What is a favorite flavor, is in almost everything we eat, is difficult to resist, yet is poison to our body? If you guessed sugar, you were right! One of the most difficult things to resist, especially around the holidays, are the sweets. They satisfy the palate, are pleasing to the eye, and just plain ol' taste good. Too bad they're not as good for you as they taste. Worse than not good, sugar is poison.

According to the dictionary, "A poison is a substance with an inherent property that tends to destroy life or impair health." There's no question that that definition describes sugar. Sugar is a poison. Not only does it impair health, but it destroys life - directly, and as a risk factor for many other life-threatening diseases such as heart disease and cancer.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Diabetes Statistics 2011, diabetes affects 25.8 million people, which comprises 8.3 percent of the U.S. population. Diabetes is a major cause of heart disease and stroke, and is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S.

When faced with an unpleasant diagnosis related to sugar, we tend to take the easy way out. We blame our genes for it (and for everything else), when in reality, our genes are surprisingly different than formally presumed. Our genes, once thought to be static and something we are stuck with, turn out to be far more dynamic and intelligent than originally thought. Our DNA appears to be able to collect information through the language of food and then adapts, alters, or otherwise responds intelligently to changes in its nutritional environment. This can be good or bad.

Sugar causes glycation. That means that basically, the stickiness of sugar is also sticky on the cells and in the membranes of your tissues. Sugar reacts with proteins on the surface to form easily breakable chemical bonds. This creates cross-linking of normally mobile proteins that hardens your cells and tissues, making them brittle and stiff. In small amounts, your white blood cells and kidneys clean and excrete them. But when overwhelmed, the body can't keep up with it. This makes the cells less responsive to nutrient flow through the cell wall, allowing infections to occur, cancer cells to proliferate, and makes your joints stiff.

Sugar has been shown to have a major effect on developing infants in utero, contributing to birth defects. It also affects your circulator system and brain function; even "pre-diabetic" states are cause for alarm.

As you choose to leave the sweets on the platter, in time they become easier to resist. As you become healthier, you will find sweets are - well, too sweet. Every effort made to eat healthier is worth it. You'll find your taste buds become more acute and you enjoy the healthier foods even more! It's really quite amazing when you trade the sugary poison for the other great foods nature has given us. Health is worth every morsel!

Holly Carling is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Licensed Acupuncturist, Doctor of Naturopathy, Clinical Nutritionist and Master Herbologist with more than 32 years of experience. Carling is currently accepting new patients and offers natural health-care services and whole food nutritional supplements in her Coeur d'Alene clinic. Visit Carling's website at www.vitalhealthandfitness.com to learn more about Carling, view a list of upcoming health classes and read other informative articles. Carling can be reached at (208) 765-1994 and would be happy to answer any questions regarding this topic.