Refined sugar sneaks into our diets in everything from the obvious cookies and candies to less-apparent packaged goods, such as pasta sauce and frozen food. And added sugars, such as high-fructose corn syrup, aren't the only problem; processed carbohydrates (such as that white bagel you wolfed down between meetings this morning) break down similarly in the body. Whatever the source, these simple sugars have an immediate effect: The pancreas has to work extra hard to manufacture insulin (the blood sugar-balancing hormone), and whatever energy the body can't use gets stored as fat, resulting in unhealthy weight gain and even insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes.