10 Ways Sugar affects your Health
Sugar is sweet, but excess of it can affect your health. Whole foods like fruit, vegetables, dairy, and grains have natural sugars. Your body digests those carbs slowly so your cells get a steady supply of energy. Added sugars, on the other hand, come in packaged foods and drinks. Your body does not need any added sugars.
1. When does sugar becomes much: The American Heart Association recommends not more than 6 teaspoons (25 grams) of added sugar a day for women and 9 teaspoons (36 grams) for men. It’s easy to overdo. One 12-ounce can of regular soda has 10 teaspoons of sugar -- and no nutritional benefit.
2. Weight Gain: If you drink a can of soda every day and don’t trim calories elsewhere, in three years you’d be 15 pounds heavier. Putting on too much weight can lead to problems like diabetes and some cancers.
3. Heart Disease: One in 10 Americans gets 1/4 or more of their daily calories from added sugar. If you consume that much, one study found that you’re more than twice as likely to die from heart disease than someone who gets less than half as much. It’s not clear why. It could be that the extra sugar raises your blood pressure or releases more fats into the bloodstream. Both can lead to heart attack, stroke, and other heart diseases.
4. Diabetes: Sugary drinks in particular can boost your odds for type 2 diabetes. That can happen because when sugar stays in your blood, your body may react by making less of the hormone insulin, which converts the food you eat into energy. Or the insulin doesn’t work as well. If you’re overweight, dropping even 10-15 pounds can help you manage your blood sugar.
5. High blood pressure: Salt is largely blamed for this condition, also called hypertension. But some researchers say another white crystal -- sugar -- may be a more worrisome culprit. One way they believe sugar raises blood pressure is by making your insulin levels spike too high. That can make your blood vessels less flexible and cause your kidneys to hold onto water and sodium.
6. High Cholesterol: Sugary diets are bad for your heart, regardless of how much you weigh. They can:
- Raise your so-called "bad" (LDL) cholesterol and lower the "good" (HDL) kind.
- Hike blood fats called triglycerides and hinder the work of an enzyme that breaks them down.
7. Aging: Sugary drinks may add years to your biological age. DNA called telomeres cap the end of your chromosomes to protect them from damage. Longer is better. Shortened telomeres may go hand in hand with age-related diseases like diabetes. One study found that people who drink 20 ounces of soda a day have shorter telomeres. Researchers figure that’s like adding more than 4 years to the age of your cells.
8: Mood Problem: Feeling down? Your sweet tooth may be part of the problem. Several studies have linked sugar and mental health problems. One of the latest showed that men who ate more than 66 grams of sugar a day -- almost double what’s recommended -- were 23% more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety or depression than men who ate 40 grams or less. Too much sugar could fuel depression through swelling, or inflammation, in your brain, which is more common in people with depression.
9: Poor Sleep: Too much sugar during the day can mess with your blood glucose levels and cause energy spikes and crashes. You may struggle to stay awake at work or doze off in class at school. In the evenings, a bowl of ice cream or cookies can pump you with sugar that can wake you up at night. It also can cut short the time you’re in deep sleep. So you may not wake up feeling refreshed.
10. Gout: You may know that you can get this painful arthritis from eating too much red meat, organ meats, and lobster. The same goes for fructose. When your body breaks it down, it releases a chemical called purines. That can make uric acid build up in your blood, which in turn forms hard crystals in your big toe, knees, and other joints.
Source: WebMD