cause headaches, including migraine
Sugar plays a role in pancreatic cancer in women
Sugar can adversely affect school children's grades and cause learning disorders
Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha, and theta brain waves
Sugar can cause depression
Sugar increases the risk of gastric cancer
Sugar and cause dyspepsia (indigestion)
Sugar can increase your risk of getting gout
Sugar can increase the levels of glucose in an oral glucose tolerance test over the ingestion of complex carbohydrates
Sugar can increase the insulin responses in humans consuming high-sugar diets compared to low sugar diets
High refined sugar diet reduces learning capacity
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
Sugar can contribute to Alzheimer’s disease
Sugar can cause platelet adhesiveness
Sugar can cause hormonal imbalance; some hormones become underactive and others become overactive
Sugar can lead to the formation of kidney stones
Sugar can lead to the hypothalamus to become highly sensitive to a large variety of stimuli
Sugar can lead to dizziness
Diets high in sugar can cause free radicals and oxidative stress
High sucrose diets of subjects with peripheral vascular disease significantly increases platelet adhesion
High sugar diet can lead to biliary tract cancer
Sugar feeds cancer
High sugar consumption of pregnant adolescents is associated with a twofold increased risk for delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant
High sugar consumption can lead to substantial decrease in gestation duration among adolescents
Sugar slows food's travel time through the gastrointestinal tract
Sugar increases the concentration of bile acids in stools and bacterial enzymes in the colon
Sugar increases estradiol (the most potent form of naturally occurring estrogen) in men
Sugar combines and destroys phosphatase, an enzyme, which makes the process of digestion more dificult
Sugar can be a risk factor of gallbladder cancer
Sugar is an addictive substance
Sugar can be intoxicating, similar to alcohol
Sugar can exacerbate PMS
Sugar given to premature babies can affect the amount of carbon dioxide they produce
Decrease in sugar intake can increase emotional stability
The body changes sugar into 2 to 5 times more fat in the bloodstream than it does starch
The rapid absorption of sugar promotes excessive food intake in obese subjects
Sugar can worsen the symptoms of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Sugar adversely affects urinary electrolyte composition
Sugar can slow down the ability of the adrenal glands to function
Sugar has the potential of inducing abnormal metabolic processes in a normal healthy individual and to promote chronic degenerative diseases
I.Vs (intravenous feedings) of sugar water can cut off oxygen to the brain
High sucrose intake could be an important risk factor in lung cancer
Sugar increases the risk of polio
High sugar intake can cause epileptic seizures
Sugar causes high blood pressure in obese people
In Intensive Care Units: Limiting sugar saves lives
Sugar may induce cell death
Sugar may impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in living organisms
In juvenile rehabilitation camps, when children were put on a low sugar diet, there was a 44% drop in antisocial behavior
Sugar can cause gastric cancer
Sugar dehydrates newborns
Sugar can cause gum disease
Sugar increases the estradiol in young men
Sugar can cause low birth weight babies