The following Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Marksissons and is narrated by Brock Armstrong.

The definitive guide to sugar.

You'd think this post would come with a blaring alarm, flashing strobe light, or at least an

enormous gong. Sugar, after all, gets a little welcome around these parts. It's, on one hand,

a dastardly devil, shameless snare for many a man, woman, and child. Beyond this luring, ignoble reputation,

however, you'll find, as is so often the case in life and biology, the story is a bit more

complicated and compelling than the proverbial black hat. Sugar comes in many forms, of course,

and each of these leaves a certain amount of

damage and destruction in its path. Yet, what do we do when sugar naturally accompanies some of the

healthiest fare out there? Do we forego it altogether when a touch ties an otherwise good primal

recipe together? Are the typical substitutions

any better when we choose to use a sweetener? We've covered the artificial options in the past,

but today I'll give several natural varieties of sugar there due, the obligatory facts,

the practical details, and a primal analysis. Why avoid sugar?

How could I possibly talk about sugar without the warning? If you've spent any time around

MDA, you likely know the drill. Despite its beloved place, not to mention omnipresence, in our culinary culture,

sugar offers the following gifts that keep on giving. Sugar stimulates a physiological

stress reaction cascade that provokes adrenaline and cortisol release and thickens the blood. Sugar effectively

disables your immune system by impairing white blood cells functioning. Sugar decreases your body's

production of leptin, a hormone critical for appetite regulation. Sugar induces significant oxidative stress in the body. Sugar appears to fuel cancer cells,

and check out Free the Animal for much more on the sugar cancer connection. Sugar promotes

fat storage and weight gain. Sugar disrupts the effective transfer of amino acids to muscle tissue.

...