Now that we’ve learned the maximum amount of ‘added sugar’ we should consume daily, let’s discover how it affects our body when we consume more than the recommended amount.
Sugar is added to food by many manufacturers to give it that sweet flavor, making it more desirable and as a preservative, keeping it on the shelf longer.
Sugar increases the risk of many diseases beyond diabetes; it dramatically increases the chance of heart disease and fatty liver disease.
Although scientists do not precisely know the correlation between the two, they have evidence to support the negative impacts it has on our organs.
The liver stores and creates glucose. It’s also responsible for keeping the blood sugar level healthy. Excess sugar aggravates the liver and converts it into fat, which can cause a surplus of fat in the liver, resulting in fatty liver disease.
An abundance of added sugar can increase blood pressure and cause inflammation, resulting in heart disease. In addition, when blood sugar levels spike from excess sugar, it drastically falls after a short period, which leads to diabetes over time.
Sugar is one of the most underestimated cravings. Science has gone as far as developing research to understand if it’s more addictive than cocaine. Nevertheless, we can train our appetite to crave less sugar, starting by limiting the amount of added sugars in our meals and beverages. Over time, our taste buds adjust. What we once thought of as ‘not sweet enough’ becomes 'too sweet'.
Source: (1) Harvard Health Publishing: The Sweet Danger of Sugar (2) The Gut Shields the Liver from Fructose-Induced Damage