Toxic Effects of Sugar
How Sweet It Isn’t!
If you’re looking for an inflammatory food that will wreak havoc with your gut, impair your cognitive function, create pain in your joints, age your skin prematurely, activate dormant cancer cells, and cause insulin resistance that will lead to diabetes and dementia, SUGAR promises to do all of those things for you!
There aren’t too many people who don’t enjoy the sweet taste of sugar, at least on occasion. Unfortunately, the Standard American Diet contains far more sugar than your body can burn, which is why there is an obesity epidemic in the US. Your body’s inability to tolerate this amount of sugar results in serious health consequences.
Sugar is one of the most addictive substances in our food chain. I can attest to this, because I am a recovering sugar addict. Yep! I had a serious sugar addiction for many years. It started when I was a child and continued into my 30s. I can tell you that getting off the sugar roller coaster was the best thing I could have done for my physical and mental health. Minimizing sugar in my diet has improved my health in countless ways!
Sugar can be physically and psychologically addictive in the same way the body becomes dependent on drugs and alcohol. Brain imaging studies have shown that when you eat sugar, the reward pathways in your brain light up, causing a surge of dopamine, the neurotransmitter that allows you to feel pleasure. Repeated activation of this reward system sets you up for continued cravings and an increased tolerance to sugar, making it difficult to control your sugar intake. Eating sugar makes you crave more sugar because after the instantaneous spike in the blood glucose, the pancreas secretes insulin to reduce the dangerously high blood sugar, and then the blood glucose plummets, leaving you feeling tired, weak, and hungry as a result of low blood sugar. When blood sugar levels drop excessively, the hormone ghrelin is secreted, which stimulates appetite in an attempt to restore normal blood sugar levels. So the brain is getting the message, “Feed me! I’m starving! I need sugar!!!” If you struggle with maintaining your ideal weight, keep in mind that your body goes into fat storage mode when insulin levels are too high.
Refined white sugar is a source of empty calories because it is devoid of vitamins and minerals. Simple sugars enter the bloodstream instantaneously to supply immediate energy to the body to fuel cellular activity and support bodily functions and physical activity, which is advantageous if the glucose is utilized. However, if the glucose in the blood is not immediately burned for energy, it will be converted to triglycerides and stored as body fat for future energy needs.
To put this in perspective, if you drink one 20-ounce Gatorade or one 12-ounce soda, you have to walk 55 minutes to prevent your body from storing those calories as fat. In order to burn the sugar in a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte, you would have to swim non-stop for 40 minutes. A teaspoon of sugar has 4 grams of sugar, so a 12-ounce Coca Cola, which contains 39 grams of sugar, contains 9½ teaspoons of sugar. A 32-ounce McDonald’s large sweet tea contains 69 grams of sugar, a whopping 17¼ teaspoons of sugar. Read nutrition labels and decide whether it is worth sacrificing your health to drink them. Think about how many grams of sugar you would avoid by simply drinking water flavored with some lemon or lime juice!!
When you consume carbohydrates, you should look at the glycemic load, not the glycemic index, of the food. The glycemic index ranks foods on a scale from 1-100 based on the food’s effect on blood sugar levels but doesn’t consider the number of carbohydrates you are consuming. Cane sugar has a glycemic index of 100 because it is instantly metabolized into the bloodstream. Glycemic load is a better measure of how rapidly the carbohydrate will be metabolized into the blood because it considers the serving size and the amount of glucose consumed. For instance, carrots have a relatively high glycemic index. However, they are loaded with fiber and water, so you would have to eat a pound and a half of carrots at one time for them to have a measurable difference in your blood glucose levels.
If you familiarize yourself with the glycemic load of foods, you can make informed, healthier choices. For example, basmati rice has a lower glycemic load than sticky white rice because of a chemical difference in the starch. Waxy or New potatoes have a lower glycemic load than starchy white potatoes.
Naturally derived sugars, such as blackstrap molasses, maple syrup, raw honey, coconut sugar, brown rice syrup, and fructose have a high glycemic load. While they contain some nutrients, they still metabolize rapidly, dramatically increasing blood sugar. If you have to have one of these, choose maple syrup, as it has the lowest glycemic load of all the natural sweeteners. On the other hand, stevia or monk fruit are better choices, because they have no impact on blood glucose levels. Stevia has actually been shown to lower blood pressure and minimize blood sugar spikes after a meal. So if you want to sweeten your coffee after your meal, stevia is a great choice.
