Sugar Smashes Arthritis. But I don’t mean in a good way! Sugar is all over the media at the moment and it has plenty of bad press. Well here is a bit more info putting sugar in it’s dirty place of ill repute…
Well kind of, I am certainly not part of the complete anti-sugar brigade. While I acknowledge that there are certain effects of too much sugar, I also believe that sugar fits into the whole idea of ‘balance’. After all, sugar naturally occurs in fruit, milk and plants. So to advocate that we should have no sugar would really be rather ignoring how nature exists and functions. To me that is illogical and in a sense also rather arrogant.
Well if Sugar ‘smashes’ arthritis then why are you saying it is not all bad?
In my opinion it is all about balance. In the western world we seem to have gotten the balance all out of whack. I watched Jamie Oliver’s feature on sugar a few weeks back. In the UK they recommend something like 7 tsp of sugar a day as the amount of added sugars we should consume as a daily intake. The breakfast cereal (allegedly ‘healthy’ bran flake type of cereal) that Jamie demonstrated had about all of that sugar in 1 serving! That was before the orange juice (loaded with sugar) was even included! Let alone any of the rest of the days food!
How can sugar affect arthritis
Sugar (especially refined sugar) is highly acid forming and this can really irritate anything that is already inflamed or not functioning well in the body.
Furthermore sugar can affect muscle tension and trigger points within-in muscle. If you have read any of my other blogs you may have noticed that the muscles in arthritis can be a major player and in many cases is the worst part of the problem with pain and stiffness. So anything that can increase muscle tension can irritate the muscle and hence the joint pain and stiffness.
So there you have it, sugar can directly affect arthritis not just through it’s affects on you internal chemistry but also via its affect on the muscles!
A great tip to see the affects of sugar on your health is to remove it (or at least all foods with added sugar) from your diet for 1 month and closely keep a diary of the changes in your health. You may just be amazed at the benefits.
Go on… it’s only 1 month out of your whole life!