There is a very common illness in the UK, and other western countries that (if it’s not looked after properly) causes premature ageing. I’m talking about diabetes.
Diabetes is a condition where a lot of things are going wrong, one of those is that the body is no longer handling sugar properly. As a consequence blood sugar is higher than it should be.
If you are diabetic it is vital to look after yourself and keep your blood sugar as close to normal as possible. If you don’t you leave yourself wide open to a variety of problems, e.g. high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, blindness, loss of limbs and loads of other things.
These all sound like very different things but their cause is the same – damage to the blood vessels, largely caused by persistently high levels of glucose (sugar) in the blood.
You don’t have to have diabetes to succumb to these horrors but they tend to happen to diabetics who don’t look after their diabetes, a lot earlier. And that is because poorly controlled diabetes ages a human body fast, causing things to break down.
So why is this relevant to you if you don’t have diabetes?
Human metabolism has not evolved to eat a lot of food that converts to glucose when it’s digested. When you eat a lot of food that you’re not designed to eat your metabolism suffers which means your health suffers, and your biological age accelerates. Some people look older than they should.
Diabetics, who don’t keep good control, have a metabolism that is spiralling out of control and the damage to their body is led by glucose.
You don’t have to have diabetes to inflict a lower level but similar assault on your body.
If you regularly eat food that is absorbed principally as glucose you are repeatedly causing high spikes of blood sugar. If you’re not diabetic your body will bring your sugar level down. However, while it was high it was damaging you, inflicting assaults to your blood vessels. By doing this you are ageing yourself and inviting an illness associated with age.
All carbohydrates are absorbed as sugar but it’s the refined white stuff that is particularly damaging to your body. This includes sugar and white refined carbs, e.g.:
- White bread
- White rice
- Cakes, biscuits
- Refined breakfast cereals
- Pastries
I’m sorry to say this but, although they are a more natural thing to eat, potatoes do it too.
These foods aren’t naughty because they make you fat, they’re naughty because they can bring your life to a premature end if you eat too many.
Do I ever eat stuff like this? Yes I do. However I don’t do it very often because I know the damage it does to my insides, but I also know I don’t need to be perfect to be really healthy.
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Have an Uber Healthy week
Dr Julie
PS PS Make sure you’re signed up to the newsletter to have a chance of winning a free place on my online weight loss program. The majority of this loss course is focused on improving your metabolism, which is why it helps with a great deal more problems than just excess weight.