Sugar is the primary culprit in the development of hypoglycemia and diabetes. While sugar does provide a temporary boost of energy, eating it too frequently puts tremendous stress on the organs and glands that regulate blood-sugar levels. If you don’t have hypoglycemia or diabetes or if you rarely indulge in sugar, your pancreas can handle occasional sugary treats. But if you frequently eat sugar, your pancreas can become hypersensitive to sugar and overreact, flooding your body with insulin, which causes blood-sugar levels to plummet. This triggers your adrenal glands into action, and they notify your liver to release the glucose that it has stored as emergency fuel, which once again floods your bloodstream with sugar. If this happens too many times, your pancreas can finally give up and stop producing insulin or your cells may become resistant to insulin, and hypoglycemia can slip into diabetes.
Most American women eat about 80 pounds of sugar per year, as well as large amounts of refined carbohydrates such as white flour, which is easily converted into glucose in the body. Even if you don’t add sugar to foods, you can still take in tremendous amounts if your diet contains a lot of prepared foods. Obviously, desserts and sweets are loaded with sugar, but other foods such as salad dressings, pasta sauces, and dry cereals also typically contain large amounts of sugar. Sugar is hidden in foods in many forms and is often used in more than one form in processed foods. To help restore healthy blood-sugar levels, avoid all forms of sugar, including sucrose, glucose, maltose, corn syrup, honey, maple syrup, barley malt, and molasses. Learn to enjoy the unprocessed sweetness of fresh fruits (in moderation) and sweet vegetables such as yams, carrots, and winter squash. Although giving up concentrated sweeteners may be difficult initially, you will find that your cravings for sugar will diminish within a few weeks.
Other foods that interfere with healthy blood-sugar levels include refined carbohydrates such as breads and pastas made from white flour and white rice, all of which are rapidly broken down into simple sugars in the body. Stimulants such as caffeine offer a temporary burst of energy, but stress the adrenal glands and further impair their ability to normalize blood-sugar levels. Alcohol also interferes with blood-sugar stability because it hinders the body’s ability to use glucose and stimulates the release of insulin, which causes blood sugar take a nosedive.
To help maintain steady blood-sugar levels, eat a diet high in fiber, especially soluble fiber, which slows down the digestion and absorption of carbohydrates and prevents rapid increases in blood sugar levels. Soluble fiber keeps the pancreas from secreting too much insulin by enhancing cell sensitivity to insulin and improves the use of glucose by the liver, which prevents blood-sugar levels from remaining too high. Strive for at least 35 grams and preferably 50 grams of fiber each day. Legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, vegetables, and fruits are good sources of fiber, and especially good sources of soluble fiber include legumes, oat bran, most vegetables, apples, and pears. Eat carbohydrates in as close to their natural state as possible, because the fiber content helps to slow the absorption of natural sugars that carbohydrates contain-for example, eat an apple instead of drinking apple juice. Psyllium-seed husks, guar gum, and pectin are excellent sources of supplemental soluble fiber. To help balance blood-sugar levels, take one to three teaspoons of a fiber supplement stirred into a glass of water twice daily before meals.
Protein is essential for the proper functioning of the adrenal glands, pancreas, and liver and prevents cravings for high-carbohydrate foods. Because protein does not stimulate the release of insulin as do carbohydrates, it helps to stabilize blood-sugar levels. For maximum blood-sugar stability, eat three to four ounces of protein at lunch and at dinner. Moderate amounts of healthful fats are also essential for helping to maintain healthy blood-sugar levels and for providing a feeling of satiety, which helps to reduce cravings for carbohydrates. Raw nuts and seeds, avocados, olive oil, and flaxseed oil are all good sources of health-enhancing fats.
Eating frequent small meals is a helpful strategy for stabilizing blood-sugar levels. Avoid skipping meals, or going for more than two to three hours without eating. Get into the habit of eating meals at regular times, because your body functions best on a regular schedule. Plan for three meals a day, plus midmorning, midafternoon, and evening snacks. Include a small amount of protein or fat in your snack to help keep blood sugar stable-for example, have an apple with a few almonds, crackers with tofu spread, or carrot sticks with a few walnuts.
