Sweet Poison: The alarming truth about how Sugar ruins your Health

By Dr. Jesty Thomas,
Doctor of Pharmacy.

Everyone loves dessert but what we don’t realize is that we are killing ourselves. Sugar is one of the most common ingredients in food and very few people go for a day without consuming sugar. Most of us live with a motto that “a little bit of sugar makes everything tastes better.” It is not just found in tea that you consume, it’s also found in processed foods and cold drinks. Not only that even savory food such as tomato sauce, bread, and protein bars, can have sugar. There was a time when we demonized fat, using it as a scapegoat for every health problem imaginable. Yet, overwhelming amounts of research remind us that sugar is strongly associated with obesity, cardiovascular disease, and terrible dental health. Too much sugar can also cause inflammation which puts you at a higher risk for developing high bad cholesterol numbers, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

However, not all of it is bad. For example, sugar from milk products (lactose) and fruit products (fructose) are healthy. In other words, it can only be healthy when it is consumed in its natural form and moderate amounts. Unfortunately, most sugar that we consume is unhealthy, artificial, and gradually killing us. Although it helps to make your food sweet, the negative effects that it has on your body can lead to many troubles.

1. It increases the risk of obesity and heart disease

• Rates of obesity are rising worldwide. Sugar-sweetened beverages like sodas, juices and sweet teas are loaded with fructose, a type of simple sugar. Consuming fructose increases your appetite and desire for food more than glucose, the main type of sugar found in starchy foods. Also, excessive fructose consumption may cause resistance to leptin, a vital hormone that regulates hunger and communicates with your body to stop eating. In other words, sugary beverages don’t curb your hunger, making it easy to quickly ingest a high number of liquid calories. This can lead to weight gain.

• High sugar and high-fat diet can decrease the amount of blood that flows to and from the heart. It not only adds extra calories to your body without nutrients but it also triggers fat accumulation. Consuming too much of it triggers the formation of triglycerides, which harms your heart health.

2. It causes insulin resistance

• When you consume excess sugar, your blood sugar level will start to rise. This, in turn, triggers your body to produce insulin to help carry glucose from the blood to the cells. However, this process only works well if a person is consuming healthy sugar levels.

• If you ingest highly processed sugar, then things get complicated. It will force your body to pump tons of insulin to keep up with high glucose levels in the blood, and with time, your cells will become insulin resistant. This can lead to serious complications like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and metabolic syndrome

3. It accelerates cellular aging

• Telomeres are structures which are found at the end of chromosomes, they are molecules that hold part or all of your genetic information. Telomeres act as protective caps, thereby avoiding chromosomes from deteriorating or fusing together. As you age, telomeres naturally shorten, which causes cells to age and malfunction.

• Although the shortening of telomeres is a normal part of aging, choosing unhealthy lifestyle can speed up the process

• Consuming excessive amounts of sugar has been shown to accelerate telomere shortening, which increases cellular aging.

4. It accelerates skin aging

• Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are compounds formed by reactions between sugar and protein in the body. They are suspected to play an important role in skin aging.

• Consuming a diet which is high in refined carbs and sugar leads to the production of AGEs and may cause your skin to age prematurely.

• AGEs damage elastin and collagen, a factor that makes the skin lose its elasticity and firmness. This accelerates the aging process.

5. It can increase the risk of cancer

• Excessive sugar consumption can lead to obesity, insulin resistance and inflammation, all of which are risk factors for cancer.

• One thing about sugar is that it feeds all cells in your body including cancerous cells. Research has revealed that high consumption of sugar can lead to liver, colon, pancreatic and breast cancer. Quitting sugar can benefit in preventing cancer.

6. Other Health risks

Apart from the risks listed above, sugar can harm your body in countless other ways:

• Increase kidney disease risk:  Consistently elevated blood sugar levels can cause damage to the delicate blood vessels in the kidneys. Therefore, this can lead to an increased risk of kidney disease.

• Negatively impact dental health: Ingesting too much sugar can cause cavities. Bacteria in your mouth feed on sugar and release acid by-products, which cause tooth demineralization.

• Increase the risk of developing gout: Gout is an inflammatory condition characterized by severe pain in the joints. Added sugars raise uric acid levels in the blood, thereby increasing the risk of developing or worsening gout.

• Accelerate cognitive decline: High-sugar diets can cause impaired memory and have been linked to an increased risk of dementia

1. Avoid highly processed foods and drinks

• Most highly processed foods and drinks contain sweetened sugar that is harmful to your health. Instead of eating highly processed foods and drinks, replace them with healthier foods options that contain essential nutrients and minerals that are helpful to your body.

• Foods to avoid include this like biscuits, cookies, cakes among many others. Avoiding such foods will significantly lower your sugar intake.

• Say No to soda. Since soda is highly processed with artificial sweeteners that are harmful to health. Instead substitute with natural drinks like tender coconut, fruit juices, etc.

2. Avoid sugary foods that are bad for your health

• Consume whole fruits in place of sugar-sweetened fruit smoothies.

• Use olive oil and vinegar instead of sweet salad dressings like honey mustard.

• Look for cereals, granolas and granola bars which are less than 4 grams of sugar per serving.

• Substitute your morning cereal for a bowl of rolled oats topped with nut butter and fresh berries, or an omelette made with fresh greens.

3. Avoid take away, and prepare your own meals at home

• Replace any sugary snacks with homemade natural snacks such as homemade bliss balls, natural yoghurt and berries, apple slices and peanut butter, cottage cheese with flaxseeds and cinnamon.

In conclusion, as discussed above consumption of an excessive amount of sugar can have many negative health impacts. This doesn’t mean to eliminate sugar from the diet but to limit it. Life is always better if everything is in balance and if people fail to maintain that balance then this can result in something horrible. Therefore replace sugar with healthier foods that contain vital nutrients and minerals that your body needs.

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