How Grains and Sugar Wreck Your Health

In America, the addiction to bread, French fries, and soda has resulted in an obesity epidemic. It’s not fat that makes people overweight and unhealthy, but the excess carbohydrates from the starch-and-sugar-loaded American diet, Dr. Joseph Mercola points out.

Telltale Signs of Carbohydrate Addiction

We all need a certain amount of carbohydrates. But we’re simply consuming too many grains, sweets, and other starchy and sugary foods. The overconsumption of grains usually causes the following symptoms:

• Bloating
• Brain fogginess
• Depression
• Excess weight
• Fatigue and frequent sleepiness
• High blood pressure
• High triglycerides
• Low blood sugar

Insulin and Illness

Eating any meal or snack high in carbohydrates generates a rapid spike in blood glucose. To compensate for this rise, your pancreas secretes insulin to lower your glucose level. Your capacity to store carbohydrates is limited, Dr. Mercola explains, and insulin converts the excess carbs into fat and stores it in your adipose or fatty tissue.

Insulin, stimulated by the excess carbs, is responsible for bulging stomachs, double chins, and fat rolls on arms and thighs.

High insulin levels suppress two other important hormones – glucagons and growth hormones – that are responsible for burning fat and sugar and promoting muscle development, respectively. In short, insulin from excess carbohydrates promotes fat production and then impairs your body's ability to burn that fat.

The dangers of grains do not end there. Grains contribute to allergies, cause a host of digestive disorders, suppress your immune system, and are associated with many obesity-related chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

Dr. Mercola’s revolutionary book, The No-Grain Diet, will teach you how to reduce grains and sweets from your diet the healthy way. This grain-free diet is not a quick fix to achieve weight loss. The No-Grain Diet is a comprehensive eating plan designed to improve your health by conquering carbohydrate addiction, increasing your energy, optimizing your weight, and more.

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