Sugar is often called ‘suicide with a spoon’ and is found in foods such as candy, fruit, salt, peanut butter, canned vegetables, bouillon cubes, medicines, toothpaste, vitamins and almost all processed ‘fat-free’ products. Simple sugars have been known to affect asthma, mental illness, personality changes, nervous disorders, heart disease, gallstones, hypertension and arthritis.

Dietary sugar; Glucose, Fructose, Sucrose, Galactose, Maltose and lactose, will usually turn directly into fat because they are digested and absorbed with such speed that the body has no choice but to convert them into saturated fats. These saturated fats are sticky by nature and may clog arteries, increase the chance to stroke diabetes and will most definitely decrease your athletic performance. 

So for each moment of weakness…each time you try to satisfy your sweet tooth, you become fatter. These new fat deposits tend to remain as fat deposits and only starvation (diet) or high calorie expenditure (exercise) can mobilize these new fat deposits and burn them as fuel. 

Constant high levels of simple dietary sugar over stimulate and may burn out a normal pancreas and adrenal functions. The subnormal performance of these two very important endocrine glands can lead to adult-onset diabetes, cardiovascular complications, hypoglycemia and chronic fatigue. 

In terms of athletic performance, high levels of sugar significantly increase blood serum saturated fatty acids, which depresses the oxygen transport system, because the red blood cells stick together and move slower. This delays the delivery of oxygen to you muscle cells. 

Refined dietary sugar lacks vitamins and minerals and must draw upon your micro nutrient stores in order to be metabolized into your system. When these stores are depleted, destabilization of fatty acids and cholesterol is impeded, causing obesity due to higher fatty acid storage and higher cholesterol levels. 

Generally sugar is void of Vitamins and minerals and fibre and has a deteriorating effect on your endocrine system. Because of this, sugar is considered one of the three major causes of degenerative disease. In the past twenty years, sugar consumption has increased from 12 kg. (26 pounds) per person to 61 kg (135 pounds) per person per year. Compare this to the early 1900’s when the average consumption was only 2.2 kg (5 pounds) per person per year. 

Fruit contains sugar, and when drinking fruit juice instead of pop you should realize that sugar behaves the same in your body, no matter how you get it. The fact is one drink is filled with natural sugar and pop has added white sugar. Both have the same effect on your nutritional status. Also the Vitamin C you may receive from fruit juice is so small that it really doesn't compensate for all the sugar you are receiving. So basically fruit juice is the dietary equivalent to soda pop. 

Don't be fooled into thinking you're not eating sugar when your eating or drinking fruit. There are some fruits that are better for you like berries and melons, followed by plums but apples and oranges contain more sugar then some breads, cookies and candy bars. 

The sugars found in fruits are biochemically the same as high fructose corn syrup and sugar cane. When your body is trying to metabolize sugar, it doesn't care if the sugar comes from fruit, fruit juice or ice cream. Remember the nutritional value from eating fruit comes from eating the fibre and pulp not the juice. 

Sugar also appears in foods you may not suspect. So make sure you read food labels and if you see anything that ends in ose. or ol. it may be sugar. 

Here's an interesting fact. Over the last few years Sucrose or cane sugar dropped in consumption from 81 percent to 44 percent of total market share and corn sweetener mainly in the form of high fructose corn syrup has increased from 18 percent of total market share to 55 percent. This change has occurred mainly because of the soft drink industry, because they use the high fructose corn syrup to sweeten their soft drinks.

Sugar is also contained in canned foods such as tomato sauce and baked beans, boxed foods like pilaf mix, crackers and stuffing, meats like frankfurters, lunch meats, pork sausage and hams, and condiments like pickles, mustard, tartar sauce and ketchup. Some ketchup's even contain more sugar than ice cream, 

Have you ever thought about the healthier potato chip that is no longer fried but baked and is low in fat? If you take a close look at the ingredients you'll probably find that they contain corn syrup and dextrose. They've eliminated the fat but they've added sugar so that the chips will taste better. People who have chosen low-fat diets have actually consumed more sugar and therefore more calories. If you think about it, fat holds food together so when it's removed something else must take its' place, and the unfortunate thing is, that they use sugar or an emulsifier made from sugar. 

Here's something else to thing about the next time you think or crave about eating a chocolate bar. Your immune systems main defense is the activity of your white blood cells to remove invaders from your bloodstream in a process known as phagocytosis. One teaspoon of sugar will lower the phagocytic activity by 50 percent. Two teaspoons will lower this factor by 78 percent. Some people may average 33 teaspoons of sugar per day. Just think of what it's doing to your internal systems not to mention the calories.

I know you want to get in shape and look great. Whatever your fitness goal to slim down... gain muscle... tone your arms or flatten your tummy I’m here to help you accomplish your goals and to improve your fitness level. You will learn how to select and combine your diet with exercise, so that you can be the best you can be.

In the book ‘Get Fit, Stay Fit ' there is a great sugar content chart. Check it out. 

Hopefully you will become more aware of your sugar intake and attempt to reduce your daily/weekly intake. It could be as simple as drinking water instead of juice or pop, eliminating sugar in your coffee or tea. Little changes do add up and will make a difference.