Sugar in The Body – This is How it Works

Sugar can make you sick and addicted

Humans experience the consumption of sugar as intense pleasure. It doesn’t matter whether you treat yourself to a delicious roll with nut nougat cream or strawberry jam for breakfast, drink a glass of refreshing orange lemonade, or eat mousse au Chocolat, fruit yogurt, or another delicious dessert after lunch. Unfortunately, sweetened food and drinks are proving to be real risks to your health and can have dire consequences – if consumed in excess, of course. By bribing researchers, for example, the food industry has managed to play down the dramatic consequences of sugar consumption for decades.

Completely underestimated for a long time – the negative effects of sugar on human health

Your body shows different reactions after eating sugar:

• In your mouth, the salivary enzymes break down sugar into fructose and glucose.
• This is followed by further processing in the stomach and intestines, during which the glucose enters the blood and causes a drastic increase in blood sugar levels.
• The pancreas, therefore, makes insulin available to break down blood sugar and convert it into energy. If this is not required in full, the excess is stored in the form of fat deposits.
• This also causes deposits to form in the liver, so that in the long run, for example, a fatty liver can develop.

A short time after consuming sugar, the processes described lead to a rapid drop in blood sugar levels with fatal consequences: you feel ravenous hunger and an extreme appetite. This makes it particularly difficult to maintain a healthy weight on a high-sugar diet. And obesity is known to lead to numerous lifestyle diseases, such as:

• Heart attack
• stroke
• different types of cancer

Sugar makes you happy – at least in the short term

In the brain, sugar leads to the release of the so-called happiness hormone dopamine. It has a direct effect on the reward center, similar to what happens with drugs or alcohol. For this reason, some scientists also speak of sugar addiction. New studies also suggest that excessive sugar traffic leads to accelerated skin aging.

Less sugar – a benefit for your health

So it’s an excellent idea to severely limit sugar consumption. If you want to be sure that your health is not damaged by sweet foods and drinks, you should follow the recommendations of the WHO (World Health Organization). This states that you should consume a maximum of 25 grams of sugar per day. That’s really not much – the amount mentioned is just six teaspoons.

Warning – hidden sugar

It can also happen that you unintentionally consume too much sugar, even if you completely avoid soft drinks, sweets, and desserts. Because the modern food industry likes to use it on a large scale as an inexpensive “filler” or to give ready meals and sauces a better taste. In particular, the following industrially produced foods are real sugar traps:

• ketchup and marinades
• Frozen pizza and other ready meals
• canned soups and stews

Sugar hides under many different names. For example, the substances listed on the list of ingredients are also forms of sugar:

• dextrose
• molasses
• lactose
• raffinose
• maltose
• glucose

In addition, sugar substitutes are being used more and more often, which also poses a health risk. Read more about this in the next article. Even if the beginning is difficult, in the long run, your health will benefit from not eating sugar. And always remember: the shorter the list of ingredients, the better.