Supplements that are especially helpful for balancing blood sugar include chromium, a trace mineral that is essential for the proper functioning of insulin. Take 200 to 600 micrograms of chromium picolinate daily. To help strengthen the adrenal glands, take 2,000 milligrams of vitamin C daily in divided doses and a high potency multivitamin and mineral that provides 50 to 100 milligrams of the B-complex vitamins.
Krishan Bakhru
http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/how-to-control-bloodsugar-levels-naturally-76980.html
Sodas are the last drink hyperglycemics should pour down their throats
They contain a toxic brew of sugar, caffeine and include tartaric acid, phosphoric acid, artificial flavorings and additives. This toxic mix creates a rush of adrenalin which increases your low blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia).
Drinking sweet carbonated mineral water regularly during the day leads to the body’s check and balance mechanism being unable to pause and work properly. You must not have a constant flow of insulin through your body during the course of your day.
When you repeatedly drink high sugar sodas the body puts out too much insulin and the insulin receptors of the cells lose sensitivity. The result is the pancreas pushes out more insulin. Too much insulin then grabs more glucose out of the bloodstream to send to the cells.
Once too much glucose is taken from the blood, blood sugar levels drop too low and you have hypoglycemia.
But it doesn’t stop there, if you make no lifestyle changes. Eventually insulin receptors are so desensitized that insulin is unable to send glucose into the cells. Your body now has insulin resistance – not something you would want to encourage. If the matter is ignored, eventually you will have an excess of sugar and an almost guaranteed chance of developing type 2 diabetes.
As soon as you understand the serious course hypoglycemia takes, the sooner you will do something about your low blood sugar levels.
It’s your body and only you can make the decision. You will need an understanding of dieting and hypoglycemia that will help you make the changes to your lifestyle. But, above all, you will need information that motivates you to persist in your new lifestyle changes because of the seriousness of where hypoglycemia can lead.
Another problem with carbonated soft drinks is the ratio imbalance of phosphorous to calcium which they create. In the 1950’s the typical American diet was about 3 to 1 instead of 1.5 to 1. But today the ratio has slipped to 5 to 1. This ratio is explained by the huge increase in the volume of sodas drunk.
Because there is no calcium in sodas and the body must maintain a balance between phosphorous and calcium, it leaches calcium from the bones. This decalcification leads to osteoporosis.
Today 10 – 12 million Americans, mainly over 60 years of age, have osteoporosis. This explains the high incidence of broken hip bones and vertebrae.
Another bone softening disease caused by the imbalance of calcium is gum disease.
As soon as you understand the serious course hypoglycemia takes, the sooner you will do something about your low blood sugar levels.
It’s your body and only you can make the decision. You will need an understanding of dieting and hypoglycemia that will help you make the changes to your lifestyle. But, above all, you will need information that motivates you to persist in your new lifestyle changes because of the seriousness of where hypoglycemia can lead.
Noel Glass
http://www.articlesbase.com/fitness-articles/hypoglycemia-and-sodas-hidden-rush-of-sugar-736506.html
Sodas are the last drink hyperglycemics should pour down their throats
They contain a toxic brew of sugar, caffeine and include tartaric acid, phosphoric acid, artificial flavorings and additives. This toxic mix creates a rush of adrenalin which increases your low blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia).
Drinking sweet carbonated mineral water regularly during the day leads to the body’s check and balance mechanism being unable to pause and work properly. You must not have a constant flow of insulin through your body during the course of your day.
When you repeatedly drink high sugar sodas the body puts out too much insulin and the insulin receptors of the cells lose sensitivity. The result is the pancreas pushes out more insulin. Too much insulin then grabs more glucose out of the bloodstream to send to the cells.
Once too much glucose is taken from the blood, blood sugar levels drop too low and you have hypoglycemia.
But it doesn’t stop there, if you make no lifestyle changes. Eventually insulin receptors are so desensitized that insulin is unable to send glucose into the cells. Your body now has insulin resistance – not something you would want to encourage. If the matter is ignored, eventually you will have an excess of sugar and an almost guaranteed chance of developing type 2 diabetes.
As soon as you understand the serious course hypoglycemia takes, the sooner you will do something about your low blood sugar levels.
