Sugar has not been called sweet poison for nothing. Researchers have shown that eating too much added sugar has many negative health effects. But have you ever wondered exactly why sugar is bad for your health? Read on to find out some of the damaging effects of sugar on your body.
6 Damaging Effects Of Sugar On Your Body
1. Increases the Risk of Diabetes, Heart Disease, and Obesity
The majority of people love sweet foods. The American diet is full of them. The problem is that foods that contain refined sugar and are eaten habitually will eventually affect your blood sugar and pose a greater risk to your health. Dr. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health says:
Excess sugar’s impact on obesity and diabetes is well documented, but one area that may surprise many men is how their taste for sugar can have a serious impact on their heart health. Basically, the higher the intake of added sugar, the higher the risk for heart disease.
Sugars to watch out for are corn sweetener, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrates, honey, invert sugar, malt sugar, molasses, dextrose, fructose, glucose, lactose, maltose, sucrose. Refined carbs like white bread and white rice are just as bad.
Several researchers have also linked sugar to various forms of cancer.
2. Makes Your Blood Sugar Unstable
If you eat too much sugar, your glucose level will spike and plummet and this could make you suffer from a variety of symptoms, such as headaches, fatigue, and mood swings. This could also contribute to more food cravings, which starts the cycle of false hunger leading to weight gain. On the other hand, those who avoided sugar have reported having fewer cravings and they feel more energized and emotionally balanced. A keto diet has been shown to
3. Chromium Deficiency
Chromium is an essential trace mineral that helps to regulate the level of blood sugar. Medical researchers believe chromium deficiency is prevalent in people who don’t properly respond to insulin. These are generally the ones who are overweight and eat a poor diet. People with diabetes and the elderly are more likely to have a chromium deficiency than otherwise healthy adults or children.
We’re not getting chromium from the soil anymore, since our food animals don’t eat their native diet of grass, which is where they get chromium ………. The vegetables you are presented with in the grocery store are mostly water and pith, with few if any of the minerals you need to live, including chromium.
As chromium is involved in the metabolism of sugar the more sugar you eat the more chromium is used. Sugar is called an anti-nutrient for this reason. It does not contain any nutrients so robs your body of them.
broccoli is a great source of chromium with around half your recommended intake in a cup of the vegetable
It’s always a good idea to limit your carb intake and increase your intake of in order to increase the level of chromium in your body.
4. Leads to Tooth Decay
Consuming too much sugar is one of the main reasons behind tooth decay. Compared to other foods, sugar could cause more damage to your teeth especially if it lingers there longer. This is why it’s extremely important to brush your teeth regularly and of course, limit your consumption of sugar so as not to fuel the bacteria and plaque that dwell in your teeth.
5. Accelerates Aging
Aside from the damage that it causes inside your body, sugar can also damage your skin. It contributes to the growth of wrinkles and the sagging of your skin. Once the sugar gets into your bloodstream, it will combine with protein to form advanced glycation end products (AGEs). These AGEs can make your skin lose its elasticity, leading to premature aging.
6. Increases Stress
If you’re under stress, your body will immediately get into the “fight or flight” mode, which triggers the release of a large number of hormones. Surprisingly, your body has a similar chemical response once your blood sugar is low. And once you give in to your sugar cravings, your stress hormones will start to compensate for the crash by increasing your sugar level. As a result, you’ll end up irritable and anxious, which also explains why the low-carb keto diet can help to boost your mood.
Conclusion
Sugar has such damaging effects on your body (and the list goes on) it really makes you wonder how it’s still being used. It’s obvious that added sugar should be kept to a minimum but many people find it hard to do. Recently though people are finding that they lose their craving for sugar when they they are following a keto diet. They lose weight and their health improves.
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