ADVERTISEMENT
Whether you’re a sugar lover or not, sugar in one form or another is added to almost every packaged food you buy. Chances are, you’re consuming more sugar—maybe even too much—without even realizing it. So the question is: how much sugar is too much?
Refined sugar and its substitutes are a real scourge of human existence, causing all sorts of illnesses and ailments. A packaged food may not explicitly list “sugar” in its ingredient list, but it may hide under other names, such as:
Corn syrup or sweetener
Dextrin
Dextrose
Diglycerides
Disaccharides
Evaporated cane juice
Fructose
Glucose
High fructose corn syrup
Hydrolyzed starch
Malt syrup
Maltodextrin
Maltose
Rice syrup
Sorbitol
Sucrose
With all these sources of sugar, how do you know where to start? If you experience the following symptoms, it’s time to significantly reduce your sweets intake:
1. Sugar and carbohydrate cravings
Sugar is addictive, just like cocaine, and its effects are similar. It stimulates the production of dopamine, the pleasure hormone. Often, without even thinking about it, we can be tempted by sweets and simple carbohydrates to get our “fix.” As with other addictions, our body develops a tolerance to sugar, meaning the more we consume, the more we crave it, even when we’re not hungry.
2. Lack of Energy and Fatigue
Orexins, a type of neuropeptide, play a role in the sleep-wake cycle. Sensitive to sugars, they react to glucose levels in the body. A slight increase in blood sugar can inhibit the transmission of neural signals by orexins, leading to a state of drowsiness. Thus, after the fleeting energy provided by sugar, a state of fatigue quickly follows, resulting from the inhibition of neurotransmitters.
3. Weight Gain
Excessive sugar consumption makes you fat. Of course, other factors such as activity level and metabolic rate play a role, but the body primarily burns sugar for energy. What it can’t use immediately, it stores as fat.
Additionally, eating too much sugar causes you to overeat by suppressing the hormone leptin, which tells the body when to stop eating. If you feel tired and lethargic after consuming sugar, you’re also less likely to exercise.
A rise in blood sugar stimulates insulin production to bring it back to normal levels. Insulin lowers blood sugar levels: when it fluctuates or gets too low, your body thinks it needs more fuel. So, you eat even when you don’t really need to.
4. Frequent Colds and Flu
Too much sugar weakens the immune system. This is because glucose reduces the activity of white blood cells, which are responsible for eliminating pathogens like viruses. Regularly eating too much sugar makes us more susceptible to infections because our bodies are less able to fight them off.
5. Dulled Taste Buds
Many people find the taste of sweets pleasant. Our tongues become accustomed to different aromas, and sugar is no exception.
British researchers discovered that overweight people have a decreased sensitivity to sweet tastes and a preference for sweet foods. In the same study, healthy, fit people who started drinking two soft drinks a day experienced dulled taste buds and sugar cravings after just four weeks.
A 2016 study found that after a month of reducing sugar intake, the experimental group experienced a greater sensitivity to sweet flavors. Therefore, if you reduce your sugar intake, foods will begin to taste sweeter without it.
6. Brain Fog
A study published in the journal Neuroscience found that mice fed a diet “similar in composition to the typical diet of most Western industrialized societies, high in saturated fat and refined sugar,” experienced reduced brain function in just two months. This is because large amounts of sugar affect the proteins and neurotransmitters in the brain responsible for learning and memory. In short: sugar makes you dumber.
7. Skin Problems
Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body and is responsible for skin elasticity. By nature, sugar molecules bind to collagen and help collagen cells move.
Too much sugar in the body makes collagen cells less mobile and therefore causes stiffness in tissues, including the skin. The loss of skin elasticity becomes apparent with the appearance of wrinkles, among other things.
Furthermore, sugar causes cellular inflammation. As you probably know, whenever there’s chronic inflammation, you know you’re going to have problems.
Furthermore, high sugar levels cause acne and dermatitis. Carbohydrates like bread, cereals, rice, and pasta cause an increase in insulin and androgen (a male sex hormone) production. Androgens cause the skin glands to produce excess oil, clogging pores and leading to pimples.
Also, Candida is a yeast that lives in the digestive tract and on the skin. As a yeast, it thrives on sugar. Eating too much sugar causes yeast to overgrow, leading to nail infections, vaginal infections, athlete’s foot, and oral thrush.
