The effects of sugar on the body are life-threating and positive at the same time. Apart from the negative effects of sugar on the body, sugar diet uplifts your energy levels. Like fuel to vehicles; sugar is a source of power for your organs, and they could shut down within minutes of energy failure. According to the World Health Organization; consumers increase their risk of death from coronary disease by three times by feeding on sugar to get 25 percent of their daily calories.
Composition of sugar
When you read about sweetened foods, the first question on your mind is; how bad is sugar for you? Many nutrition facts label don’t fully disclose the level of refined sugars in their products. Sugars are sweeteners that occur naturally or in processed forms as white crystals. There are simple and complex sugars like our DNA is a chain of simple sugars. The simple sugars are glucose and fructose; with the latter being the sweeter.
Naturally, sucrose is the regular table sugar we consume; it contains fructose and glucose (dextrose) when broken down by acids. The mixture of the acid, fructose, and glucose gives a syrup that’s formally called invert sugar. The resulting syrup becomes sweeter than it’s original sucrose state and it’s regularly added to processed drinks. Corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), molasses, lactose, and nectars are other forms of refined sugar.
Is sugar bad for you, and can a lot of sugar kill you?
The consumption of sugar should be done moderately. However, a diet from sugar can harm you from the inside out, triggers serious health challenges, and usually, the final result is fatal. The link between sugar and diabetes has been largely highlighted; but, there is a connection between the diet and cardiovascular disease. There are more proven cases of negative effects of sugar intake; it weakens your immune system and increases the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver ailments.
Regardless of how irresistible consumers find the sweetness, fructose levels in sodas, a piece of cake, and processed fruit juices is a major health concern. However, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger; it’s not the case for sugar. It builds up in your coronary arteries to form plaques and makes you weaker from the inside.
What are the effects of eating too much sugar?
The effects of refined sugar are many; the loss of calcium and magnesium, depletion of chromium, insulin resistance and more. The body’s mineral balance that sugar takes responsibility for can trigger chronic joint pains in your mid-age. However, confectioneries, cereals, jam, ketchup, and beverages are some staple foods that are largely made from sugars.
When there’s excessive sugar in the blood that amounts to over 150 calories every day; your risk of type-2 diabetes increases by over 1.1 percent. A regular can of soda of about 33cl contain 150 calories of refined sugar, and many consumers feed on them every day. So, the prevailing rates of high-fructose corn syrup in our diets can spike the risk of tissue and blood vessel inflammations.
Diseases caused by sugar
A consumer’s risk of early death can be increased by consuming high contents of sugary foods. Health problems caused by sugar can lead to other diseases. So, the effects of sugar on body can’t be over-emphasized. Mineral and vitamin imbalance occurs when glucose that’s produced after metabolism uses excessive nutrients by enzymes to produce energy molecules.
When you feed on carbs (simple sugars), they break down into fructose and the liver absorbs every bit, but glucose is absorbed into the bloodstream. We get our daily energy (fuel) from glucose after being processed by enzymes. These enzymes require nutrients (calcium, vitamins, and magnesium) to generate the energy molecule – ATP. With excess glucose levels in the blood, enzymes draw extra minerals (calcium and magnesium) and vitamins from other body parts. This over-withdrawal of nutrients and vitamins lead to an imbalance that takes a toll on the consumer’s health.
What are the side effects of a heavy sugar diet? Insulin resistance is an early stage of type-2 diabetes. The excessive consumption of sugar can overwhelm the pancreas and cause disruptions in the secretion of insulin. When this abnormality occurs, it leads to metabolic syndrome and type-2 diabetes.
Cardiovascular diseases evolve when the consumption of sugars (carbohydrate) raise your blood’s triglyceride levels. The early sign is weight gain because triglycerides are fats that clog the arteries. More so, triglycerides reduce HDL (‘the good’) cholesterol levels and spike blood pressure.
What are the effects of eating too much sugar? By eating too much sugar, symptoms include weakened bones, higher body fat percentage, tooth decay and more. However, sugar helps yeast, and microorganisms to grow in the guts and cause damage to their host. The leaky gut syndrome is a metabolic disorder when your intestinal wall is punctured by microorganisms feeding on sugary particles. This condition will create a leaky gut and decrease your opportunity to live longer.
The bone mass reduction is a condition where the consumption of carbohydrate causes a higher body fat percentage that exerts pressure on the bones. Chronic arthritis and bone fractures are triggered by poor bone tissue formation. To build strong bones; calcium, vitamins, and magnesium are nutrients needed in the right quantities. Excessive sugar intake can prevent the absorption and utilization of bone-building nutrients. Eventually, signs bone diseases like osteoporosis can spring up at an early age of thirty-five.
What does too much sugar do to your body? The risk of developing the fatty liver disease from excessive intake of sugar-sweetened drinks and junk foods is real. When high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) accumulated in the liver, the long-term result is the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
What are the effects of too much sugar? Sugary drinks have been linked to the alteration of the acid-base balance in the bloodstream. The level of phosphorus in soft beverages can raise the pH value of the blood above normal. This condition triggers the release of calcium and magnesium from the bone’s mineral bank to restore the pH value.
What to do after eating too much sugar?
Measuring the level of sugar in the blood helps you to know what to do after eating too much sugar. More so, sugary diet enthusiasts rely on a daily intake of organic chromium yeast pills to boost their insulin sensitivity. However, the addition of fiber and slow-digesting protein to your diet plan can regulate your blood sugar levels. Sugars don’t give satiety; so, the consumer feels hungry and makes an error of loading the stomach with more sugar-based diets. Instead of this dietary error, grab some legumes, fiber, nuts, or veggies to lower the level of glucose in your blood.
Conclusion
Any disease caused by sugar starts by giving warning signs. So, the harmful effects of sugar can be felt before they grow out of proportion. Staying safe and healthy starts from our basic diet plans. According to the World Health Organization (WHO); it recommends for adults and children to maintain at least 10% of their calorie consumption from refined sugar. The popular household sodas and beverage manufacturers are the biggest sources of health hazards from sugar consumption.
