I was fairly shocked when my early 20's niece had to have her gall bladder removed. Isn't that typically an issue for folks in their 40's, 50's and on? Turns out more and more young people, especially women and even teenagers, are suffering from gallstones. What's going on?
I learned that the primary cause of gallstones is overproduction of cholesterol by the liver, so much so that the gall bladder's supply of bile to break it down runs too low. So the body stores the extra in cholesterol stones. Ouch! (*There are 2 other kinds of stones.)
What do we do to lower cholesterol? The bad-guy foods we're told to limit are typically red meat, fried food, butter, full fat dairy and the like. What if the sum total of all those foods doesn't impact cholesterol nearly as much as one simple ingredient? Shouldn't we focus more on that ingredient? Especially if it's effecting our kids?
The big, baddy we tend to ignore for cholesterol and gall bladder disease is sugar.
"When you eat too much sugar, your liver makes more LDL [bad cholesterol) while lowering the amount of HDL (good cholesterol) in your body..and also leads to more of something called triglycerides, a type of blood fat..." (Sugar and Cholesterol: What's the Link?)
A kitchen regularly stocked with sodas and even fruit juices that are consumed without limits played a big part in my niece's childhood. "American children consume an average of 81 grams of sugar per day, which adds up to more than 65 pounds of added sugar each year! Kids are ingesting more than 30 gallons of added sugars from sweet beverages alone. That's enough to fill a bathtub!"
(Wait! My bath time is using 30 gallons of water??? Squirrel!)
When we consider the increasing rates of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and strokes, the causal link between sugar consumption and cancer, inflammation, lowered immunity and more, why do we keep eating so much of this stuff? We are substance abusers. Addicts looking for our next dopamine hit, and it comes from sugar. But that's a topic for another day.
*The information provided on this site is for educational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical advice.
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Kristin King is a speaker, author, mother of four, indie publisher and master financial coach. Recently she was given permission to reprint the Prism Weight Loss Program curriculum which is available in print and ebook versions here. Kristin regularly facilitates Financial Peace University and Prism Weight Loss classes both in person and virtually.
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