Here is the headline:

Cutting Sugar Improves Children’s Health in Just 10 Days

“This paper says we can turn a child’s metabolic health around in 10 days without changing calories and without changing weight – just by taking the added sugars out of their diet,” he said. “From a clinical standpoint, from a health care standpoint, that’s very important.”

Folks, there is nothing special about kids, as far as this is concerned. In this study they took the sugar out of the diet, and that was all. They made sure the calories were the same, and they did not cut out all carbs, just sugar. Despite that, the biochemical markers they check to see if metabolic health has improved all were improved.

On average, the subjects’ LDL cholesterol, the kind implicated in heart disease, fell by 10 points. Their diastolic blood pressure fell five points. Their triglycerides, a type of fat that travels in the blood and contributes to heart disease, dropped 33 points. And their fasting blood sugar and insulin levels – indicators of their diabetes risk – likewise markedly improved.

The NIH only had enough money to run this test nine days. In my own experience after only about a week off of sugar I experience big changes in my body. My emotions are more stable and I can do finer work without a hint of hand tremor, despite the fact that I drink four cups of coffee each morning. I used to blame the coffee for my shakes.

When I have been off sugar for a while and then eat too much this is what happens to me:

1. My heart begins to hammer enough that I can tell it is doing so
2. I get a buzzing feeling all over my body as the chemicals enter my veins
3. I sweat, a little at first, but if I keep eating sugar I will sweat quite a bit
4. I toss and turn in bed and may get bed sweats

This all happens after what most people would consider not too much sugar. It happened to me last night and all I had was three single Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and some popcorn while I watched the World Series. (Go Royals) I did not drink any sweetened drinks. Oh yeah, did have two slices of pizza and ate the bready crusts. Had the typical sugar rush, sweats, jitters.

As important as children are in all of our lives, each of us, individually, is the most important person in our lives. If this study proves anything, it is that sugar is bad for you. It is very damaging to eat sugar in every bite of food you eat. Since eight out of ten processed foods contain added sugar, then it would seem that we should not eat processed foods. We should not drink sweetened drinks, including fruit juices. Sugar is sugar. There is no ‘healthy’ sugar, including honey, or agave, or….any other sweetener.

Save the sugar for dessert. The occasional treat did not hurt your parents or grandparents. The constant eating of sweets may have killed someone in your family with diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure. It does not have to kill you. Only nine days away from it leads too markedly better health. Keep that in mind. Go a week between sugar doses and you will live a mostly healthy life.

Don’t wait for the government to act. Do it for you. Do it for the kids.