Short And Sweet Horror Story: How Does Sugar Affect Your Body

fact about sugarIn the past few years sugar started getting a really bad reputation.

More and more people are tending to eat sugar-free products especially when it comes to weight loss, but most important of all – when it comes to health.

On the other hand, Coca Cola, McDonald’s and the rest of the gang are still at a blooming point, but they’re kicking sugar out of their products too – a typical example for that is the Coca Cola Zero.

But why did sugar suddenly became so bad for us, when it’s been around us since… forever?

Why are people referring to it as “the sweet poison” or “the modern world’s drug”?

Well, you’re about to find out!

Our really good friend Monica May from “Fit girl’s diary” has a thing or two that she can say about sugar. She has inspired many girls(and guys) around the world to live and lead a healthy life and we are really happy to share this amazing guest post. Thank you Monica!

What Is “Sugar”?

First of all, let’s get it straight, what does “sugar” even mean?

That white stuff we all refer to as “sugar” is actually a sweet crystalline substance obtained from various plants, mostly sugarcane and sugar beet, consisting essentially of sucrose.

Sucrose is actually two simple sugars that are stuck together:

  • fructose and glucose

But what happens when this half glucose-half fructose carbohydrate enters our body?

Well first, consuming this formula makes your pancreas secrete the hormone called insulin.

One of insulin’s jobs is to cause your body to store fat, but also to alert the hormone in our brain called leptin, which is a hormone that actually sends signals to your body to let it know that it’s full.

But sugar gives your brain a hard time recognizing leptin, so this means that you don’t really know when you’ve had enough.

You can’t stop eating before you eat the whole chocolate, right?

Well, guess what, you’re not the one to blame – it’s fructose’s fault.

Fructose is actually known as the addictive part of the sugar.

I bet you wonder how can sugar be addictive…

Well, have you ever heard of dopamine?

Dopamine is part of your brain’s reward system, it is what gets you addicted to certain things or behaviors in the first place.

Here’s how it works:

  • When you eat certain foods for the first time, the dopamine levels are going up as you feel the excitement, but when you eat certain food again and again, your dopamine levels start dropping down and the food becomes boring.

But that’s not the case when it comes to sugar!

When you consume sugar, your brain is rewarded, the satisfaction rises thus reinforcing the will to consume sugar again.

Even though you’ve had chocolate many times, your brain is still as excited as if you’re eating it for the first time in your life.

That’s how every addiction starts, and that’s the same way drugs work.

That’s why sugar has been proven to be as addictive as cocaine and heroin!

There’s more:

In many cases this leads to obesity and problems with your pancreas.

The pancreas produces insulin that helps regulate the blood sugar levels, so the more sugar you have, the harder your pancreas has to work.

And unhealthy pancreas leads to many diseases starting from Diabetes, to metabolic syndrome and worst case scenario heart disease.

Sugar damages the liver too:

When ingested, the fructose is poorly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract and it’s almost entirely cleared by the liver.

Our liver can deal with fructose, but the thing is, it cannot deal with the amount of fructose we consume nowadays.

And the amount of sugar we all consume nowadays is actually breathtaking!

How Much Sugar Do We Actually Consume?

Okay, we got one thing straight – Sugar is bad for us!

Now you might think to yourself:

I don’t have a sweet tooth…

But believe me you don’t need a sweet tooth to get sugar in your body on a daily basis and that’s because sugar is EVERYWHERE around us.

We have dramatically increased the sugar intake, because it is in every nook and cranny on the market.

The amount of sugar we consume every day is actually horrifying, and here’s why:

The sad truth is that we can find sugar in almost every product these days, because it is added in products that have never had sugar before and foods you’d least expect.

The sad statistics say that 80% of the food items in America contain added sugar.

YES 80%!

And what’s even sadder is that at this present time the food manufacturers use many different names to label sugar, so it really gets trickier to avoid it.

The food industry wants to hide this white toxin from us because it is not good for us, but it makes every food taste better, and tasty food sells!

Well, that really makes the point because if we are addicted to their products, we’ll keep buying them, and they’ll keep making more and more money, right?

Here are some of the names that are used to represent sugar:

sugar names

List Of Sugar Products

There are two main types of sugary foods you have to be aware of:

  • sugars and grains

Other than the obvious sugary products, you should definitely be aware of:

  • drink powders and soft drinks
  • bread
  • dried fruit
  • cereals
  • canned fruits
  • sauces and instant gravies
  • frozen yogurt
  • granola bars
  • whey
  • sun-dried chili peppers and tomatoes
  • low fat foods
  • instant oatmeal
  • canned soup
  • salad dressings
  • tomato sauce
  • ketchup
  • mustard

…and these are just few of the products with hidden sugars in them – the sad truth is there are tons of them!

Here’s what you can do:

Read every product’s ingredients before buying it.

This is one great habit if you want to maintain a healthy diet – it can take more of your time when shopping, but it’s worth it.

And remember – “low fat” or “all natural” doesn’t always mean zero sugar, even zero sugar doesn’t mean clean sugar free product (oh, the world we live in…)

I gave you the hidden names for sugar, so make sure you spot them right away next time.

And what about grains – what does that mean?

  • Breads

(wholemeal, wholegrain or white, rye, pita, lavash, naan)

  • Breakfast Cereals

(ready to eat, high fiber, wholegrain oats, porridge, muesli, wholewheat biscuits)

  • Grains

(rice, barley, corn, polenta, buckwheat, spelt, millet, sorghum, triticale, rye, quinoa, semolina)

  • Also: pasta, noodles, crumpet, rice cakes, couscous, bulgur, popcorn, flour.

Now It’s Your Turn To Kick Sugar Out of Your Diet!

As you can see for yourself, the rumors are 100% true, and the sad truth is that people unfortunately are not aware of this yet.

And by the time you realize that sugar damages the body, mind and health, it might be too late.

1 in every 3 people is obese, so let’s work together to crush these numbers down!

It’s not easy, it takes hard work, but it’s only about your health.

Since there are many methods about giving up sugar, here’s one that it’s free and effective at the same time: The Team Up Technique – Sugar Quitting Formula.

And remember – your body can take almost anything, it’s your mind that needs an extra push 🙂

sugar

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