So why is sugar bad for your body? What is SUGAR?
Name given to a sweet tasting soluble carbohydrate many of which are used in food.
Simple Sugars – Monosaccharides e.g. Glucose, fructose, and galactose
Granulated Sugar – Disaccharide e.g. Sucrose
Added Sugar – Industrial Processed Form of Sucrose added during manufacture.
There is no doubt in my mind that sugar is a poison for our body and becomes highly addictive. Let me help you find out more about the hidden sugars and why sugar is bad for your body.
Why Is Cutting Down In Sugar Important For Our Health?
Dental Health – Too much sugar is bad for your teeth as they decay. It is also better to eat an apple than it is to drink fruit juices. ‘Pret’ Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice contains 51 grams of sugar over twice that of the daily recommended allowance. 1 medium-sized apple contains 16 grams and a medium-sized orange contains 17 grams.
Heart & Cholesterol Health – Eating too much sugar is bad for your health. Can lead to diseases such as T2 Diabetes, Heart Disease and Fatty Liver Complications.
Weight Loss – If you are looking to lose weight and become healthier it is important to cut down on the sugar and the regularity of consumption. Sugar is loaded full of calories with no goodness. 1 teaspoon of sugar equates to 16 calories.
Type 2 Diabetes – Millions of people in the world have diabetes type 2. A quarter of adults in the UK are recorded as obese. 1 in 3 children are recorded as obese in the UK mainly due to being overweight. “A Western Diet” which includes a lot of processed food and sugars is the main cause.
Sugar Addiction – Highly refined sugar is so bad for our body due to the way it is metabolized. When we eat sugar, opioids bind to receptors in the brain increasing dopamine release. This is a similar experience to that of amphetamines. It is the reason why we never feel full with sugar and why 1 biscuit is never enough!
What Are The Sugars To Avoid?
FREE Sugars – These are added to fizzy drinks, cakes, biscuits, Yogurts, Breakfast Cereals, and other processed food.
Sugars in Honey and Syrups (agave, maple and golden), nectar, unsweetened fruit juices, vegetable juices and smoothies. Whilst naturally occurring, juices are also considered free sugars.
Natural Sugar found in Milk, Whole Fruit and Vegetables and is not counted as a free sugar and is therefore healthy for us.
The government recommends that Sugars should only account for 5% of the energy (calories) that you use daily. So, for adults this equates to 90 grams (21 teaspoons) of total sugar and only 30g (7 Teaspoons of FREE Sugars).
FREE Sugar Daily allowance – Adults 30grams, Children 19 grams.
Let me give you an example of sugar in context.
330 ml Can of Fizzy Drinks – 35 grams FREE Sugars or 9 Teaspoons (More than your daily allowance)
1 Apple – 15 grams Natural Sugar or 3.5 Teaspoons
There is no question that too much sugar is bad for our health and we need to start making better choices to enable us to lead a healthier and fitter lifestyle.
A “Balanced Diet” should include Wholegrain starchy foods, fresh fruit, and vegetables. It is important to look at your labels for hidden sugars and try to stay away from anything processed.
Did You Know The Average Adult Consumes 30 to 40 Teaspoons Of Sugar Per Day!
Yes, it is a fact and the worst news of all is that most of this is hidden and we are not even aware of it.
Healthy Options and Low-Fat Foods are to blame for our increased sugar intake simply because people do not realize that they are all processed.
Examples: –
Juices, Smoothies, Low Fat Yogurt, Muesli. Breakfast Cereals, Cereal Bars, Rice Cakes, BBQ Sauce and much more contribute to our sugar addiction.
If the local Supermarket were to take out all the products on its shelves that contained sugar it would be left with only 20% of food to sell.
Epidemiological Studies show that consuming large amounts of added sweeteners, sodas or low-fat foods is associated with a greater risk of
Fatty Liver Disease
Insulin Resistance
Heart Disease
Type ll Diabetes
Mental Behaviour
In a lot of instances, it is the fructose added to sugars that is hazardous for our health. Simply put our bodies are not designed to handle large amounts of sugar at any one time.
Sugar is not bad for you it is more the amount consumed that is. We only used to eat fructose in fruit and the amounts were relatively small in comparison. As I pointed out earlier an Apple only has 15 grams of natural sugar. Apple juice however (even if made at home) would need at least 4 to 5 apples for about 8 ounces. I do not know about you, but I could only eat 1 apple per day. Just think at how much sugar is in the juice. Approximately 28 teaspoons!
Unfortunately, manufacturers learned how to turn foods which contain fibre, water and other good nutrients into various sources of processed sugar e.g. Refining Sugar Cane into Table Sugar.
The World Health Organization recommends no more than 6/7 Teaspoons of Sugar a day for a healthy diet and that equates to approximately 100 calories. 
Here are a few so called “low fat” options to show you the sugar content.
Special K Cereal Bar = 25g of Sugar which about 6 teaspoons of Sugar
Low Fat Muller Light Yogurt = 4 teaspoons of sugar in 165g pot
An average person would consume as their so called “healthy breakfast” the following
Healthy Cereal, Low Fat Yogurt and Apple Juice which equates to 20 teaspoons of FREE sugars.
