I’ll admit it – I’ve been struggling with cutting out the white stuff in my diet. I know it’s bad for me, but the thought of letting go of chocolate, ice cream, and biscuits makes me feel anxious af. So this June, I’m launching a No Sugar challenge in the hopes of finally taking back control of my health that way, and created a Facebook group to do just that. Now, food is an emotional trigger for most of us, and sugar brings back memories of comfort, so in order to overcome the overwhelming need to eat that chocolate cake, educating ourselves with what sugar actually does to our body can be quite the eye opener.
1. Sugar is addictive
Like drugs, sugar stimulates the release of dopamine, a “feel-good” chemical in the brain. As we consume sugar, our bodies create more dopamine receptors that lead us to crave more sugar, resulting in a vicious cycle of sugar consumption.
2. Sugar wrecks havoc on your immune system
By lowering the efficiency of white blood cells for hours at a time after consumption, sugar compromises the immune system and hinders our ability to fight disease and infection
3. Sugar robs your body of essential minerals
Besides being empty calories with no value in nutrition, sugar actually robs your body of essential minerals. Sugar causes essential minerals like sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium to be leached from the body. This can weaken the teeth and bones, causing tooth decay and diseases like osteoporosis.
4. Sugar can lead to the development of cancer
There is an old saying: “Cancer loves sugar.” Consuming too much sugar causes our bodies to produce excessive amounts of insulin, which encourages the growth of cells – a good thing for healthy cells, but not cancerous cells. Excessive sugar intake has been linked to increased risk for breast, colon, pancreatic, colorectal, and endometrial cancer.
5. Consuming sugar is detrimental to our liver
Refined sugar is half glucose and half fructose. The liver is the only organ that can metabolize fructose. When too much fructose enters the liver, it gets turned into fat that can build up over time and ultimately lead to disease.
6. Sugar causes premature aging
Sugar can attach to proteins in the bloodstream, resulting in AGEs (Advanced Glycation End Products) that damage collagen and elastin production, which are responsible for maintaining skin’s elasticity.
7. Sugar leads to depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue, irritability, and mood swings
Consuming sugar leads to a spike in both blood sugar and feel-good serotonin levels in the brain. When the sugar withdraws from our system, we experience a “crash” creating a cycle of craving and bingeing in both our bodies and our minds. This is not fun for anyone.
8. Sugar can affect your cholesterol
High sugar consumption lowers levels of the “good” HDL cholesterol that helps remove LDL, or “bad” cholesterol from the artery walls, and has been shown to increase levels of triglycerides, a type of fat found in the blood that poses an increased risk for heart disease.