Getting ready to tuck into the candy on your advent calendar, or perhaps a handful of chocolate Hanukkah gelt? Not so fast. All that sugar might be messing up your sex hormones.

Results of a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation this month indicate that eating too much fructose and glucose causes the liver to increase lipid production, which in turn reduces the amount of sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) in the blood. The SHBG protein is instrumental in controlling the amount of testosterone and estrogen available throughout the body. A reduction in SHBG means more testosterone and estrogen will be released, increasing the risks of acne, infertility, polycystic ovaries, and uterine cancer in overweight women. In addition, abnormal amounts of SHBG disturb the delicate balance between estrogen and testosterone, which is associated with the development of cardiovascular disease, particularly in women.

It is estimated that North Americans eat about 73 pounds of refined sugar along with an additional 44 pounds of high fructose corn syrup per person each year (I'm eating my weight in sugar every year? Eeuuw!)

"We discovered that low levels of SHBG in a person's blood means the liver's metabolic state is out of whack - because of inappropriate diet or something that's inherently wrong with the liver - long before there are any disease symptoms," says Dr. Geoffrey Hammond, the study's principal investigator, scientific director of the Child & Family Research Institute in Vancouver, Canada, and professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of British Columbia.

The good news, according to Dr. Hammond is that SHBG can be used as "a biomarker for monitoring liver function well before symptoms arise. We can also use it for determining the effectiveness of dietary interventions and drugs aimed at improving the liver's metabolic state."

Of course the bad news is, the research points out just one more reason why you can't REALLY enjoy the holiday season. Thanks. Thanks a lot.