Читать книгу Anti-Inflammatory Diet For Dummies - Artemis Morris - Страница 31

Refined sugar — which has been processed and stripped of all its natural nutrients — is bad for everyone. Unfortunately, that’s also the type of sugar that’s found in almost everything you eat. Refined sugar is much too easy to digest, so it quickly enters the bloodstream and raises blood sugar levels, increasing your risk of diabetes. Eat too much sugar, and you quickly see some symptoms of a suppressed immune system: fatigue, joint pain, confusion, forgetfulness. These symptoms can show up within just a day or two of eating a lot of sugar and yet may not be linked to sugar for years.

Sugar affects the body’s insulin levels and can lead to insulin resistance over time, especially when you take in too much. With insulin resistance, the cells in the body have trouble responding to insulin and taking in glucose (blood sugar); when the glucose level in your bloodstream is elevated, it becomes much harder for your body to work. Obvious symptoms of sugar sensitivity are weight gain and pain in the joints.

Artificial sweeteners often aren’t a good substitute for sugar. Artificial sweeteners increase your cravings for food and increase the risk of diabetes because your brain doesn’t register the artificial sugar is different from the real thing. In many cases, you’re simply replacing one bad thing with another. Instead of using processed sugar cane or sugar beets, you’re consuming the chemicals and preservatives found in sweeteners. We discuss sugar, artificial sweeteners, and natural sweeteners in Chapter 9.

You know caffeine as the chemical you turn to when you need a quick pick-me-up or something to help you wake up in the morning. What you probably don’t think about is the other effects that caffeine has on your body. At the same time caffeine is alerting your senses and awakening your mind, caffeine is creating a small rise in your blood sugar. That’s not a big deal for a lot of people, but for people with diabetes, caffeine can turn a simple can of soda into a somewhat toxic cocktail. Caffeine becomes dangerous because it works to increase insulin resistance. (Note: Interestingly enough, although caffeine may have negative effects on the body’s blood sugar levels, coffee and tea have both been shown to raise insulin sensitivity and lower blood sugar levels.)

Like the taste of that tea but want to lower the caffeine level? Dip the tea bag into hot water once, and then pour the water out. Refill the cup with hot water and continue dipping the teabag. The highest concentration of caffeine comes out with that first dip, so although you’ll still have some caffeine, the level will be lower.