Sugar Addicts’ Diet. Nicki Waterman

be so nutritious, and this can have an impact on their growth.’

      DEPRESSION

      • Depression is one of the most common medical conditions in Britain today

      • One in five British people will be affected by depression at some stage in their life

      • More than 2.9 million people in the UK are diagnosed with depression

      • The World Health Organization predicts depression will be second only to heart disease as the biggest global health burden by 2020

      • As many as three in four cases of depression are neither recognized nor treated

      The Role of Sugar

      If you’re feeling blue, reaching for sugar may be your first thought. But you could be doing yourself a great disservice. While sugar causes the release of ‘feel-good’ endorphins, the payback is when we come down from that ‘high’, often into feelings of depression. Professor Larry Christenden at the University of South Alabama found that drastically cutting down on sugar lifted depression in 25 per cent of patients. He says that while carbohydrates can produce mood-lifting serotonin in the brain, it could be that some people have a negative reaction to pure sugar, making them depressed.

      ACNE

      Acne is generally associated with increased levels of the male sex hormone testosterone, which is why it’s common in puberty (there’s an increase in testosterone in both sexes at this time). It is also found in women with polycystic ovaries where an imbalance in the female sex hormones leads to an increased production of testosterone by the ovaries.