It’s your body and only you can make the decision. You will need an understanding of dieting and hypoglycemia that will help you make the changes to your lifestyle. But, above all, you will need information that motivates you to persist in your new lifestyle changes because of the seriousness of where hypoglycemia can lead.
Another problem with carbonated soft drinks is the ratio imbalance of phosphorous to calcium which they create. In the 1950’s the typical American diet was about 3 to 1 instead of 1.5 to 1. But today the ratio has slipped to 5 to 1. This ratio is explained by the huge increase in the volume of sodas drunk.
Because there is no calcium in sodas and the body must maintain a balance between phosphorous and calcium, it leaches calcium from the bones. This decalcification leads to osteoporosis.
Today 10 – 12 million Americans, mainly over 60 years of age, have osteoporosis. This explains the high incidence of broken hip bones and vertebrae.
Another bone softening disease caused by the imbalance of calcium is gum disease.
As soon as you understand the serious course hypoglycemia takes, the sooner you will do something about your low blood sugar levels.
It’s your body and only you can make the decision. You will need an understanding of dieting and hypoglycemia that will help you make the changes to your lifestyle. But, above all, you will need information that motivates you to persist in your new lifestyle changes because of the seriousness of where hypoglycemia can lead.
Noel Glass
http://www.articlesbase.com/fitness-articles/hypoglycemia-and-sodas-hidden-rush-of-sugar-736506.html
Vitamin B-3, also called niacin, is one of the eight water-soluble B complex vitamins. Niacin is required by all living cells, as it helps in the release of energy from carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Niacin is also required for the synthesis of amino acids and fat needed for nucleic acid formation.
This vitamin is different from the other vitamins of the B-complex group, because an essential amino acid, tryptophan serves as its precursor.
Niacin is a major component of the coenzymes – nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP). These compounds help remove hydrogen atoms during organic reactions in the body.
Since it is a water-soluble vitamin, niacin is absorbed by the intestine; but very little is stored in the body and any excess of the vitamin which is not used by the body is excreted in the urine. Therefore,
it becomes very important to include a regular source of Vitamin B3 through daily dietary sources.
Benefits of Vitamin B-3:
* Niacin plays an important role in helping the body get rid of toxic and harmful chemicals.
* Niacin promotes insulin secretion and increases insulin sensitivity. This is found to be quite effective
in stabilizing blood sugar levels and preventing the advance of type I diabetes in some patients, if niacin supplements are given early enough at the onset of diabetes.
* Vitamin B3 required for the production of genetic material in our cells, called deoxyribo nucleic acid (DNA). Deficiency of vitamin B3 has been directly linked to genetic harm.
* It also assists the body manufacture various sex and stress-related hormones in the adrenal glands and other related parts of the body.
* Vitamin B3 is useful in improving blood circulation, and helps reduce cholesterol levels in the blood.
* Vitamin B3 is important for converting protein, fat and carbohydrates into energy.
* It helps the proper functioning of the digestive system and promotes healthy skin, hair and nerves.
Vitamin B3 deficiency symptoms –
Early symptoms of deficiency include:
· Muscular pain
· Skin eruptions, including wrinkles, rashes, dry and coarse scaly skin in areas exposed to sunlight
· Indigestion
· Anorexia – loss of hunger
· Headaches and body aches
· Swollen, red tongue
· General tiredness
· Mood swings along with irritability
· Dizziness
· Nausea and vomiting
· Dementia
· Death in very severe cases
Consequences of Vitamin B3 deficiency –
Severe deficiency of niacin commonly leads to pellagra – typical symptoms include dermatitis, old age dementia, fits, sore tongue and diarrohea. In some people, the skin becomes scaly, cracked and pigmented in those parts exposed to sunlight. Eruptions can appear in the skin leading to mental confusion and stupefaction. Inflammation of the mucous membranes of the mouth and digestive abnormalities also develop in niacin deficiency.
Inadequate intake of iron and vitamins B2 and B6 increase the risk of niacin deficiency.
Dosage of Vitamin B3 –
Vitamin B3 requirements are affected by many factors such as age, body size, level of physical activity, any major illness, pregnancy and lactation. The daily allowance of vitamin B3 should be based on caloric intake. Tryptophan is an amino acid that serves as a Vitamin B3 equivalent.