There are some things you can do to slow the metabolism of sugar in your bloodstream and prevent insulin spikes. If you eat sugar, be sure to eat it in combination with fiber, protein, and fats. Protein helps to stabilize blood sugar levels, while fiber and fat slow the metabolism of the sugar into the body.
Consequences of eating sugar are much more significant than simply causing unwanted weight gain. There is evidence that consumption of excessive carbohydrate intake can adversely affect mental wellbeing. Sugar consumption stimulates the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin, and over-activation of the serotonin pathways can deplete limited supplies of this feel-good neurotransmitter, which can contribute to symptoms of depression and anxiety. Pay attention to the food-mood connection to determine whether sugar negatively impacts your mood.
Sugar consumption elicits an inflammatory response, which can negatively impact cognitive functioning, mood, digestion, and energy levels. What is worse is that a diet high in sugar can impede learning and memory by causing “cognitive slowing,” a reduction in the rate at which the brain processes information. Excessive glucose causes the formation of free radicals in the brain that interferes with neuronal communication. A high-sugar diet high negatively affects synaptic activity.
Chronically high blood sugar levels can cause inflammation in the brain, which is known to cause depression. The brain inflammation will cause brain fog and lead to severe neurodegenerative disorders if brain inflammation remains uncontrolled. Because of the inflammation caused by sugar, eating a high-sugar diet can increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia. If you have a family history of dementia, to avoid turning on the expression of your ApoE4 gene, which places you at significant risk of this neurodegenerative disorder, you would be wise to avoid excess dietary sugar as much possible.
Sugar encourages fermentation of undigested food in your gastrointestinal tract, which invites dysbiosis and upsets the bacterial balance in your microbiome.
Candida, a form of yeast that is normal in small amounts in the GI tract, will proliferate in the presence of sugar, which creates an overgrowth of candida and causes significant brain dysfunction because it promotes neuroinflammation. The gut and brain are connected, and information is relayed between the gut and brain through the vagus nerve. Candida is sustained by the presence of sugar, and a strict 6-month sugar-free diet must be followed to resolve this dysbiotic imbalance in the gut.
It has long been known that sugar can be destructive to the teeth, but what most people don’t understand is that cavities are the result of dysbiosis in the oral microbiome. The mouth harbors over 700 species of bacteria, including viruses and yeast, and sugar upsets the microbial balance in the oral cavity. When sugar is digested by the bacteria in the mouth, acid is produced, which weakens tooth enamel through the process of demineralization. Acid-producing bacteria feed off of sugar and multiply, disrupting the bacterial balance in the oral microbiome. Biofilm, a slimy film of bacteria, adheres to the surface of your tongue, gums, and the hard surfaces of your teeth. It forms plaque at the gum line, which left unchecked, can cause periodontal disease.
In addition to all the problems sugar creates within the body, it can actually cause premature aging of the skin as well. Dr. William Danby, a Dartmouth Medical School dermatologist, says sugar is the skin’s “enemy” because it causes amino acids to form cross-links in the skin, which prevent cellular repair when collagen and elastin break down from exposure to free-radicals or sun. He recommends keeping sugar intake to an absolute minimum and eating, instead, cinnamon, cloves, oregano, ginger, and garlic, all of which slow down the cross-linking in the skin and impede cellular recovery.
The bottom line is that sugar is not your friend. It contributes to obesity and will prevent you from losing weight because it upsets glucose homeostasis and promotes insulin resistance, priming your body for Type 2 diabetes. It is toxic to your body and can cause a host of avoidable health issues if you are willing to use healthy alternatives to sugar, like stevia, monk fruit, and xylitol. Xylitol, the sweetener used in chewing gum, has been shown to reduce the levels of harmful bacteria by 27-75% in the oral microbiome.
It takes your body about 3 days to process all of the dietary sugar out of your system, so if you completely eliminate sugar from your diet for 3 days, your body will stop craving it. Most people find that when they do this 3-day sugar elimination, their cognitive function and mood improves and their pain diminishes, as a result of the decrease of inflammation in the body. What have you got to lose by giving a try? It is much easier to do if you find alternatives that work for you. The calorie-free natural sweeteners, stevia, and monk fruit are your friends. They may taste slightly different than sugar, but isn’t your health worth making this minor dietary adjustment?
In good health,
Valerie Folsom-Martin, MSW, LCSW, CIMHP, CCTP, FDN-P, CHHC
Work with me
Click the button below and get connected with me!
Subscribe
Get the Synergy Health Solutions health education emails and newsletter!