Despite the great awareness of the dangers and harms of white sugar, many products, even unexpected ones, contain a good amount of it! Sugars make up a large proportion of daily calories, up to 17% of total daily calories for adults and 14% for children.
Our life with sugar ..
Although refining sugar has been around for about 2,500 years, it was only in the past 400 years that humans have eaten it in large quantities. While humans generally depend on the metabolism of sugar or glucose for energy, in the pre-modern period the main source of glucose was derived from carbohydrates such as seasonal fruits, as well as edible plant roots.
The demand for sugar was not in such huge quantities as it is in the modern era! In the year 2000, the average sugar consumption per capita in the United States was nearly 70 kg per year! Since the body's need for sugar to generate energy is limited, the surplus usually takes other, unwanted paths, such as storing it as fat, and it is linked to many health problems.
The damages and risks of sugar represent a great threat to the organs and functions of the body, especially since most types of foods and processed products contain significant proportions of sugar! It has become an important part of sauces, dressings, dairy, soda and flavoring water, ice cream, candy, soda and even soups and preserves!
what are the reasons for consuming so much sugar?
Sugar's secret identity!
Factory sugar
One of the first things to know is that sugar has many names. Sugar has over 50 common names that range from the names you know - sugar, cane sugar, evaporated cane sugar, and high fructose corn syrup - to less obvious names like brown rice syrup and concentrated fruit juice, to obscure names, like diatase and galactose.
Food companies often divide the sugar in their products into multiple shapes, and the result is that the sugars are at the bottom of the ingredient list, as the menus are structured by ordering the quantity of the ingredient as part of the whole.
This means that if sugar is the first ingredient on the list, dividing it into 4 or 5 types of sugar pushes each of them down the list, giving you the impression that the amount of sugar in the product is low.
Moreover, research indicates that sugar has been added to practically 80% of packaged foods in the United States. This means that our ability to avoid everyday consumable foods to avoid sugar damage has become more difficult than ever!
'Healthy' sugar
Some types of sugar have a bad reputation that they do not deserve. Things like honey and maple syrup are often promoted as healthy forms of sugar, when in fact their harm may sometimes outweigh table sugar!
Sugar is sugar, regardless of its shapes or colors, even honey, it is healthy in a certain amount and it is not recommended to add it constantly to hot drinks or consider it as a substitute for other types of sugar. In the end, all types of sugar, no matter how different or multiple, are divided and broken down into small units called glucose that the body deals with in the same way, and its sources are not differentiated.
Damages of sugar and its risks, what makes excessive intake of it harmful?
Damages factory sugar
Sugar isn't harmful just because it has calories and zero nutritional value. It is bad for you because it makes you fat. It is dangerous because it contains addictive properties and is actually toxic when consumed in large quantities.
Dietary guidelines suggest limiting calories from added sugar to less than 10% per day. Experts believe that sugar consumption is a major cause of obesity and many chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes.
Sugar contains substances that make you feel hungry for longer. It is part of your behavioral reward system - sugar stimulates responses that ask you to "repeat it."
Sugar damages associated with causing addiction!
Sugar addiction
The dopamine response is stimulated by eating a healthy meal, but repeat the same meal day after day, the dopamine response triggered by the newness of the meal will disappear. This response is believed to come from a search for diversity. We need to eat a variety of foods to get the same dopamine response.
On the other hand, there is no decrease in dopamine production when consuming sugary and sweet meals! It gradually turns into an addiction that is no different from addiction to drugs, nicotine or heroin. This is why we find people “literally” addicted to sugar! And they may fail to stop themselves at it over and over.
As far as the damage is concerned, sugar taxes the liver and pancreas no less. More sugar means more work for the pancreas to produce insulin and reduce the amount of sugar in the blood. Pancreatic fatigue is associated with insulin resistance diseases, which often lead to heart and liver disease, diabetes and metabolic disorders.
Related articles: Is sugar addictive?
To learn more about the harms of sugar, here are 10 risks and risks that cannot be overlooked.
Excessive sugar consumption causes weight gain and obesity
overweight
Obesity rates are on the rise around the world, and added sugar, especially from sugar-sweetened beverages, is thought to be one of the main reasons for this.
Sugar-sweetened drinks like sodas, juices, and sweet teas are full of fructose, which is a type of simple sugar. Fructose consumption increases your hunger and cravings even more than glucose, which is the main type of sugar found in starchy foods.
Additionally, excessive fructose consumption may cause resistance to leptin, an important hormone that regulates hunger and tells your body to stop eating.
In other words, sugary drinks don't curb your hunger, making it easier for you to quickly consume a large number of liquid calories. This could lead to weight gain.
Damage to sugar is linked to depression and increased rates of insomnia
Sugar increases depression
While a healthy diet can help improve your mood, a diet high in added sugar and processed foods may increase your chances of developing depression.
Consuming a lot of processed foods, including high-sugar products like cakes and sugary drinks, has been linked to an increased risk of depression. Researchers believe that blood sugar fluctuations, neurotransmitter irregularities and inflammation may all be reasons for sugar's harmful effect on mental health.
Synthetic sugar might speed up skin aging
Sugar damages increase aging
Wrinkles are a natural sign of aging. They appear at the end, regardless of your health. However, poor food choices can aggravate wrinkles and speed up skin aging.
Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) are compounds that consist of reactions between sugar and protein in your body. They are suspected to play a major role in skin aging. Eating a diet rich in refined carbohydrates and sugar results in the production of AGEs, which can cause your skin to age prematurely.
AGEs destroy collagen and elastin, which are proteins that help stretch skin and maintain its youthful appearance. When collagen and elastin are damaged, the skin loses its firmness and begins to sag.
Excessive sugar drains your energy
Sugar drains energy
Foods high in added sugar cause blood sugar and insulin levels to rise rapidly, which leads to an increase in energy.
However, this rise in energy levels is fleeting. Products loaded with sugar and lacking protein, fiber, or fat lead to a slight energy boost that is quickly followed by a severe drop in blood sugar, often referred to as a crash.
Continuous fluctuations in blood sugar can lead to large fluctuations in energy levels. To avoid this energy-depleting cycle, choose low-added-sugar, high-fiber carb sources. Coupling carbs with protein or fat is another great way to keep your blood sugar and energy levels stable.
Processed sugar has been linked to an increased risk of fatty liver
Fatty liver
Consistently high intake of fructose has been associated with an increased risk of developing fatty liver. Unlike glucose and other types of sugar, which are absorbed by many cells throughout the body, fructose is almost exclusively broken down by the liver.
In the liver, fructose is converted into energy or stored as glycogen. However, the liver can only store a lot of glycogen before the excess turns into fat.
Excessive amounts of added sugar in the form of fructose overexert the liver, leading to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a condition characterized by excessive fat accumulation in the liver.
Other diseases and health problems related to sugar damage
Increased risk of kidney disease: Consistently high blood sugar levels can damage the delicate blood vessels in the kidneys. This could lead to an increased risk of developing kidney disease
Damage to sugar is linked to a negative impact on dental health: Eating too much sugar can cause tooth decay. The bacteria in your mouth feed on sugar and secrete acid byproducts, which lead to demineralization of the teeth.
Increased risk of developing gout: Gout is an inflammatory condition characterized by pain in the joints. The added sugars raise the levels of uric acid in the blood, which increases or worsens the risk of developing gout.
Accelerated cognitive decline: High sugar diets can lead to impaired memory and have been linked to an increased risk of dementia.
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