We all must have proper knowledge about negative impact of sugar on body and brain. Sugar, when consumed in excess, can have several negative impacts on our health and well-being.
Does your mouth water whenever you see cookies, cakes and sweets(mithai) ? It is a fact that no one can control eating by looking at the sweets. Bread with Jam, Roti with Ketchup, they seem innocent enough but these kinds of food contain extra amounts of sugar and they slowly poison your system. These all foods has negative impact of sugar on our body and brain.
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Additionally, It feels sweet on the palate but it’s bitter for our health. Sugar (glucose) is the molecule of carbohydrates, sometimes we are not enough to check the labels of the food that we eat. Labels that contain glucose, sucrose, fructose, maltose, lactose, dextrose or starch are the types of food which contain high amounts of sugar.
Chemical manufacturing of Sugar:
It is a simple carbohydrate that provides energy to our body. Chemical name of sugar is sucrose. Glucose and Fructose bound together composes Sucrose. Sugar is made from the juice extracted from sugarcane as they have the highest quantity of sucrose.
The color of sugar depends on the chemical added in the process. Raw sugar is thick dark to light brown syrup which is separated during the manufacturing process. This thick brown syrup is termed as molasses.
Brown sugar receives its color from molasses remains. In contrast, molasses is completely removed from white sugar and it is bleached with chemicals.
Hidden Sugar consumed unknowingly by us:
The natural sugars from vegetables, fruits and dairy products are enough for our body requirements. Our body doesn’t require added sugars for survival.
01 teaspoon of added sugar = 16 calories.
Ketchup, Coca-Cola, cereal, corn syrup, coconut sugar, cane sugar, grape syrup, maple syrup, palm sugar, panela, rice syrup, powdered sugar treacle, turbinado, icing sugar, all these are sugar coated items.
Even the sugar-free tablets/powder are highly processed and the manufacturers are just doing a profitable business.
Metabolism of Sugar:
Natural and added sugars breaks down into glucose and fructose in the digestive tract before they enter the bloodstream. Metabolism of both glucose and fructose are different.
Glucose in the blood creates a ‘sugar spike’ which stimulates the beta cells in the pancreas to release insulin. This hormone then triggers the uptake of glucose by different cells in the body.
Most of the body cells use glucose for energy, specially the brain. Insulin also signals the liver to store any excess blood sugar as glycogen and as fatty acids (lipids) in the fat tissue. After a while, blood sugar level drops and the pancreas reduces the insulin production.
On the other hand, Fructose is first processed in the liver and then it goes through the similar process described above.
Reasons of Sugar Addiction:
When we are not able to control consumption of sugar and it hits our tongue, it signals the brain stem, and then signal goes to the cerebral cortex. From here, signals activate the ‘brain reward system’(Reward system or circuit links together a number of brain structures that control and regulate our ability to feel pleasure).
Due to activation of this circuit, when we have good taste, we feel delighted and it gives us a pleasant experience. After activation of Brain reward circuit, more sweet cravings occur. This is also termed as negative impact of sugar.
Why do we want to eat different tastes(sweet) of food?
Intestine does not have taste receptors but they give signals to the brain for producing more insulin to balance the extra sugar intake we have taken. Drugs, Alcohol and sugar release dopamine.
Sugar is just like drugs and alcohol. Whenever there is a continuous intake of sugar, dopamine release drops. Therefore we need to eat different types of food. Too much of sugar or too often consumption of the same type of food will give boring effects to the release of dopamine.
Over consumption of Sugar ( Drugs or Alcohol) can have an addictive effect on our brain.
Precautionary Measures:
As stated earlier, we have learned that natural sugars are enough for meeting our body requirements. Hence, we must take care in consumption of added sugar foods such as Tea, Coffee, Mithai, Cake, Pastry, Chips.
Moreover, we should also avoid all types of sauces, Ketchup, Cookies, Biscuits, Soda, Pasta, Cereals, Soft drinks, Bread. Over consumption can damage both the body and the brain.
I hope that this article has explained the “Negative Impacts of Sugar” and you find it useful. In the next article, I am going to continue the same and explain how excess added sugar affects the body and brain.
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