The Recommended Daily Allowance for women is around 15 milligrams each day and for men, it is around 15 to 19 milligrams each day. RDA for children – 13 mg and RDA for infants – 6 mg.
Extreme high doses of niacin can cause niacin maculopathy, a thickening of the macula and the retina, which leads to blurred vision and blindness.
What foods are high in vitamin B3?
The body’s niacin requirement can be met to a large extent by eating protein rich foods because the human body can easily convert tryptophan, an amino acid, into niacin.
Dietary sources which are rich in Vitamin B3 include -
· Meat, poultry, fish
· Peanuts, dried nuts
· Milk and eggs contain small amounts, but are excellent sources of tryptophan, which is converted in
the body into niacin.
· Sunflower seeds
· Dairy products including cottage cheese
· Vegetable sources include the husk of cereals, green vegetables, peas, beans, tomatoes etc.
Storage of Vitamin B3 –
Vitamin B3 is one of the more stable water-soluble vitamins and is minimally prone to damage by air, light, and heat.
However, it is better to keep the vitamin away from strong light. If on vitamin B3 supplements, store them at room temperature in a dry place that is free of moisture.
Who are more vulnerable to Vitamin B3 deficiency?
People with chronic intestinal problems, including diarrohea, inflammatory/irritable bowel disease, alcoholics, people with poor protein intake – in these group of people Vitamin B3 deficiency can be triggered very easily.
A word of caution for people planning to take Vitamin B3 supplement –
Do not take B3 supplements on your own if you:
· Are allergic to niacin or any other niacin containing vitamin supplement.
· Suffering from restricted liver function.
· People with peptic ulcer.
· Diabetes.
· Gallbladder malfunctioning
Tom alter
http://www.articlesbase.com/supplements-and-vitamins-articles/vitamin-b3-sources-benefits-and-deficiency-104065.html
For most of the history of humanity man ate a diet of wild game and natural vegetation including some seeds, nuts, and fruit during certain sea-sons. In our era, with the advent of processed foods, mankind’s diet has undergone a radical change. People are eating foods that never existed in nature before, foods which the body was never designed to utilize. The result is that the heavy consumption of refined sugar, and refined flour products too, has led to serious health problems for those who regularly eat them. Today 65% of Americans are overweight, and 27% are clinically obese. Even children are starting to show more and more symptoms of this growing health problem. Diabetes is starting to appear more frequently in the very young. When we look at the diet of the typical American, it is easy to see how this has happened. The average American each year consumes 125 pounds of sugar in the form of 300 cans of soda, 200 sticks of gum, 18 pounds of candy, 50 pounds of cakes and cookies and 20 gallons of ice cream. I want to make clear just how much sugar is found in the sodas people are drinking each day. There are 7 to 8 teaspoons of sugar in some form, in the average soda drink. If you have a soda at lunch, one as a snack in the afternoon, one with your dinner, and one as you watch TV or go out for a final snack later in the night, you have consumed 28 spoonfuls of sugar.
Americans are also consuming too many foods which are made from highly refined flour, which act just like sugar in the body, such as pasta, bread and cookies and cakes. In addition to all the many obvious sources of sugar in the typical American diet, sugar is used as an inexpensive additive to improve the taste of many items in which the producers in order to increase profits use cheaper inferior ingredients or use less expensive ingredients. Among these items, you may have guessed, because they taste so sweet, are ketchup, and jams and jellies, which really should have no added sugar and should be made primarily from the fruit. Fruit flavored drinks and fruit flavored yogurts, and especially, sweetened canned fruit have unnecessarily large amounts of sugar in some form in them. But it is also surprising how much sugar, unhealthy sugar, is found in items like peanut butters, bread, soups, pickles, mustard, canned dishes like baked beans, and salad dressings. Even American’s general idea of proper cui-sine contributes to this problem. Making potatoes a staple at almost every meal has been an additional negative health factor. Potatoes, among all other vegetables, are the one of the most likely to affect the body in the same way as refined sugar.
