Discover the Dangerous Impact of Sugar on the Body - Including the Effects of High Blood Sugar Levels
Effects of Sugar on Your Body
Most of us are aware of the impact being overweight plays in health. Being overweight increases the risk for chronic diseases, like heart disease and cancers, as well as diabetes which leads to further health complications. But do you know how sugar is impacting your health? Do you understand sugar’s role in weight gain, diabetes, and disease?
Chronic diseases including diabetes are on the rise. Since more people have access to high quality health care it makes sense to look at what’s causing this increase in disease.
Take a look at sugar. Statistics show that the average American consumes more than 200 pounds of sugar a year. In 1903 the average American consumed just 70 pounds of sugar and in 1999 statistics revealed 170 pound average sugar consumption. There’s no doubt the worlds’ sugar consumption is on the rise.
If we’re eating so much sugar shouldn’t we know what sugar is all about? Once you understand sugar’s negative impact on your health, you may want to take a serious look at how much sugar you consume and reconsider your diet and sugar.
What is Sugar?
There are simple sugars and complex sugars. Complex sugars are starches.
Sugar is found as monosaccharides, disaccharides, or polysaccharides. Monosaccharides are one sugar molecule, disaccharides are two monosaccharides, and polysaccharides are a string of monosaccharides.
When you ingest sugar, the effect it has on the body in part depends on how that sugar is found; in a whole food or in a highly processed food. When you ingest sugars from whole foods you also receive vitamins, nutrients, minerals, and even the enzymes needed to properly digest those sugars; this adds to your nutrient stores in the body.
When you ingest sugars from candy or other processed foods, the essential nutrients have been destroyed and your body then needs to dip into its own nutrient supplies to digest the sugars. The results are depleted nutrient supplies. Not just empty calories, but calories that actually take from the body.
The sugars from candy and processed foods are immediately absorbed into the blood stream, often spiking blood sugar levels and overwhelming the pancreas, liver, and adrenal glands. These are the organs that take care of sugar in the body.
When you eat a whole food and ingest the sugars from it your body is able to deal effectively with the amount of sugar that enters the blood stream because it does so slowly. This allows the pancreas, liver, and adrenal glands to function properly and effectively.
How you get your sugar is important to consider; is it in whole foods or candy and processed foods?
Please continue on to page 2, where you will learn how the body uses sugars from whole foods and processed foods, and what high blood sugar levels means to your health.
How the Body Uses Sugars from Whole Foods and Processed Foods
When you ingest a sugar, whether it’s simple or complex, the body converts the sugar to glucose for the cells. At the same time the pancreas secretes insulin.
Insulin is needed for the cells to receive converted glucose, without insulin the cells aren’t able to get the needed glucose. When we ingest small amounts of sugars in whole foods the system works perfectly and the cells successfully receive the glucose they need. This happens when we eat whole foods that come with the other nutrients essential for digesting and fiber which slows the rate of absorption.
If you choose a candy bar or highly processed food the body becomes overwhelmed with the amount of sugars coming in and the rate at which they’re coming. Basically the sugar is going directly into the body without much digestion.
Eating this type of food spikes the blood sugar levels; the pancreas is alarmed and secretes high amounts of insulin to deal with the sugar; the high amounts of insulin send the blood sugar levels down significantly and instead of normal blood sugar levels the body then has low blood sugar levels. The individual craves a sugary food in response to the low blood sugar levels, eats more candy, spikes the blood sugar levels again stimulating the over secretion of insulin and the cycle continues.
The pancreas, liver, and adrenal glands go from an emergency state down and back again and again. This wears on these vital organs.
High Blood Sugar Levels and Your Health
After weeks, months, and years of this cycle not only do the pancreas, liver, and adrenal glands suffer, the cells become insulin resistant. The body then needs to produce and secrete even more insulin so that the cells of the body can ingest the glucose they are starving for everyday. This cycle goes on and on with blood sugar levels remaining high. When blood sugar levels remain elevated a number of bad things happen to the body.
Please continue on to the final page of this Basics of Nutrition article where you will discover 5 problems you can encounter with elevated blood sugar levels.
Elevated Blood Sugar Levels Lead to:
1. Glycation
In glycation, sugars stick to proteins including LDL (the bad cholesterol). The liver doesn’t recognize it as harmful, doesn’t clear it out, and it forms plaque causing all kinds of problems. The process of glycation creates free radicals that are highly damaging to cells and the body.
2. Collagen Problems
The sugars stick to collagen making it stiff and inflexible leading to sagging skin, and clogging kidneys with stiff, immovable pieces.
3. Suppress Immune System
Elevated blood sugar levels lead to a compromised immune system. White blood cells need vitamin C to eat bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells. Instead of getting vitamin C, the white blood cells become clogged with sugar, making them less effective in ’eating’ up the germs and diseases in the body. That’s why if you’re feeling ill you should avoid sugars.
4. Inhibits release of growth hormones.
Elevated blood sugar levels slow and decrease the release of growth hormones used for fat burning and muscle building, among other essential functions. One of the most prominent times for growth hormone production is at night. This is one reason why you should avoid sugar snacks before bedtime.
5. Insulin Resistance
With continually elevated blood sugar levels, the body no longer responds to the same levels of insulin as it once did. The body is forced to work harder and secrete more insulin so that cells can get glucose. Insulin resistance is currently being looked at as a contributing factor for the new phenomena of low body weight diabetes.
Sugar and Your Body
The effects of a high intake of sugar on a regular and prolonged basis are clearly evident. When you know how sugar impacts the body system and consider how much sugar you may unknowingly be ingesting the correlation becomes clear.
Despite the fact that you may yet to see health impacts from sugar intake, chances are if you eat a high carbohydrate, highly processed diet with little or no whole foods in it, in time your body will respond in ways you probably won’t like.
Taking the time now to evaluate your diet and learning about how whole foods and processed foods affect the body is essential to protecting your health and well being in the future.
