How Sugar Destroys Your Body & Kicking the Sugar Addiction

Hey guys, Dr. Josh Axe here. Welcome to Ancient Medicine Today. So excited you're here with me. Today we're going to be talking about the ultimate villain when it comes to food, and that is processed sugar and how that can damage and affect your health.

And I'm going to be talking to you about the right types of sugars, the wrong types of sugar that you want to get in or out of your diet here on a regular basis, and also talk to you about how to kick your sugar addiction.

And hey, help me spread this word because there's a lot of people that are still consuming sugar, many people who don't even realize they're getting excess sugar in their diet, and they need to learn these powerful principles of how to heal the body naturally by getting excess sugar out of the diet. So help me spread this message.

Take a minute right now, punch that share button, click that like button. Let's teach the world how to use food as medicine, and let's dive right in right now and talk about How to destroy your sugar addiction and what sugar does to your body, which it actually destroys some of your organs if you get too much.

So number 1 disease that is related to excess sugar in your body is cardiovascular disease and heart disease. Now typically, when people hear sugar, they tend to think diabetes, right? Excess sugar, diabetes, maybe weight gain, other issues. But think about this, when you consume excess sugar, it will stay in your bloodstream.

Now your bloodstream or your arteries That's part of your cardiovascular system. So that's why sugar can actually cause heart disease over time, heart attacks, high cholesterol, plaquing of your arteries, and high blood pressure. But what happens is if you consume too much sugar, some of it stays in your sugar, hence the name elevated blood sugar is there's excess sugar staying in your blood.

Now, when this happens over time, you have excess sugar in your blood. That sugar, because it's not supposed to be there for a long period of time, will cause inflammation. So anything that's in your bloodstream shouldn't be there, whether it's toxins, bad bacteria, excess sugar, those will cause inflammation. They'll start to cause inflammation of the arteries.

What happens then, that inflammation, imagine acid eating a hole through something, so it starts to damage the arteries, then your liver actually starts producing cholesterol to go and patch and repair the damaged area causing cholesterol to build up over time.

But this may or may not surprise you, but sugar, one of the number one causes today of heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure.

So if you know somebody or love somebody and they're struggling with heart disease-related issues, make sure you tell them, get off the sugar because it's a main causative factor when it comes All right, number 2 here, NAFLD, that's nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Now, we tend to think of the liver and gallbladder as dealing with fat, right? So your liver and gallbladder deal with fat.

Well, as I mentioned earlier in relation to cardiovascular disease, if you consume a lot of sugar, your liver has to continue to produce cholesterol and over time, it can overtax the liver And really, many forms of sugar your body really sees as a toxin.

So your liver is responsible for detoxing not just heavy metals, not just environmental pollutants and pesticides and chemicals and other things, in part it's responsible for dealing with sugar, especially unnatural sugar like high fructose corn syrup, and causes inflammation of your liver.

So non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is really a growing problem, especially in older men, it can be a major issue. Yeah. But it can be an issue in women, even younger people, to where you start building up this excess fat around the liver that will cause disease in the area and affect its function. And your liver, again, is responsible for detoxification, for healing and repair of your arteries.

It's responsible for digestion of fats along with the gallbladder. So it is critical for so many different things. But sugar causes major inflammation of the liver causing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease or liver disease. If you know somebody that's struggling with liver disease, make sure they know, get the sugar out of your diet.

And by the way, if you're with me on this and you know that far too many people are getting excess sugar in their diet, take a minute right now, punch that share button, click that like button. Let's help me spread the word. We are live right now. Leaky gut syndrome. Now, leaky gut is something I actually covered in great detail in my book called Eat Dirt.

Also, I've covered many of these topics on my website, draxe.com. In fact, if you just look up leaky gut online or leaky gut syndrome, you'll probably find some articles I've written on this topic. But leaky gut syndrome is really the root cause of a lot of disease today. You know, if you look back, if you go back over 2,000 years ago, Hippocrates said, all disease begins in the gut.

So if you're a person right now struggling with an issue such as Hashimoto's disease or hypothyroidism, adrenal fatigue, anxiety, depression, children struggling with ADHD, autism, Asperger's syndrome, or a number of other health-related— basic digestive issues today, skin issues like eczema and psoriasis, malabsorption of certain vitamins and minerals, all of these are related to leaky gut.

Now, here's how sugar causes leaky gut. Causes leaky gut. Your body or these microbes that live within your gut, which are really an organ themselves, so you have your gut wall surrounding and living in your entire gut are a lot of microbes.

You've got good bacteria like probiotics, you've got bad bacteria, you've got certain types of fungi and yeasts and different things growing within our system that really should actually help us In digestion and absorption and so many different things.

What happens is if you get too much of a certain type of sugar in your diet, and microbes can feed off many different things, microbes can feed off of different types of sugars, they can feed off of something called, well, certain types of fiber such as soluble fiber, also known as prebiotic fiber or starches. So different microbes like different things.

