10 Reasons Why Too Much Sugar Is Bad For You
We all know that consuming too many sweets and sugar is bad for us. But do we fully understand why? I sure didn’t, and I’m sure you are curious to find out too. Did you know that there are quite a number of medical and nutritional experts out there who believe sugar is so bad for you, therefore, it should be regulated like a drug? Yep, that’s how bad it is.
Keep in mind, if you only indulge in sugary treats once in a while, you probably have nothing to worry about. Most of the health risks here apply to people who consume sugary foods in large quantities.
Reasons Why Too Much Sugar Is Bad For You.
Reduce Sugar To Slow Your Aging Process
Reducing sugar intake can help slow down your aging process. Not only will you have a better chance of living longer, but your skin will also look and feel a lot healthier once you kick the sugar habit. Sugar suppresses your body’s ability to naturally release the human growth hormone into your body. Your body naturally releases this hormone into your system to help keep your skin and body looking and feeling healthy. Sugar inhibits this process, so reducing your sugar intake will help your body do what it’s designed to do once again.
Reasons Why Too Much Sugar Is Bad For You.
Sugar weakens your immune system temporarily.
Drink a bottle of Coca-Cola and get sneezed on by the guy with a contagious illness? Yep, your immune system is going to have a tougher time fighting off that disease because of the sugar you just ingested. The dampening lasts for several hours after you ingest the sugary substance, so if you’re a sugar addict, you may be prone to sickness more often than normal.
Reasons Why Too Much Sugar Is Bad For You.
Ingesting high amounts of sugar can lead to diabetes
Yes, ingesting sugar can lead to diabetes. When you consume sugar, your pancreas releases insulin to clear the sugar from your blood cells. The more sugar you consume, and the longer you consume it, the level of insulin that needs to be released to clear the sugar goes up. I’m talking about a residual effect here, not continuously eating candy bars all day long (although that will just do the trick faster). If you eat 2-3 candy bars a day, eventually your insulin levels needed to clear the sugar will get higher and higher. After a time, your pancreas calls it quits and you become an insulin-dependent diabetic.
Reasons Why Too Much Sugar Is Bad For You
Makes You Hungry
Another reason why you should stop consuming sugar is that foods high in sugar are usually high in calories but don’t fill you up as quickly. This will lead to you eating more of the stuff to fill full. Since you’re consuming more calories than you should, you’re likely to gain weight as well. Once you gain that weight, it’s twice as hard to get rid of it, so skip the sugary snacks.
Your Liver Called In Sick Today
Another reason to quit eating sugary snacks is that sugar causes serious damage to your liver. Fructose is absorbed from snacks or other foods flavored with sugar. Fructose is only able to be metabolized by your liver so it heads straight for it once consumed. Consume a lot of it at once and you’re overworking your liver. Your liver converts a portion of the fructose into glucose and stores it as glycogen. The rest is then converted to triglycerides. High triglycerides = high risk of cardiovascular diseases.
It makes you less smart.
Sugar has been shown to impair brain function, so if you’re feeling like you can’t remember things or your memory gets foggy, try cutting down on the sugar. You may start feeling like you can remember those things again, and if not, what have you lost? Maybe a little bit of weight from not eating so much sugar, but that’s about it.
It’s bad for your teeth
That sugar in that drink you’re drinking? Yep, your teeth hate it! It will cause cavities and other problems with your teeth and gums. Don’t believe me? Ask your dentist and they’ll tell you the same thing. They may even have a pamphlet on it in their office. Some dentists recommend that if you’re going to drink sugary drinks, you drink them through a straw to minimize contact with your teeth. I checked with my dentist and he said that while that may help, the sugary drink still has the chance of touching the tops and bottoms of your teeth and wreaking havoc there.
Reasons Why Too Much Sugar Is Bad For You.
It can make you gain weight.
I mentioned this earlier when talking about the higher calorie, but less fulfilling foods. But there’s another reason sugar can make you gain weight. Eating sugar increases your brain’s leptin resistance. Leptin tells your brain when you’re stomach’s full and the brain says “Hey you, stop eating!” Not only do sugary foods not fill you up as much (They are still higher in calories), and they damage the brain’s ability to tell you when you’re really full. Double, double trouble!
Reasons Why Too Much Sugar Is Bad For You.
Sugar can hurt your chances of survival if you have cancer.
Studies have shown some pretty negative results when they looked at the intake of sugar compared with breast- and colon cancer survival rates. There are probably some other factors out there that affect those survival rates; however, sugar was also shown to play a role. Consuming high amounts of sugar can also increase your cell’s susceptibility to cancer in the first place.
Reasons Why Too Much Sugar Is Bad For You.
Causes Heart Problems
Last but not least, sugar affects the heart in a negative way. Eating sugar slows your heart’s pumping mechanism and increases the risk of heart failure. There is a specific molecule in sugar that causes changes in the heart’s muscle protein. These changes eventually lead to heart failure and nearly half of all the people diagnosed with heart failure die within five years after initially being diagnosed. That’s a good enough reason for me to lay off the snacks for a while!
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