food is medicine: lets talk about sugar and chronic illness

If you have a sweet tooth like me you enjoy sweet snack after a savory meal or right before bed. I enjoy ice cream, cheesecake, and chocolate chip cookies to name a few sweets. I also enjoy mother natures sweet tooth such as strawberries, pineapple and bananas. All these foods have sugar in them. But do we know the difference between added and unadded sugar? Those yummy sweets such as ice cream can consume a harmful are high-fructose corn syrup. High-fructose corn syrup is glucose that is turned into fructose. This sugar is high in calories and is also one of the many leading causes to chronic illness. Added sugar can be okay in moderation but too much sugar can cause increased inflammation and a raise in blood pressure. Increase in inflammation from added sugar is what causes obesity and weight gain. So in other words added sugar is a form of processed foods which is another leading cause to chronic illness.

Let’s talk un-added sugars. Along with the processed sugars, natural sugars such as fruit also have fructose and glucose. The difference between the two is that added sugar such as table sugar is a sugar processed to be added into a food. Natural sugar is a sugar that comes from the source you are eating it from such as a strawberry. Natural sugar is considered healthier because it comes from foods that include extra nutrients. Fruits provide vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre and plant chemicals called phytonutrients that help to keep us healthy and protect us from chronic illness. So for the majority of the time choose a pineapple over that ice cream bar. But don’t forget that balance is key and an ice cream every now and then is healthy.