So Certain more of the beneficial microbes really like to feed off of this type of fiber that's found in things like tigernut flour and potatoes and bananas and things like that. So they'll feed off of soluble fiber. Well, what happens is if you consume too much sugar, that's what yeast and Candida and certain types of microbes love to feed off of.

So if you're getting a lot of sugar in your diet, it will build up lots and lots and lots of yeast and Candida. Right.

Which will then actually cause that whiteness on your tongue, it will cause nutrient malabsorption, and also will actually even produce poisons themselves that will start eating through your gut lining causing leaky gut syndrome, which then can cause a cascade of other diseases and over time even autoimmune disease.

So I know that was kind of a lengthy process I brought you through, but here's the fact. Excess sugar intake, if you're consuming too much sugar Or carbohydrates on a daily basis, it will cause leaky gut syndrome which can cause autoimmune issues, chronic pain and arthritis, even start affecting the brain over time and many other conditions.

So if you really want to heal leaky gut, one of those key steps is get sugar out of the diet. Step 4 here, metabolic diseases. Now this could be many things, oftentimes this is referred to as Syndrome X, prediabetes or diabetes or obesity.

Other endocrine-related diseases as well, but metabolic diseases especially, we'll throw diabetes as part of that or Syndrome X as part of that, can be an issue. So I think that goes without saying, but diabetes is one of the fastest-growing diseases today, especially in kids. In fact, more people are getting it than ever before.

And even certain issues related to dementia, Alzheimer's has even been called Type 3 diabetes, and even been linked to metabolic disease. So really from protecting your brain to your pancreas to all of your organs, you've got to get the excess sugar out of the diet. A few other conditions, now this is a big one, certain types of cancers can be fed by too much sugar consumption in the body.

You know, one of the most popular diets that's growing out there today is the ketogenic diet. Now, the ketogenic diet is where you get rid of the sugar And your body stops burning sugar for energy because you only have about 5% of your diet sugar on that diet and you start eating a lot of fat and small amounts of protein as well.

So really, your diet is almost all fat, some protein, and a very, very small amount of carbohydrates. Maybe it's 80% fat, maybe 15% protein, and 5% carbohydrates. So it's a very low-carb diet.

But what happens is, It turns your body into a fat burner where your body is no longer burning sugar for energy, it's burning ketone bodies or fat for energy, which overall has been proven to potentially benefit patients with cancer, people with Alzheimer's disease, people that want to lose weight very quickly, diabetic patients, and a number of other people who are struggling with issues related to that gut-brain connection or excess body fat there as well.

But certain cancers we know feed off of sugar. So one of the greatest things you can do to fight cancer naturally is get rid of sugar. Now, a small amount of berries, let's say a bowl of blueberries on a daily basis or a cup, that's going to be fine for most people.

But in general, getting rid of all excess sugar, especially processed sugar, one of the number one steps in fighting cancer naturally. By the way, if you've heard of the ketogenic diet or ever done it yourself, hey, let me know that right now on Facebook Live here or YouTube Live. I'd love to hear from you guys if you've done the ketogenic diet.

Also, if you've heard or seen people that have cut sugar out of their diet and it helped them with maybe cancer or lose weight or diabetes or another type of disease, hey, I'd love to hear your comments right now here live. All right, depression. As I talked about earlier, there is this gut-brain connection. 2 Things to consider with excess sugar consumption, one is that affects your hormones.

Insulin spikes. So insulin is a hormone that really helps support your blood sugar. But what happens is you have something in your body called insulin receptor sites. And if you consume too much sugar, you literally start to burn those receptor sites out to where now sugar stays in your bloodstream and you have more of these spikes in blood sugar levels. And you've experienced this, right?

You went and you ate a bunch of carbs and an hour later you were like in this carb coma And exhausted, wiped out, you felt like taking a nap versus, hey, have you ever fasted or, you know, you went and worked out this morning on just eating a real light breakfast on an empty stomach, you were just like completely energized.

Well, one of the things that can be linked to depression clinically, and there are studies on this, is fatigue. If somebody is chronically fatigued or just gets tired or you're experiencing that crash, you can get moody, irritable, have a little anxiety, depression. That's very common when you experience those glucose or sugar spikes there in the body.

So that can be related to depression, as can, as we talked about earlier, leaky gut syndrome. You consume too much sugar, bad microbes or bad bacteria build up in the body, you don't have enough good bacteria. When that happens, you have malabsorption. So you may not be absorbing vitamin B12 right, or magnesium, or vitamins and minerals that actually help support your brain and mood. Yeah.

And also, if you have leaky gut, proteins can circulate causing inflammation of the brain leading to depression as well. So listen, you want to fight depression, one big tip is go sugar-free. All right, let's talk about added sugar aliases, anything ending in -ose. So lactose, that's a sugar from dairy. Galactose is another sugar, sucrose, okay?

Staying away from those -oses is a good idea when it comes to getting rid of sugar. Corn syrup. Now, I want to mention this. Obviously, there's corn syrup, there's high fructose corn syrup. You know, the other thing is just sugar in general. I think that's obvious, but if something says sugar or cane sugar, staying away from that as well in most cases. Also, we've got things on here like nectar.

