Summary of why sugar is bad for you

"It makes you fat. It is converted directly to fat by your liver and it destroys your appetite control so that you want to eat more of everything. The more sugar you eat, the fatter you will be."
Further info summarised from 'The Sweet Poison Quit Plan':

• It's as addictive as nicotine ie highly addictive yet eating is not optional like smoking is, essentially. You don't just get to stop this substance that is killing us in multiple ways.
• Sugar is everywhere, in most products (even savoury ones) yet the number of overweight people in the population has doubled in just five decades.
• We are told to eat sugar in moderation but this is too difficult for those addicted, which is most of us. Rats fed sugar developed heart disease, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and testicular atrophy.
• Fructose doesn't trip our appetite control switch so our bodies do not detect it as food. Our livers convert it immediately to fat. We eat so much fructose these days that the fat levels in our arteries is too high, triggering hormones like insulin etc, switching that appetite control system at half-off. So not only is fructose undetected and turned to fat, it actually increases the amount of other food we eat. Insulin-resistance is the first stage of type 2 diabetes, affecting about 40% of the population.
• Very strong relationship between type 2 diabetes and dementia. Even early dementia (15,000 Australians under age 65 now have dementia). The longer you have had diabetes (or insulin-resistance), the more likely you are to develop it.
• It also impairs cognitive function. The higher the blood sugar level, the lower the score on all tests, in testing. One per cent rise in blood sugar takes you two whole years closer to dementia.
• Fructose effects on the body:

1. Mineral depletion. Interferes with copper metabolism which affects collagen and elastin duties resulting in impaired muscle growth and problems with vein and artery wall formation (leading to varicose veins). Prematurely ages skin. Inhibits absorption of iodine which can lead to enlarged thyroid gland, cretinism in unborn children. Iodine is also important when breastfeeding for babies brain development.
2. Blood triglyceride elevation which is perfect environment for cancer growth. Strongly associated with depression, anxiety, polycystic ovary syndrome and dementia. Sustained levels of cholesterol increasing heart disease and stroke.
3. Cortisol elevation meaning depression of the immune system making us more prone to contracting disease. Let breast cancer patients be more vulnerable to both their tumours and outside infection.
4. Uric acid elevation. This can elevate blood pressure (hypertension), and lead to gout, kidney disease, and affect erectile function.
5. Central adiposity. Fat increases around primary organs leading to fatty liver disease and ultimately to cirrhosis of the liver and liver failure.

• After a dose of fructose, there is a definite dip in the ability of white blood cells to fight infection, reducing the effectiveness of the immune system by 50% in the first hour, taking 5 hours to get back to almost normal. Besides running your immune system permanently at half-mast, this constant fructose infusion creates the building blocks for chemical addiction.