How sweet it is! Why sugar may be killing us slowly.

According to the Canadian Sugar Institute, Canadians consume about 35 kilograms of refined sugar a year from prepared or packaged foods, accounting for more than 19% of calories a day, based on a 2,000-calorie diet. But that's not the whole story: When we add the consumption of other sweeteners, such as honey, maple syrup and corn syrup, the total jumps to over 50 kilograms per year, or about one kilogram per week! While per-capita consumption has grown throughout most of the 20th century, it has apparently leveled off in the last ten years.
So why is this important to you and me? Are excess refined sugar and sweeteners bad for our health?
The answer is clear when we look at an abbreviated list of how sugar and sweeteners can harm the human body; they can:

• Suppress the immune system
• Contribute to hyperactivity, anxiety, depression
• Produce a significant rise in triglycerides
• Contribute to weight gain and obesity
• Reduce helpful high density cholesterol (HDL)
• Promote an elevation of harmful cholesterol (LDL)
• Increase the risk of cardiovascular disease

According to the Canadian Heart & Stroke Foundation, cardiovascular disease accounts for 31% of all deaths in Canada, so it is the last item on this list that we should explore further to understand how our bodies react to the sugars that we consume.
An influx of sugar into the bloodstream upsets the body's blood-sugar balance, triggering the release of insulin, which the body uses to keep blood-sugar at a constant and safe level. Insulin also promotes the storage of fat, so that when you eat foods high in sugar, you're making way for rapid weight gain and elevated triglyceride levels, both of which have been linked to cardiovascular disease.
I can guess that you've always wanted to know how to make sense of this, so let's have a look at the chain of events that I have summarized above:
Step 1: The blood vessel's lining (endothelium) is damaged by unhealthy conditions such as high blood levels of cholesterol or glucose (sugar), high blood pressure, or smoking. For example, excessive blood glucose can result in an excessive amount of glucose adhering to and infiltrating the vessel surface, which also activates the inflammatory response.
Step 2: The intima is the innermost muscular layer of the blood vessel wall. The inflammatory response causing the formation of vascular plaque lesions results in thickenings of the intima.
Step 3: The immune system sends platelets (blood cells that are involved in clotting) and other specialized blood cells to the site of the plaque deposit in the intima.
Step 4: As blood cells and other substances continue to accumulate, the plaque deposit grows bigger and digs deeper into the layers of the vessel wall. More immune cells are drawn to the injured vessel, fueling the inflammation process.
Step 5: Increasing inflammation can cause the plaque deposit to break apart, or rupture.
Step 6: Blood clots form on the ruptured plaque and can block blood flow to or within the heart (causing a heart attack) or brain (causing a stroke).
Now that we understand the process better, what can we do avoid this sometimes fatal chain of events? Just how much sugar is safe to consume?
Nobody really knows, however most nutritionists use 10 - 12% as a rough guide of the maximum percentage of your daily calories coming from sugars and sweeteners. This is roughly half the amount that the average Canadian consumes today.
One simple way of reducing the amount of sugars and sweeteners in your diet is to follow one rule: Avoid eating processed foods. Instead, concentrate on eating lots of fruits, vegetables, legumes, lean meats, fishes and dairy products. You just may discover that healthy foods are naturally very tasty and do not need to be sweetened at all!