You know, nectar, that can be different types of honey. The issue today is most honey is not real honey. In fact, 77% of honey you buy in the store has no pollen, no nutrients, it's been highly pasteurized. So now it's going to have an even harder effect on your blood sugar levels. Malt syrup, molasses, I'd even add some other things to here.

Brown rice sugar is another thing a lot of people will do, is a lot of these syrups. Not just that, maple syrup, there's another example. So different types of syrups you'll see here as well. And coconut sugar, and people may say, well, isn't coconut sugar healthier or maple syrup? Yes, they absolutely are, but you want to be careful with all sugar in general. Yeah.

And there are 2 types of sweeteners I'll mention at the end that I think are better than others. Actually, I might add a 3rd one there. So here's the thing is sugar is not evil. It's not the root of all evil. I know there's people out there that promote certain diets that say all sugar is bad all the time. That's simply not true.

But too much sugar absolutely is, and for some people, you may want to go almost sugar-free including low to no fruit for a period of 6 months. Yeah. 30 To 90 days to sort of help your body detox and transform the way your body is functioning like a ketogenic diet.

That's not a good diet to do for years at a time, but for a 30 to 90-day period, it can be absolutely transformative to many people's health. All right. Also, so sugar addiction, let's talk about how do you kick the sugar addiction. One of those keys is balancing out hormones like insulin, ghrelin, and leptin in the body. Number 1 step, get more clean proteins in your diet on a daily basis.

This could be wild-caught fish, grass-fed beef, organic chicken and turkey, organic eggs, bone broth, or a protein powder that comes from bone broth. Those are some of the best foods to kick a sugar addiction. Protein is going to help balance things out. Indulge in fats, avocados, almond butter, as we talked about, wild-caught salmon, olive oil. Different types of nuts and seeds you can snack on.

Load up on the healthy fats every single day, coconut milk products, coconut oil. Indulge in healthy fats. It's key to kicking that sugar addiction. The next thing here is up your fiber intake. Fiber as well will help with balancing out the good bacteria within your colon, which can help fight sugar addiction. So again, more high-fiber foods.

Some of my favorites are berries like raspberries are very, very high in fiber. Yeah. Green leafy vegetables are high, cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cabbage and cauliflower. Avocados are actually not only high in healthy fat but also really high in fiber. So think vegetables, nuts and seeds, and fruit or berries specifically.

Those are going to be your highest fiber foods to get on a daily basis. And then sour foods, embrace the power of sour, you know, whether it's lemons, limes, grapefruits, or grape. Green apples, apple cider vinegar on your food, sauerkraut, you know, doing anything that's sour in nature reduces sweet and sugar cravings.

And I would recommend this, if you want to get rid of sugar addiction, you want to eat a lot of sour and bitter foods. So sour and bitter help reduce those cravings for those sweet foods that so many people have here on a regular basis. So here's what to do instead if you want to kick That sugar addiction.

Number one thing you could switch to is stevia, that's green leaf stevia, doing that in small amounts on a daily basis. Now, I want to mention this, I don't recommend doing stevia in high doses like every meal all day long because your body is expecting something sweet. But doing it subtly on occasion, I think stevia is fine and good. The other one here is switch to Manuka honey.

Now, really just about a loaded teaspoon at a time. And that's the thing here. Listen, sweeteners are meant to be used sparingly as it says in Proverbs in the Bible. Doing some sweeteners like a raw honey, really one of the most natural sweeteners out there, is fine in moderation for most people.

Getting fruit is similar to honey really in terms of what you're getting, or even using dates as a natural sweetener. Dates can be a good sweetener. So again, a little sweetness once a day or twice a day is fine. Yeah. You just don't want to go overboard.

For most of us, we have so many carbs and so much sugar that we are overloading the body causing chronic inflammation that can lead to fatty liver disease, cardiovascular disease, leaky gut, depression, cancer, arthritis, and chronic pain syndromes, and so many other chronic health conditions out there today. So stevia, Manuka honey, probably 2 of the best sweeteners to use on a regular basis.

And again, Manuka honey, just a teaspoon, a small amount there. Is going to be one of the most effective things you can do. So again, as we talked about, here are some things you want to— here are some diseases excess sugar consumption can cause. Here are some things that are hidden sugar sources. And I would also mention white bread, you know, a lot of those, and wheat bread.

Doing too many carbohydrates, remember, those turn into sugar over time. And to kick the addiction, follow these 6 steps as well. And by the way, if you've enjoyed this live training, do me a favor, more people need to know about the damaging side effects. Side effects of excess sugar consumption, even healthy sugar such as cane sugar on a regular basis can even damage your body.

So take a minute right now, punch that share button, click that like button, help me spread the word that food is medicine. And also remember, every week 10:30 a.m., Monday through Thursday Central Time, we're coming to you here with Facebook Live and YouTube Live. So I love that you guys could join me here today and be part of this mission of teaching the world That food is medicine.

Hey, this has been me, Dr. Josh Axe, talking about how sugar destroys your body and some tips to kick the addiction.