The Fountain of Youth is the legendary spring who promises to restore youth to anyone who drinks its water. The story of this special fountain has been told for thousands of years. Unfortunately, there really isn’t a Fountain of Youth..but there is the one way to easily age younger.

The main cause of faster aging is sugar. Why? Sugar causes inflammation and Inflammation is your first-class ticket to faster aging and age-related diseases. Inflammation is usually associated with heat, swelling, redness and pain in the body. Sugar is insidious because it creates another type of inflammation called “Silent Inflammation” and this only means it is wreaking havoc on your body 24 hours a day and you do not even know it because you cannot necessarily feel it. Once you feel symptoms..you are well on your way to faster aging, chronic disease and more.

Ingesting sugar may seem like a benign action to you because the effects are not immediately felt. Sugar’s wrath is cumulative. I promise you, if you felt pain every time you ingested it..you wouldn’t touch the stuff. So the goal then is to place yourself in the future and envision what your physical health, your skin, your body may be like 5 years down the road if you keep consuming sugar. Ask yourself: “Am I willing to live with the lack of health, the challenging aging body and even the outward signs of faster aging such as sagging and wrinkled skin that the ingestion of sugar can inflict?”

Do you know that the average American eats over 141 lbs. of sugar a year or almost 12 pounds a month? This non-nutrient called ‘sugar’ is doing its damage unbeknown to most individuals. There is a process that occurs when sugar is eaten called “Glycation.” Glycated tissue is tough and inflexible, leading to wrinkling not only of the skin, but also of important internal organs. This process happens because we all have proteins and sugars circulating throughout our bodies. When sugar and proteins combine, a chemical reaction occurs that creates production of a class of molecules called “advanced glycation end products” (AGEs). If aging is to be minimized, then glycation must be dramatically reduced.

The formation of AGEs Advanced Glycation End-Products (named partially for their contribution to the aging process) takes place in your body in a process called caramelization. Caramelization is what happens to create those crispy browned potatoes on the stove, crispy fried chicken or that crispy browned steak on the grill. That same process is happening in our bodies due to the ingestion of sugar. By the way, sugar is often added to products such as french fries and baked goods to enhance browning! Just like those crispy browned potatoes, our bodily tissues are affected in the same way leaving us with faster aging, disease and symptoms.

And it’s not just white table sugar. There are many different types of sugar to be on the lookout for such as: brown sugar, fructose, honey, maple syrup, high fructose corn syrup, and any ingredient ending in ‘ose’ such as glucose, lactose, dextrose, etc.

The good news is that by being sugar smart you can dramatically slow down the aging process, prevent most illness and chronic disease.