In total that shows for breakfast alone you would have consumed almost your entire days allowance of total sugars and 3 times the amount of free sugars………just from breakfast.
If you have never watched the film “That Sugar Film” then please do. You can catch some trailers on You Tube
It discovers issues facing our society today over hidden sugars and the complexity of not knowing what you are putting into your own bodies and that of your children. It is about a journey of hidden sugar and how unhealthy you can become very quickly. Yet, it also describes the incredible benefits of changing these habits and what can happen instantly from removing this sugar.
Conclusion
I hope that I have showed the reason why we should be so careful of our food choices and why staying away from processed foods is so important.
The thought that 1 in 3 children in the UK are recorded as being obese according to diabetes.co.uk https://www.diabetes.co.uk/Diabetes-Risk-factors.html.
This to me is so shocking and something must be done to change this. Oddly enough we can change this and we can do this now simply by making better food choices.
Hopefully, if I can help just 1 person and that 1 person helps another very soon, we can make a difference to someone’s life.
Please feel free to contact me by leaving your comments below if you have any questions or want some more information.
Oscar
Helooo there, this is really an insightful and educatinonal piece the topic titled, why sugar is bad for our body. This is really educating, I have learnt a lot from in here. Sugar is indeed not too good for our body, I am definitely going to be very way watchful and mindful on the kind choices of meals I consume. Well done there.
Imelda Easthorpe
Thank you so much I am so pleased that I can help. It is really something I feel very strongly about as the governments and the manufacturers are getting richer whilst keeping people addicted to sugar.
Thank you
laertes
Hi there…yes its true that too much intake of sugar is bad for the health and it leads to the increase occurence of chronic diseases and obesity,it is estimated that by the year 2030 nearly 500million of the earths population will have diabetes and it will be increasing due to the presence of prediabetes in the population due to high intake of sugar and decrease activity or having sedentary lifestyle.thank you for such a wonderful article that you shared to your readers.
Imelda Easthorpe
Thank you so much for your comments especially about the figures on diabetes by 2030 as it is so scary. Hopefully, I can help someone to avoid diabetes and start thinking of a healthier lifestyle. Thankyou
Steviejohn41
Hello there, This is an amazing article that you have got here. Thanks for sharing this information with us. Sugar can be very defective and addictive like you said. But, how are we expected to reduce the intake of sugar seeing that they are both harmful and sweet tasting. Also how are we expected to know the right amount of sugar that the body needs.
thanks for sharing this with me.
Imelda Easthorpe
Hello, thank you for your comments.
Yes, sugar is very addictive with the only real way of coming off sugar is to firstly stop eating processed foods which is really important. Processed foods are high in salt and sugar and of no nutritional value.
I hope that helps a little.
hillarydandy
Hello there! thank you for sharing this highly informative and educational post with us today. It’s really unfair how something that tastes so good could be so bad for us. Despite knowing how heavenly sugar tastes, It’s going to be difficult to look at it the same way, after learning all these ways in which sugar affects our body
Imelda Easthorpe
Thank you so much,
I am so sorry to be the bearer of bad news but sugar is so bad unless you ate the raw sugar cane. The reason it tastes so good is purely because the manufactures use it to their own advantage and keep people eating rubbish.
A little tip is to try and eat good honest food.
Thank you
evansese
having too much of everything is in life is definitely not good and the same applies to having too much sugar in our body.. too much Sugar is bad for you a because it has calories, and because if you have diabetes or a diabetes-related condition, lets say high blood fat levels, then having sugar will increase your blood sugar and your triglycerides, which is a risk factor for heart disease. …
Imelda Easthorpe
Good comments which is so true. The affects of sugar on our body means that we are susceptible to increased chronic disease and especially linked to the heart. Heart disease the biggest killer.
Thank you
Skuchmane
hellloo dear, thank alot for sharing such an amazing post with us all, it really has been usefull,to me alot, i indeed was surprise seeing all what sugar can cause to ones health, and i also believe your strategy to reduce it is really amazing, i believe what kills mostly is the fact that you dont know, most people really dont know the damage sugar causes thats why it causes all these damages to a lot of people, thanks alot for spreading these content dear.
Imelda Easthorpe
Hello and thank you ,
Your comments are so true which is the sad thing and the reason for me writing this article. Sugar is a silent killer and people are unaware of where it is hidden as it also has so many names disguised by the clever manufacturer’s. Hopefully, at least with this article people can think about those choices for themselves.
Thank you
edahnewton1
Hey nice article you have there, your thoughts are indeed invaluable. Sugar is not totally bad for the body system as it is a source of energy and the brain requires around 130 grams of sugar (glucose) per day to keep functioning. However, I light of the above benefits, it’s not an avenue to abuse it’s usage rather there should be an adequate sugar level, to achieve this one needs to engage in testing of sugar level frequently
Imelda Easthorpe
Thank you for your comment,
You are right in that the brain does need glucose or ketones to operate efficiently. Good natural sugars are important as they also provide other benefits too. However, processed food full of sugar stripped of its good properties such as water and fibre and any nutrients is not.
Thank you so much again