The purpose of this article is to provide a warning to those people who follow a typically rich American diet in which sugary high carbohydrate foods, frequent sweetened snacks, and so-called junk foods, are common constituents.
The main nutrients in the foods we eat are categorized as carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and water, all essential to good health although even good food can cause health problems if consumed in greater quantities than the body needs.
Eating too much of the wrong foods can cause damage to blood vessels, raise cholesterol levels, and increase the risks of heart disease.
All of which can shorten life, although most people are not aware of the dangers.
It is often the sugary sweet foods, the candy bars, chocolate cookies, and high sugar content soft drinks that most of us like to reach for when we need a quick fix that cause the most problems.
The glucose content of those high carbohydrate sugary foods gets quickly into the blood stream.
And that can lead to a dangerous complications.
Almost everyone knows that people who have the disease called diabetes have a problem with sugar but that's about all that most non-diabetic people know about the diabetic condition.
They do not realize that it is not only diabetics that face similar health problems, problems caused by poor food choices with too much sugar, too much saturated fat, and too much salt in their diets.
The diabetic knows what must be done to change their diet in order to counter the effects and damage done by the wrong food choices, but the non-diabetic does not.
Diabetics know they must be careful in their choice of foods and often follow a diabetic menu plan to avoid casing highly elevated blood sugar levels after eating a meal.
Persons who are not diabetic but who make poor food choices, such as those mentioned above, do not realize they place themselves at increased risks of some serious health complications even though they may not lead to diabetes.
Medical research has discovered that damage to the body's tissues and organs occurs not only in the person diagnosed as being diabetic but also in others who, because of their dietary habits, can suffer the damage caused by elevated blood sugar levels even if those levels are not sufficiently high to be diagnosed as diabetes.
The sugars, in the form of glucose, are derived from foods consumed each day, with the carbohydrates being their main source.
The sugars enter the bloodstream after the digestion process and are an essential source of fuel for the body's cells.
Actually, for those people who do have diabetes, their disease is the result of their body not being able to process the sugars in their bloodstream in the way that other people do.
Other people being those who don't have diabetes and whose body's efficiently use the sugar in the bloodstream as fuel for the cells that help sustain the essential life processes that keep us alive.
Perhaps it is hard to believe that such things as described above can lead to such serious consequences, but they are serious.
For whatever reason that glucose levels in the blood exist, it is a dangerous condition that increases the risks of serious health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, impotence, liver disease, eye disease, kidney disease, and others.
Is there a solution? It will help if anyone who is overweight and whose eating routines are similar to those mentioned above would make an effort to read and follow the advice given in the latest information available about healthy eating.
There is much being published since it has become apparent to health authorities that Americans are becoming dangerously overweight.
It will require dietary modification to replace some of the problem high sugar content foods and the adoption of a healthier diet.
A diabetic menu can be tailored to personal food preferences and already established tastes while ensuring the foods are nutritious and of serving sizes to meet the body's calorie requirements without overeating.
Time to see a doctor? To be sure of your health condition, see a doctor and get regular checkups.
And do so especially if you are overweight and over forty years of age.