In modern western society we consume more high-carbohydrate, processed, sugary and sugar-containing foods than at any time in history – and our intake of these foods just keeps on increasing!! We now even have seemingly ‘savoury’ foods being laced with sugar to change their taste so that we will want more and more.
Sugar and other refined carbohydrates appear to be a ‘natural’ source of ‘empty calories’ and are widely regarded as being fairly harmless. They are, however, neither natural or safe in the amounts we are now consuming them.
We have been widely sold the marketing concept that ‘low-fat’ or ‘fat-free’ is good, without realising that these foods are usually high carbohydrate (particularly refined carbohydrates) instead. These high levels of refined carbohydrates break down in our bodies to form sugars. These sugars are then stored as fats because our modern lifestyle is so sedentary that we just aren’t burning off the calories in those carbohydrates with vigorous exercise.
As the trend towards higher sugar intake in our foods increases, so does the evidence that irregularities in our blood sugar levels caused by our diet are both directly and indirectly contributing to serious health concerns such as:
- Diabetes ( both juvenile and mature onset )
- Alzheimers disease and dementia
- Immune dysfunction
- Obesity
- High blood pressure
- Elevated levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol
- Liver damage
- Abnormal hormone function including infertility
- Metabolic changes
- Some mood disorders
At Central Coast Natural Therapies, our “Healthy Blood Sugar” program provides straightforward guidelines that include easy, tasty and healthy food and nutritional strategies as well as lifestyle approaches which will allow you to normalise your blood sugar levels, avoid the risk of major lifestyle illnesses and enjoy great health and vitality.