Furthermore, high blood sugar can also lead to diabetic neuropathy, causing tingling and pain in the feet.
8. Cancer
Over time, internal inflammation and increased insulin production can cause cells to reproduce abnormally and rapidly.
Cancer cells feed on sugar, so this is one more reason to kick the sugar habit.
What Too Much Sugar Does to Your Body
Cancer has been considered a global epidemic. In a Swiss study of global cancer incidence, overconsumption of sugar in industrialized countries was identified as a major culprit. In the United States alone, an estimated 30 to 40% of healthcare spending is spent on treating sugar-related diseases.
A 2014 study published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation was the first to examine how malignant and benign cancer cells respond to increased glucose.
All cells consume glucose for fuel. What the researchers discovered is that not only do cancer cells (both malignant and benign) consume sugar, but excess sugar disrupts normal cellular expression and causes “upregulated canonical oncogenic signaling” (tumor development). This is caused by complex metabolic responses of cells to sugar.
Interestingly, and encouragingly, when sugar intake is reduced, cells return to normal function over time.
Sugar = Body Fat
Simply put: eating too much sugar will make you fat. This is because sugar promotes weight gain in several ways, some of which are mentioned above. Clinical studies have unequivocally proven that increased sugar consumption leads to weight gain. In fact, a meta-analysis of the consequences of excessive sugar consumption showed that after a one-year observation period, the propensity to gain weight and become obese in people who regularly consumed sugary foods was on average 55% higher than in those who reduced their sugar intake.
The Dangers of Soda
The amount of soda and soft drinks consumed is particularly correlated with significant weight gain, leading directly to obesity and diabetes.
Diet soda is just as bad as its non-diet counterpart in that artificial sweeteners are not metabolized by the body and are therefore stored in fat cells, causing inflammation and weight gain.
Billions of gallons of soda are consumed each year in the United States.
In fact, a 2006 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition states: “The results of large cross-sectional studies, combined with those of well-conducted prospective cohort studies with long follow-up periods, show a positive association between higher consumption of sugary drinks and weight gain.”
Weight and obesity in children and adults… a 12 oz serving [12 oz = 1 can of soda = 1 serving] of soda provides 150 kcal and 40-50 g of sugar in the form of high fructose corn syrup [(HFCS) ≈ 45% glucose and 55% fructose], which is equivalent to 10 teaspoons of table sugar. If these calories are added to the typical American diet without reducing intake from other sources, 1 soda/day could lead to a weight gain of 15 lb or 6.75 kg in 1 year.”
This means that if you drink even 1 can/bottle of soda or sugary drink per day without any other changes in your diet or exercise, you could gain 15 pounds in a year just from the added sugar content.
How much sugar is too much? Naturally occurring sugars, such as those found in fruit, also come with vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals that aid in their metabolism and allow cells to efficiently utilize their nutrients.
Recommended daily carbohydrate intake depends on age, size, and activity level. However, on average, the American Heart Association recommends limiting added (non-natural) sugars to 6 teaspoons/30 grams per day (about 100 calories) for women and 9 teaspoons/45 grams (about 150 calories) for men.
Nutrition labels list the total carbohydrates in a packaged food and break this number down into fiber and sugars. Generally, more than 22.5g of sugar is considered too much sugar, and 5g or less is too little. Total carbohydrate intake should account for approximately 45-65% of your daily calorie intake.
With a typical 2,000-calorie/day diet, 900-1,300 calories, or 225-325 grams, should come from carbohydrates. You can use labels to find out how much added sugar and total carbohydrates you get from packaged foods in a day. You can also find the carbohydrate content of products using resources like Nutrition Facts. To give you an idea of the carbohydrate content of typical foods:
1 slice of white bread contains 15g (1.5g added sugar)
100g of pasta contains 25g (8% of the total recommended daily intake)
100g of rice contains 28g (0.1g sugar)
1 medium apple: 19g (including fiber)
100g of typical breakfast cereal: 68g (1g added sugar)
1 12-ounce can of cola: 39g (all sugar)
1 medium carrot: 6g (including fiber)
Artificial sweeteners: Better than sugar?
Artificial sweeteners are not a great alternative to refined sugar. Overwhelming evidence indicates that they contribute to obesity, hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic syndrome, depression, chronic headaches, and cancer.
These sweeteners include:
Continued on the next page
ADVERTISEMENT
