Hi Everyone!

With Halloween right around the corner I thought it might be fitting to talk about sugar…again.  You’ll find posts on the Grapevine with a host of reasons for why you should avoid refined sugars.  For this email, I want to focus on the connection sugar has with high cholesterol levels.

James A. Surrell, M.D. wrote the book “S.O.S. Diet (Stop Only Sugar)”.  http://www.sosdietbook.com/index.php?page=Sugar_Cholesterol_Connection

He describes the connection between sugar and cholesterol like so:
“You eat excess sugar – The pancreas releases more circulating insulin – Insulin stores sugar as body fat – Circulating insulin causes the liver to manufacture more cholesterol – Blood cholesterol level goes up above safe and normal levels – Risk of heart disease goes up and this is all because of the sugar you eat”

WebMD spoke with researcher Miriam Vos, MD, of Atlanta’s Emory University about data she analyzed from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) which took place from 1999 – 2006..  Vos found of the 6,113 adults who participated, the lowest consumption group got less than 5% of their daily calories from added sugars, while the highest consumers got 25% or more of their daily calories from sugar.  Sugar consumption appeared to be directly related to HDL and triglyceride levels. The more sugar the participants ate, the lower their HDL and higher their triglycerides.  Compared to people who ate the least sugar, people who ate the most sugar were three times more likely to have low HDL levels.
Click the link below to read the full article:
http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20100420/high-sugar-diet-linked-lower-good-cholesterol

More and more research points to sugar being the cause of high cholesterol, weight gain and many other diseases.  It is so important that we limit our sugar intake and set the example for our kids so they don’t end up with the problems we are trying so hard to avoid.  Just a reminder, the American Heart Association recommends men keep their sugar intake below 45g/daily and women keep their sugar intake below 30g/daily.  I would encourage everyone to do their best to keep their intake at or below 50g/daily.  If you choose to make the commitment to decrease your daily sugar intake, do it gradually.  I would suggest you decrease your sugar intake by 10g/daily until you get down to 50g so you are able to adapt to and maintain the change in your diet.  Once you eliminate or decrease the amount of refined sugars in your diet, your body will actually stop craving them!!  You can do it!!

Email me with any questions.  Have a great evening 🙂