Adding sugar to your coffee, snacking on candy and sweets, eating prepared meals... Everyday gestures that seem normal and yet: sugar is everywhere.
So far so good, but that's without taking into account that it is just as harmful as tobacco and alcohol. Sugar is now considered enemy number 1 by the World Health Organization. But what dangers does it really represent for your health? And why is it so present?
Carbohydrates, an essential nutrient
The carbohydrates are an important family in our diet. They represent 55 to 60% of our daily intake and are essential to the proper functioning of our body.
Essential fuel for our muscles and brain, carbohydrates cannot be removed from our diet. However, it is important not to overconsume them and to choose quality carbohydrates by favouring complex carbohydrates and especially by adopting active lifestyle habits in order to spend the carbohydrates consumed.
Why is sugar so present in our diet?
We consume an average of 45 kilograms of sugar per year and most of it is hidden in the foods we eat, so we ingest it without our knowledge.
So pay close attention to the added sugar in some foods and learn to read labels. It is important to differentiate between added sugar and sugar that is naturally present in foods.
How do you learn to read labels?
From the hunt for fat to the hunt for sugar
In the 80's, people started to hunt for fat in food, which resulted in a loss of taste in industrial products. So companies found a way out by replacing fat with sugar. This was a miscalculation because it would have been much more interesting to replace these bad fats with "good fats" that our bodies could have put to good use. Instead, manufacturers have used simple sugars, with all the repercussions on our health that this entails.
Sugar is used by food companies to increase the shelf life of foods, to reduce acidity, to provide creaminess, to retain moisture in certain products, and as a taste engine to make us ingest cheap fats.
Unfortunately the sugar used by these companies is not always sucrose or glucose but rather glucose-fructose syrup. This one, extracted from corn, is used by industrialists for its superior sweetening power and its very low extraction cost. It is found in sodas, cookies, cakes, ... It makes consumers addicted by causing hypoglycemia reaction.
Reactive hypoglycemia and sugar addiction
If you eat a lot of sugar or foods with a high sugar content, you may have to high glycemic index our blood sugar (glucose) levels rise suddenly and rapidly, leading to a large secretion of insulin. This insulin production has the effect of rapidly reducing blood sugar levels, which implies that very quickly hunger is felt, with an attraction for sweet products, creating a vicious circle.
Dangers of sugar on our health
- As we just mentioned, sugar abuse can lead to repeated hypoglycemia, which over the long term can be detrimental to our health.
Indeed, when our blood sugar level is too high, our body tends to store fat and when it is too low, our brain no longer has the necessary resources to function optimally.
- In addition, this constant strain on our pancreas can increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. This is accentuated in cases of obesity. Overconsumption of sugar causes the need for insulin to exceed the production capacity of the pancreas. This results in blood sugar accumulation, leading, in some cases, to type 2 diabetes. This disease, formerly present in the elderly, is currently affecting more and more young adults and even adolescents. But diabetes is not the only disease that excessive sugar consumption can cause. It is involved in a large number of chronic diseases.
- Regular consumption of simple carbohydrates is directly related to increased obesity. The metabolization of these carbohydrates stimulates the production of insulin, a hormone that stores sugar and transforms it in part into fat.
- Sugar is also harmful to arteries. Diabetes, over the long term, can damage arteries and small blood vessels, leading to complications such as cardiovascular accidents.
- Sugar is also a great friend of cancer. Indeed, it allows cancer cells to grow thanks to the action of insulin. Since tumors need glucose to grow, the risk of cancer is increased by regular consumption of sugary products.
- In addition to these health concerns, poor quality sugar very often provides empty calories, which implies weight gain and in no way helps our body function properly.
However, most metabolic abnormalities caused by overconsumption of sugar can be reversed by reducing your sugar intake.
Beware of hidden sugars!
The WHO recommends the utmost vigilance in relation to hidden sugar in food. Let's look at the types of products that are important to look at and read the labels on.
We find added simple sugars in dairy products and dairy preparations such as yoghurt drinks, dessert creams, ..., in cookies, cereals, industrial fruit juices and sodas, in industrial flavored waters, prepared meals, fast food, sauces (eg ketchup), alcohol mixtures such as pre-mix, blasters, ...
In conclusion, to protect yourself from these dangers of overconsumption of sugar, it is imperative to change your eating habits by reducing sugar in your everyday diet, whether it is in the sugar you add to your preparations or by learning to identify it when it is hidden in the foods you buy.