The truth is that our bodies need carbohydrates. They are our chief source of energy.

The good carbs you need are found in fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes, and tubers. These make up nature’s energy food. The carbs you want to avoid are the ones packed with sugar and refined flour. Items such as refined bread, soft drinks, and processed food will sabotage your health.

Not only that, but when you combine sugary carbs with other foods, it can be a digestive nightmare. For instance, when you eat a hamburger with the bun, the sugar in the bread that normally would pass right through your stomach, gets held up while the meat and bread are broken down.

Of course, the stomach then tries to break down the sugar too, but it can’t. This leads to the ripple effect of your body drawing on other resources to help digest the sugar – ultimately causing energy levels to plummet, fat to accumulate, and an overall chemical imbalance.

And yet because sugar is so addictive, your body continues to crave it so right after you eat a heavy carbohydrate meal, you’re soon hungry for a sugary cookie, bag of pretzels, or sugary soda.

Believe it or not, the average person consumes 115 to 160 pounds of sugar per year! And according to a recent study, kids today eat as much as 45 teaspoons a day! How is it possible to eat that much sugar?

Because it’s in almost everything you eat . . . including foods that are NOT sweet. That’s right. Open your food pantry and pull out the peanut butter, pasta sauces, canned vegetables, boxed dinners . . . even table salt! All of these have sugar and not because it’s required but rather because the food companies know you’re addicted to it. And the more addicted you become to sugar, the more likely it is that you’ll reach for their product.

Far-fetched? Not at all . . . here are some surprising sugar facts . . .

• A small bottle of orange juice has 10.5 teaspoons of sugar.
• Up to 50% of the ingredients of breakfast cereals are made up of sugar.
• An innocent bowl of tomato soup can contain 8 teaspoons of sugar.
• A 2/3 cup of fruit-flavored yogurt is loaded with 7 teaspoons of sugar. Other sugar-containing foods include white flour, commercial vegetables oils, hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetables oils, MSG, and canned and bottled juice.

By the way, do you know how much sugar health authorities recommend as an absolute maximum limit per day? Only 10 teaspoons. (There goes that daily cup of orange juice.)

When you’re done, you’ll probably be looking at a very bare cupboard. And that’s good. Because it’s time to turn the ship around and sail for healthier shores. It’s time to give your body the food it was designed to thrive on.

Did you know that just two teaspoons of sugar can create a chain reaction that spirals your body into utter chemical imbalance?

Many health experts consider white sugar to be second in place to poison. Sugarcane is natural, but white sugar that has been refined is not. The end result – sucrose – has actually had all of its vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients literally stripped away from it. What is left is an unnatural substance that has no nutrient contribution to our bodies other than providing us with some quick and easily absorbed simple carbohydrates.

In order for our bodies to process sugar, it has to rob our reserves of vitamins and minerals. This means sugar is not just an empty calorie substance . . . it’s a sub-zero calorie substance. And this can have devastating effects on your body.

For instance, when our bodies look for nutrients to steal, it targets key minerals such as calcium from the bones and teeth. And since calcium is the primary mineral used to neutralize high acid in the cells, we could be left with “toxic” minerals, because there’s not enough calcium to fight them off. And it gets worse: This can also lead to calcium becoming toxic resulting in plaque on the teeth, osteoporosis and arthritis, kidney stones, and even hardening of the arteries.

As if that’s not bad enough, the raiding of vital nutrients in order to process sugar can lead to our bodies becoming acidic. In other words… sugar can alter our entire blood chemistry; hence the finding that just two teaspoons of sugar can throw off your chemical balance.

The chain reaction continues . . . when minerals decrease because your body is out of balance, critical enzymes are unable to do their job, which means food is not digested properly. If any of this food gets into the bloodstream, it can cause your immune system to go into action, fighting off this “foreign” substance. That means your immune system is busy fighting elsewhere when it’s needed to ward off diseases.

All of this from just two teaspoons of sugar. Just imagine the chaos when you give in to a craving for cookies or ice cream or doughnuts. If you consider that you may be swallowing the recipe for everything from diabetes to kidney stones, yeast infections, headaches, arthritis or allergies, you might turn down that slice of chocolate cream pie.

These empty calories create a total imbalance in the body. Here’s what happens: First the body goes into a “sugar shock” spiking insulin levels and creating a brief energy rush. After the body recovers from the shock, it starts working furiously to recover its internal balance by:

• Tapping mineral reserves. Sodium, potassium, and magnesium are diverted from organs and systems that need them in order to replace the empty calories. That’s assuming you have enough of those minerals in the first place. The result? Energy crash and weakened defenses.
• Weakening your bones and teeth. High sugar intake can lead to an overly acidic body. The body will try to balance the acid/alkaline levels by stripping calcium from the bones and teeth.
• Impairing organ function. Most people know that consuming too much sugar leads to fat build up in the belly, hips, buttocks, and breasts. What you might not know is that once those areas are filled up, the liver starts depositing fat around vital organs like the heart and kidneys. Not only can this lead to high blood pressure, but also can result in damaging brain function!
• A non-functioning dull brain. Even in the short term, your brain is affected by sugar. In fact, you’ll feel the effects right away. Sugar dulls your brain, so you’ll feel sleepy. You’ll probably also find yourself forgetting things or having trouble making simple calculations. That’s because the brain needs glutamic acid to function properly. B vitamins help glutamic acid; a vital compound found in many vegetables that divides the brain’s stop and go responses. Unfortunately, eating refined sugar daily kills off the symbiotic, or “good,” bacteria living in your intestines. It this kind of bacteria that is responsible for producing extra B vitamins.