In the late 1960s, a group from the food industry called the Sugar Research Foundation paid $ 65,000 to Harvard University. The goal was to counteract research that demonstrated the connection between sugar and coronary heart disease and blame greasy foods.
The result was that the report published by that institution changed the American diet. Many people stopped consuming these foods and replaced them with sugar-rich snacks. However, the studies today show the negative effects of sugar. You can take natural sweeteners to avoid risks.
Although today we are more aware of the risk of eating too many sweets, there are still many myths about sugar and its real effects. After all, we think it’s just another carbohydrate, and there’s always been sugar in our diet. It’s partly true, but the problem is that we quadrupled the recommended amount.
Negative effects of sugar on the body
When you have a balanced diet, the presence of glucose tells your brain to produce insulin, which helps your body regulate blood sugar levels. At the same time, it allows the sugar to come into contact with other hormones that need it.
In this sense, when blood glucose levels remain high for a long period, the amount of glucose exceeds the capacity of the cells to absorb it (insulin-mediated process), and resistance develops to this hormone.
Far from being a problem, with a balanced diet, the negative effects of sugar on our body and brain will be zero.
1. High blood pressure and development of heart diseases
A continued excess of blood glucose can lead to an increase in blood pressure. This process can become chronic if we do not control our blood glucose levels so that the heart system could end up suffering.
2. Weight gain
As we pointed out, the negative effects of sugar on the body and brain occur with snacks and industrial products, which have a lot of saturated fat and, therefore, many calories.
Eating two or three chocolates in a day could equal the number of calories we should eat throughout the day.
3. Dental problems
An excess of sugar can lead to the development of decay and other problems in the teeth, because the bacterial flora of our teeth can be overfed with this nutrient, be overfed with this nutrient, proliferating in excess and giving rise to the dental problems mentioned above.
4. Metabolic complications and addiction
Sugars, like many other compounds, are used by our cells to function. An excess of sugars can lead to an increase in reserves in the form of fats, which can lead to metabolic alterations.
In fact, this is one of the reasons why people develop an addiction to this compound.
In addition, at the brain level can alter the levels of certain neurotransmitters. This is the case with dopamine. It’s funny, but the same thing happens with cocaine addicts. Dopamine is a chemical related to reward. It appears to produce pleasure after an action. This is the reason why the more sugar we consume, the more we need.
Our mind begins to produce dopamine when we eat food with this element almost exclusively. In this sense, our ability to feel joy decreases and increases the risk of suffering from depression. It is not, then, a carbohydrate more.
It is essential that we remove processed foods from our habitual diet with added sugars. We are talking about the difference between poisoning us gradually or not. Like everything, virtue lies in the balance.
