I can hear you say, “Yes, yes, we already know, Nicki. 🙄 [eye roll] Sugar has empty calories and isn’t beneficial for weight management!” But what if I have new information for you that will help you to ditch it for good?
Let me mention some of the negative health effects of too much sugar you have read previously but may have forgotten. And after that, I’ll share new research.
Old info first:
Excess intake of starchy foods and sugars can be converted to high triglyceride levels.
Those are linked to the hardening of the arteries or the thickening of the artery walls which increases the risk of stroke, heart attack, and heart disease.
A high sugar diet is linked with weight gain and type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.
It can cause your liver to create more “bad” LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol. Not only that, but it triggers your liver to store fat which can lead to non-alcoholic liver disease.
Left unchecked this can lead to various medical problems including poor memory and confusion, and more serious medical issues.
The University of Zurich wrote that even ‘moderate’ amounts of sugar [like 2 cans of soft drink with sugar] “double our fat production in the liver beyond food intake.”
Meaning, even if our calorie consumption doesn’t increase, extra sugar has a negative effect on fat levels in the liver.
They continue:
“Soft drinks with lots of sugar boost fat production in the liver. Not just in the short term, but for a longer period.”
This next point is quite well known. But perhaps it’s good to read it again: Sugar can be addictive. It can activate the brain’s pleasure centre.
And after a while, regular servings of sugar don’t ‘work’ anymore. You might start to seek out larger amounts to get the same ‘high’ hormonal happy spike. Such frequent sugary treats can start a loop of sugar addiction. You might even have to look into my Sugar Cleanse programme to get some tips on how to break this loop.
Feeling down?
Refined carbs and sugar are also linked to anxiety and depression and can weaken the body’s ability to deal with stress.
Ok then…enough of the well-known facts. What’s the latest info on the negative impact of consuming sugar on a regular basis?
Because researchers are always keen to find out ‘WHY’ certain health issues occur, they wanted to know more about the negative effects of eating sugar. 🧐
So they set to work on finding out how a diet containing too many sweet things could activate metabolic diseases on a cellular level.
They explained that the body likes glucose [sugar/carbs] for its energy.
Researchers mentioned that “All good things in moderation” is OK. But too much of a good thing, especially sugar, is to be avoided. It can contribute to metabolic diseases.
They showed that eating too much sugar puts stress on the mitochondria which are referred to as the powerhouses of our cells.
Mitochondria help turn the energy we take from food into energy that our cells can use.
But when we eat too much sugar, havoc occurs.
This is what they uncovered: “We found that too much glucose in cells, which is directly linked to the amount of sugar we’ve consumed, affects lipid composition throughout the body. And this in turn affects the integrity of mitochondria. The overall effect is a loss of optimal function.”
In other words, eating too many desserts, sweet biscuits, soft drinks, and cakes, [even too many ‘healthy’ oat cookies with coconut sugar] makes the mitochondria less efficient.
One of the results is that we can gain more weight because the conversion into energy is hindered and fat storage is enhanced.
As none of us wants to experience debilitating metabolic diseases and unwanted weight gain, let’s decide to ditch sugar for good.
That includes any syrup, brown sugar, coconut sugar, or any other concentrated processed carbs that can spike our glucose levels.
But wait a minute….there’s no way I’ll give up a slice of my yearly birthday cake or Christmas cake.
And what about a slice of banana cake on Sunday afternoon?
After all, they did say ‘all good things in moderation’ was OK. 🤭