Major Reasons Sugar Is Bad For Your Health

Many health experts have said time and again that added sugar has very little benefits to mankind. They have said of sugar as one of the worst things a person could eat – especially if eaten in excess!

Interestingly, sometimes when we think of the dangers of sugar, we think of only the physical white granulated sugar and forget about other sources of sugar such as from processed sugary foods and drinks. Countless studies have shown that eating sugary foods or adding too much sugar into your meals contributes to a host of diseases. The bottom line is that too much sugar is bad for your health and will destroy you before you can know it.

The sugar that the average person consumes on a daily basis comes from so many places apart from physically adding white granulated sugar or table sugar into food. Besides table sugar, the most common sources of sugar that we consume include the following:

• Energy drinks
• Soft drinks
• Biscuits
• Cakes
• Pastries
• Breakfast cereals
• Fruit juices
• Sodas
• Alcoholic beverages or drinks

The sugar that you consume comes from the foods in the list above. The more of these foods that you consume, the more sugar that you are going to ingest into your system. This is why I said earlier on that the sugar that we consume doesn’t always come from physically adding table sugar into our meals. Some readers might be surprised to see fruit juices in the list. But believe me when I say fruit juices are one of the biggest sources of the sugar that you consume. Most of these ‘harmless’ looking fruit juices contain nothing but high levels of sugar and additives - all of which are bad for your health.

It is worth noting that the sugars that we consume are not only found in the foods on the list above; there are other processed foods that we eat that contain hidden sugars. And since sometimes these foods are not considered sugary foods, many people don’t know that they actually contain hidden sugars. A good example of such foods is ketchup. Studies have shown that when you add a tablespoon of ketchup to your meal, you have added the equivalent of about one teaspoon of sugar to your meal. I guess you never knew that ketchup contained that amount of sugar in it! Well, this is how unfortunately sugars cleverly hide themselves in some of the processed foods that we eat. So the next time you put some ketchup on your chips, you should know that you are adding sugar to the chips.

There are countless of reasons why too much sugar consumption is very bad for the health. Below are some of the most common reasons sugar is bad for your health and why you should avoid eating too much sugar or sugary foods:

Sugar is bad for your teeth: I guess this is something everybody knows. We all know that eating too much sugar is bad for the teeth. If you don’t know this, then let me make it clear to you that regularly eating too much sugar or sugary foods isn’t good for the health and beauty of our teeth. It will destroy your teeth and leave you with tooth decay (especially in the case of children). According to experts, the reason added sugar is bad for our teeth is simply because of the fact that it provides a good breeding ground for harmful bacteria in the mouth to multiply and work very well. Sugar basically feeds and energizes the harmful bacteria that exist in the mouth. The more energy these harmful bacteria get, the more active they become in destroying your teeth. This easily leads to tooth decay in the long run. Haven't you noticed that people who tend to eat a lot of sugary foods normally experience tooth decay?

According to a doctor who appeared on Jamie’s Sugar Rush (the famous documentary on the dangers of sugar by Jamie Oliver), one of the major reasons why children suffer from rotten teeth and have to remove these teeth is because of the consumption of too many sugary drinks.

Sugar is capable of overloading the liver and damaging it: Health experts say that eating too much of sugar can play very instrumental roles in putting pressure on the liver and damaging it. According to studies, before sugar finds its way into the bloodstream of a person, it is broken down into glucose and fructose. Too much of fructose will overload the liver. The fructose later turns into fat and remains in the liver – putting pressure on it. The more sugar you eat, the more fructose you are going to accumulate in you. The longer this carries on, the more your chances are of developing a fatty liver, which is extremely dangerous. Fructose can also be gotten from eating fruits, but the fructose derived from fruits is perfectly healthy for the body and can be eaten in abundance without any fear of an adverse effect to the body. But the fructose from added sugar can be highly dangerous – especially if sugar is eaten in large quantities.

Sugar can cause you to get cancer: Excessive consumption of sugar can lead to cancer. According to scientists, it is possible for excessive consumption of sugar to lead to the development of cancer in a person because it can elevate a person’s insulin levels which contributes towards cancer. Scientists say that when we constantly have insulin levels that are elevated, then we increase our risks of developing cancer. It is for this reason that health experts say that people who consistently eat a lot of sugar have higher risks of getting cancer than people who eat moderate to little amounts of sugar.