A surfeit of carbohydrates in any form will lead to gaining weight and eventual obesity, but it is sugar in all its forms, and refined flour in our diets that do the most harm. They lead to a fast rise in blood sugar, which causes the pancreas to produce a large amount of insulin to lower our blood sugar quickly, because high blood sugar is dangerous to our health. Unfortunately, this strong dose of insulin makes the blood sugar drop below our normal level and makes us feel down in mood. In order to compensate for this psychological effect, we are driven by cravings to seek an immediate repeat of our ingestion of sugar to again raise our blood sugar to make ourselves feel better, and so the cycle continues on and on. This results in our taking in more calories than are necessary to supply energy to the body. The end result is overweight and eventual obesity. The high amounts of insulin also have other deleterious effects.
They make the insulin receptors become less and less sensitive, requiring the pancreas to produce larger and larger amounts of insulin each time, to deal with same amount of high incoming sugar. Eventually the receptors become very insensitive to the incoming insulin, and the person has developed a condition referred to as insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance aggravates another problem which results from the production of insulin in the body. When insulin in the body is high, another hormone called glucagon is low. Glucagon is a hormone which promotes the release and utilization of fat from the fat storage cells for energy. So that when glucagon is present, you will be burning and thus reducing your fat stores. In other words, you will be losing weight and the weight will be a loss of fat. However, the high level of insulin in insulin resistant people keeps them from burning any of their fat stores. They can only burn incoming sugar and carbohydrates, and when they are depleted, they will begin to break down and use muscle tissue as a source of energy. This is, again, because the insulin has blocked getting access to the body’s fat by blocking the production of the necessary hormone, glucagon. Now you understand why people who have eaten a lot of sugar, and sugar acting foods like refined flour and grains, and potatoes, in their life all the time have had trouble losing weight, or permanently keeping off any weight they have lost through extreme measures like very strict diets or fasting.
Eventually people on these refined high carbohydrate diets exhaust their pancreas, which stops generating any insulin at all, and they become diabetic, and must take insulin regularly to keep their blood sugar from staying at dangerously high levels.
There is another serious problem with too much sugar, sugar addiction. For many years people have spoken of sugar addiction because of the seemingly addictive behavior of people who have a strong desire for foods with sugar. However, it is only recently that it has been scientifically been shown to be a genuine addiction. Rats fed sugar showed classic signs of withdrawal when their sugar “fix” was taken away from them. When they were allowed to eat sugar again, they binged on it. The sugar had triggered natural pleasure producing opiods in their brains. The effect is similar to morphine and heroin, though not as powerful. Actual studies of these animals’ brains showed an accelerated growth of dopamine receptors in the nucleus accumbens in their brains. This helps explain why people who eat sugar regularly, have strong cravings and seek a sugar “fix” many times throughout their day.
You are probably addicted to sugar if you have the following: if you have cravings for food containing sugar, if you can’t stop eating after one piece of candy or one bite of cake or other baked goods; if you can’t go for more than a few hours without experiencing a letdown with fatigue or irritability or anxiety; if you have to have your sugared coffee and donuts or other baked goods every morning and have and eat candy and other sweets in your home all the time; if you regularly drink sugared sodas during the day to give yourself a pick-me-up because you’re dragging.
Nutritionally, refined sugars present another problem. It takes vitamins and minerals to digest and assimilate ingested refined sugars. Unprocessed sugar cane juice is rich in vitamins and minerals and provides some nourishment to the body, though it is still too high in sugar to be good for the body. But refined sugar is an empty calorie, which uses up valuable vitamins and minerals in order to be digested without supplying any of them. Thus, eating a lot of refined sugars depletes the body of these valuable health promoting factors. That’s why, you now can understand, even overweight people who have become so because of large amounts of sugar in their diets, can actually suffer from malnutrition.
Here’s a list of some of the negative health effects of sugar, and the refined flour products and potatoes that act like sugar within the body. Sugar can:
… cause an increase in insulin being generated in the body
… cause an increase in insulin sensitivity
… overstress the pancreas causing damage
… cause diabetes … cause weight gain and obesity
… produce a significant rise in triglycerides
… reduce helpful high density cholesterol, known as HDLs
… promote an elevation of harmful cholesterol, know as LDLs
… increase total cholesterol
… cause atherosclerosis
… increase systolic pressure
… cause hypertension
… upset the body’s mineral balance
… promote tooth decay
… cause hyperactivity, anxiety, concentration difficulties, and crankiness
in children
… lead to alcoholism
… cause depression
If you are seriously craving sugar, you should avoid all sugars. The following is a list of sugars and sweeteners that act like sugars, though you may not have recognized them as sugars before reading this article. Of course, if a label just says “sugar,” you will avoid that too!
