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Exposing Sugar
Anatomically, sugar is very unhealthy for us. When we eat sugar our body is prompted to release serotonin into the bloodstream which causes a temporary mood boost. Also our bodies don't really know when to stop eating sugar. Sugars with a higher glycemic index don't make us feel as full as lower glycemic sugars, so we always feel like we could eat one more Oreo or one more scoop of Ben and Jerry's. Studies have shown that sugar is nine times more addictive than cocaine. Big companies like Pepsi and coca cola can benefit hugely from this addiction.Then just in case we were trying to fight our sugary addiction the harass us with advertisements depicting people whom we idolize promoting their products.
The government subsidizes these products so that we will buy unhealthy poisonous foods rather than wholesome fruits and vegetables. Are they looking out for us? Not in my opinion. But let's take a look at another matter. Let's talk about the cigarette companies and how they behaved when people began to get concerned with the health risks of tobacco. Tobacco advertising use to be extremely common. When smoking was found to be lethal, these companies first denied the information all together, but then we pushed until tobacco advertising was removed from billboards and television and warning labels were put on the boxes of cigarettes. The sugar companies are behaving similarly, denying the evidence that is so rational. They bend words and make up statistics. They are telling people what they already want to hear. People don't want to stop eating sugar. Why should they? Sugar often holds a lot of emotional gratification. And people whose live's are hard can always have cheap gratification from sugar without having to work very hard. Sugar addiction would not be a problem until we see how it reacts inside the body. When large amounts of sugar enter our body with no fiber, our liver gets a huge boost and needs to do something with all the extra sugar. It converts it into fat cells. However when we have fiber to accompany this sugar, our bodies can slowly disperse it because fiber takes a while to digest. That's why fruit is OK (Despite the fact that it has sugar) but soft drinks are not (Also containing sugar but lacking any fiber). Soft drinks are probably the worst product that companies have to offer. Because they are just liquid and sugar, they move super quickly through us and our bodies don't know what to do with all that sugar. To burn off a twenty ounce coke, we would need to bike for an hour and fifteen minutes. Most people don't have that kind of time in there day. It's no wonder why we are seeing increasing obesity and health problems in both children and adults.
Bottom line, we simply should not be eating sugar.
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When I began to write this paper, I was mostly trying to gather more information to try and convince myself to quit sugar. When I was finished I realized that I might actually be able to impact others. I hope you can take something away from it. I like to think of it as an introduction. My hope is for you to do your own research to decide what you want from your diet. Read this paper. If it strikes a chord somewhere in you, look into sugar a little more and then share your findings with friends and family.
Thank you so much.
Sincerely,
Shiv L.