Too much sugar consumption can give you diabetes: It is common knowledge that consuming too much sugar gives diabetes. Virtually everyone knows of this fact! But why does sugar give diabetes? When you begin to eat too much sugar, your body gradually begins to resist the hormone insulin. Insulin is a very important hormone in the body because it plays an important role in making the cells to burn glucose (blood sugar). Glucose is good for the body, but it can become very dangerous for the health if it exists in very large amounts. When you eat too much sugar, this hampers the smooth work of the insulin in the body to reduce your blood sugar. This is what is known as insulin resistance. When this happens, then blood sugar levels become highly elevated leading to type II diabetes.

Too much sugar will make you obese: Studies have shown that sugar is one of the biggest causes of obesity among children and adults all over the world because it contains calories that play no good role in the body. I personally didn’t need any scientific evidence to prove to me that eating too much sugar contributes to gaining weight because I experienced it myself. I used to eat a lot of sugar. For example, whenever I was preparing tea, I would add several teaspoons of sugar into a cup of tea. I couldn’t enjoy tea if it wasn’t loaded with sugar. That was how serious my addiction to sugar was. But fortunately for me I was able to put a stop to my addiction to sugar after my doctor strongly advised me against it. It has been about three years now since I massively reduced my sugar intake. I have noticed that since reducing my sugar intake about three years ago, I have also reduced weight considerably. Readers should know that my lifestyle has remained the same, and that the only thing I changed in my life was the amount of sugar I ate. To me, this is proof enough that eating too much sugar can significantly cause you to gain unnecessary weight. Simply put, sugar can make you obese.

And because of how sugar is closely linked to obesity, there have been several campaigns all over the world aimed at discouraging people from consuming too much sugar. For example, in the United Kingdom, law makers on November 30, 2015 called for sugar tax in an attempt to tackle the alarming rate of childhood obesity in the United Kingdom. The British Parliament’s Health Committee said it believed that tax on sugary drinks could play a major role in mitigating childhood obesity.

But readers should know that while it is totally true that eating too much sugar can cause one to become overweight, there are several other factors that play highly significant roles in making the average person to become obese. These things include eating too much food (calories) than needed and not engaging in physical activity or regular exercise.

Besides the health problems mentioned above, too much sugar can also cause the following health problems:

• Too much sugar increases a woman's risk of suffering from yeast infection.

• Sugar can also weaken your immune system and increase your risk of suffering from a host of illnesses.
• Since too much sugar can make you lose bone minerals, you can easily suffer from osteoporosis - a condition in which your bones become very weak and are prone to breaking.
• There are others who say eating too much sugar on a regular basis can also weaken one's eyesight and cause accelerated aging.

On top of all these dangers above, sugar can also be highly addictive like certain dangerous and abusive drugs. Why can sugar be addictive? According to scientists, when a person eats sugar or any food high in sugar, the sugar causes the release of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a feel-good chemical, which when released by the brain makes a person feel good. When you eat sugar, the brain’s reward center is stimulated by the release of the feel-good chemical dopamine. And naturally the average human being has a great tendency to want more of something if that thing gives him a pleasurable sensation. This is what makes sugar highly addictive. This is what makes many people find it difficult getting enough of sugar leaving them always craving for more and more sugar. Many researchers have said of sugar as having the same effect on the brain’s reward center as the abusive drug cocaine. This is the reason why it has been said that sugar can become as addictive as cocaine. When someone gets addicted to a drug such as cocaine, they end up losing control over their use of the drug. The same thing happens with getting addicted to sugar. When you get addicted to sugar, you basically lose control of the amount that you consume. Too much is never enough. You just want more and more of it. And the more of it that you consume, the more you destroy your health.

It is imperative that people know that the dangers of sugar are enormous and real - especially if consumed in excessive amounts. Watch the amount of sugar you are consuming if you want to avoid some of the health issues mentioned in this article! And always remember that besides being capable of giving you some of the health problems above, sugar can also kill you. You should know that since sugar is capable of increasing your risks of developing dangerous and deadly conditions such as diabetes and cancer, then it can easily kill you. Also, you should know that being overweight increases your risk of suffering from killer diseases such heart disease and stroke. And since too much sugar can make you obese, it means it can easily cost you your life.

Now that you have seen how dangerous sugar is for your health, I believe that you will try as much as possible to reduce the amount of sugar and processed sugary foods and drinks that you consume on a daily basis.

Sources:

Reasons To Avoid Sugar: http://bodyecology.com/articles/25_reasons_to_avoid_sugar.php

Disturbing Reasons Why Sugar Is Bad For You: http://authoritynutrition.com/10-disturbing-reasons-why-sugar-is-bad/

Sugar and Britain’s Obesity Crisis: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/oct/23/sugar-britains-obesity-crisis-key-questions-answered