AVOID THESE SWEETENERS: corn syrup, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, honey, sucrose, maltodextrin, dextrose, molasses, rice milk, almond milk, white grape juice, fruit juice sweetened, brown rice syrup, maple syrup, date sugar, cane sugar, corn sugar, beet sugar, succanat and lactose.
There are many other points to be made if one wishes to guide oneself correctly. Raw sugar and brown sugar, which was at one time sold in a lot of health food stores and still may be found in some supermarkets, is actually highly refined white sugar with some molasses put back in to give it brown color. Fructose doesn’t increase leptin, a hormone that decreases your appetite, and doesn’t suppress ghrelin, the hormone that makes you hungry. Thus, people who eat food containing fructose are likely to take in more calories, not less. And remember, almost all simple sugars, fructose included, and not just refined white sugar, are metabolized quickly and raise insulin levels too quickly. Just like refined white sugar, they play a role in creating insulin resistance. In addition, fructose is converted into triglycerides more efficiently than glucose elevating triglycerides that are linked to an increased risk of heart disease. Fructose converts to fat more readily than any other sugar, and some believe its prevalence in our present food supply has made it an important factor in making Americans fatter and fatter.
Eating small amounts of fruit will not provide unhealthy large amounts of natural fructose, but fruit juices are best avoided as being too high in fructose for the body to assimilate without generating too much insulin. Aside from limited amounts of fruit, avoid fructose in food just as you would table sugar. One of the best ways to limit your intake of fructose, in general, is to eliminate soda and fruit juices from your diet.
Most artificial sweeteners are increasingly considered to be unhealthy for the body. Aspartame is the technical name for the brand names NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Equal-Measure. Aspartame, which is frequently found in diet sodas, accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA. Many of these reactions are very serious. In addition, Aspartame suppresses serotonin production, the chemical in the brain that contributes to your feeling satisfied after a meal. The end result from ingesting Aspartame, just as it was from people eating fructose, is that people are less satisfied with their food and tend to eat more. Diet sodas may actually be increasing your total intake of calories.
Finally, artificial sweeteners in general, just like real sugar, give you an intense experience of tasting something sweet, which psychologically stimulates cravings to consume even more sweet tasting things.
In general, you will be better off health wise if you only buy products that say “no sugar added.” Jams should say fruit only. Often fruit juices are added to the food item, but don’t be fooled, this is an unhealthy form of concentrated sugar too, even though it is originally from fruit. And remember, cocaine and heroine are derived from natural sources, but no one would say they are good for your health. A lot of poisons start out as plant material too. So do not be fooled by people who insist certain sugars are healthy because they are made from natural sources.
YOU ARE READY TO GET HEALTHIER AND FEEL BETTER
Always keep in mind
Sugar is nutritionally worthless and is full of fattening calories Sugar creates cycles of emotional highs and lows, and is chemically additive Sugar is very bad for your body’s health
READ FOOD LABELS
If sugar appears in the ingredients in the first few listed items:
DO NOT EAT THAT PRODUCT
Always keep in mind except for occasional fruit, it is best if you avoid eating any sugar at all.
Many people are addicted to sugar and should avoid all sugars permanently for optimal health.
And remember refined flour products in bread, bagels, pasta, and cookies and cakes, act just like sugar in your body, as do potatoes and potato products too.
We must eliminate refined food products from our diets and choose carefully, selecting high-fiber, non-starchy vegetables as our carbohydrate choices. In this way, we generate less insulin and avoid any insulin resistance and the adverse health effects that result. Remember, even fruits that are relatively low in carbohydrates will generate some insulin in the body to deal with the sugars they contain. Since one of the goals of low-carb eating is to generate as little insulin as possible, enjoy eating fresh fruit, in reasonable moderate amounts. On the other hand, dried fruits should be much more limited because they have a high concentration of sugars. And remember, as noted above, fruit juices are too high in sugars to be appropriate for a low insulin generating diet. Berries, on the other hand, are a good choice.
Jeffrey Rose
http://www.articlesbase.com/nutrition-articles/sugar-and-health-64562.html