Eating sugar will do more than just make you pack on the pounds… There’s some serious, silent damage done to your health with every serving of it you eat.

Five Ways Sugar Sabotages Your Health

In All Health Watch, Breast Cancer, Cancer, Cognitive Health, Dementia, Diabetes, Diet and Nutrition, Featured Article, Heart and Cardiovascular, Heart Disease, Top 5's

You know how dangerous sugar is. It doesn’t help matters that eating sugar is physically addicting. But the damage goes beyond weight gain and cavities. Those are just the beginning. The truth is it can lead to some serious—even deadly—conditions.

Here are five little-known ways sugar sabotages your health:

1. Heart Disease: Too much sugar can lead to obesity. But even more dangerous is the inflammation that comes with eating it. In fact, you don’t even have to be overweight for sugar to raise your heart disease risk.

One study found that people who got at least 25% of the daily calories from sugar were more than twice as likely to die from heart disease in the next 15 years.1 And this was regardless of age, sex, physical activity, and even BMI.2

2. Liver Damage: You probably think that you don’t have to worry about your liver unless you’re an alcoholic. But sugar can be even more damaging. Just look at what soda can do to your liver. One study found that people who drink it have a 45% greater risk for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).3

Another study found that people with NAFLD consumed at least twice the amount of soda as people without the disease.4 But it’s not just soda. High-fructose corn syrup is also in fruit juices and sweet teas—and it can overload your liver just as easily.

3. Type 2 Diabetes: It might seem obvious… But you may not realize how little sugar it takes to send your risk through the roof. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found that women who drink just one sugar-sweetened beverage a day are at up to 83% greater risk for type 2 diabetes.5

And it doesn’t help that high-fructose corn syrup is making its way into more processed foods. This alone is contributing to rising rates of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. They’re the major precursors to type 2 diabetes.6

4. Cancer: Eating too much sugar causes insulin levels to spike. And that can fuel cancer growth. Research shows that eating sugar leads to greater breast cancer mortality risk—especially in older women.7 Another study found that sugar can cause a 59% increase in colon cancer risk.8 There’s no way around it: Cutting out sugar is one of the easiest—and most effective ways—to help lower your risk of ever getting cancer.

5. Alzheimer’s: There’s a reason experts call it “type 3 diabetes.” Sugar rots your brain. High insulin levels are directly linked to dementia and neuron death. You don’t have to be diabetic or overweight.9 And it doesn’t just raise your risk for dementia. If you already have Alzheimer’s, sugar will only make things worse.

High blood sugar levels may actually turn beta amyloid—the protein in the brain tied to Alzheimer’s—more toxic than it already is. This means what starts out as early signs could accelerate into a severe case just because of the foods you eat.10

When you eat sugar, you’re eating poison. Even natural sugars from fruit can do damage if you aren’t careful. The bottom line is it’s one of the worst things you can put in your body. Giving it up may help you take control of your health. And we want to help…

Our president, Angela Salerno, is taking on the challenge of conquering sugar.

She’s going 30 full days without it. But she’s not stopping there. She’s also getting rid of artificial sweeteners and products with added sugar.

She knows it won’t be easy. But we know she’ll do it. You can follow her every step of the way—even join yourself—to see how kicking sugar and its imitators to the curb can have a major effect on your health.

Learn more about our 30-day sugar challenge—and how to get involved—HERE.

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References:
1http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1819573
2http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/eating-too-much-added-sugar-increases-the-risk-of-dying-with-heart-disease-201402067021
3http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168827807004278
4http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/76/5/911.short
5http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=199317
6http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/76/5/911.short
7http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0306987783900956
8http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/6/9/677.short
9http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2769828/
10http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131029090345.htm