Too much sugar is unhealthy, what does it do to you?
No less than 84% of the Dutch do not know exactly what to do to cut down on sugar. Sugar is hidden in many products and we are constantly tempted to make unhealthy choices with a lot of sugar.
Three-quarters have consciously taken action to reduce their sugar intake. They did this to feel healthier (41%) and/or to lose weight (45%). Only 16% of the Dutch indicate that they know what they can do to reduce their sugar intake. This is shown by research by the Diabetes Fund.
According to 85% of the Dutch people, a substantial sugar reduction in products would really help to reduce the amount of sugar consumed. They think that is a role for manufacturers. It is important that manufacturers take their responsibility, because people unconsciously ingest much more sugars than they think.
The Dutch estimate their own daily sugar intake to be much lower than it actually is. On average, people get about 30 sugar cubes, or 122 grams of sugars per day. People themselves think they consume only a third of this on average, namely 10 lumps (40 grams) per day.
Sugar in itself is not harmful, but consuming too much sugar is harmful. What does too much sugar do to your body:
Brain
Sugar releases the substance dopamine and thus activates the reward center in the brain. This gives you a pleasant feeling. This effect unconsciously stimulates eating more sugary foods: you want more and more of them.
Pancreas
Too much sugar (particularly from drinks) puts a strain on the pancreas (or pancreas, an organ near your stomach). The pancreas releases insulin into the blood. This regulates the blood sugar, that is the amount of sugar in the blood. In diabetes, this amount is alternately too high or too low. Drinking (too) many sugary drinks increases the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Fat storage
Sugar is a source of energy. It consists of half fructose and half glucose. Fructose is processed by the liver. Too much sugar (and therefore calories), especially from drinks, can lead to the production of fats in the liver, an increase in abdominal fat and fats in the blood. Glucose is absorbed into the blood. Insulin ensures that glucose enters the tissues as fuel. Eating too much sugar can give you too much energy that is stored as fat. Fat production and weight gain make the body less sensitive to insulin. This process can lead to type 2 diabetes.
teeth
Too much sugar is not good for your teeth. Bacteria in your mouth convert sugars into acids that attack your tooth enamel. To prevent tooth decay, it is better not to eat or drink anything with sugar more than 4-7 times a day, so no more than 4 snacks outside the main meals.
Nutrient deficiency
Pure granulated sugar only contains energy, no nutrients. If you eat a lot of sugary products such as biscuits, sweets and soft drinks and too little healthy basic food, you may develop fiber, vitamin and mineral deficiencies. This can make you tired, often have headaches or get gastrointestinal complaints, such as diarrhoea. This can cause children to behave restlessly.
Greater risk of type 2 diabetes
Eating and drinking too much sugar can cause you to get too much energy, which leads to obesity. Being overweight puts you at greater risk of type 2 diabetes. If you have type 2 diabetes, you are more likely to develop complications such as a heart attack, blindness and kidney failure.
Would it be better not to eat sugar at all?
No, because the body also needs sugar. Just not too much. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends getting a maximum of 10% of your energy needs per day from free sugars to prevent obesity and tooth decay. Free sugars are added sugars and sugars from honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit concentrates. This amounts to 12,5 sugar cubes per day for women and 15 per day for men. The average Dutch person consumes 1,5 to 2 times too much sugar. That is why we recommend being aware of your free sugar intake and sticking to the maximum recommended amount per day. Sugars that are naturally found in vegetables, fruit and milk are allowed, these products are included in the Wheel of Five.
Source: Diabetes Fund
Still be careful with TOO LITTLE sugar: I am 74 years old and cook a lot myself in Thailand. I use almost no sugar and fat so as not to get fat, but: I ate little for 1 day and suddenly woke up unconscious in bed for 2 seconds. Ok then I got up: I felt like I was sleeping. very good, started cooking and suddenly fell unconscious on the floor and broke a hip. Clinic Thailand operated and now after 10 months almost fine but had enormous pain. Then to Belgium for a check-up and the doctor said that one must eat sugar for the brain, that it could be caused by that.??? but now a few months ago my son, 27 years old, suddenly fell unconscious at a friend's house (hadn't eaten for 2 days to lose weight) who found him with a lot of blood loss from his head. It took 5 minutes to get him conscious again. He called me. and the doctor on call immediately said: TOO LITTLE SUGAR: Best to drink cola straight away. People now have Coke Zero with no sugar and he only drank that. + not eating and large cut on head. Clinic brain scan etc… So daily sugar is necessary but not too much. If deficient, immediately unconscious.
It is not surprising that if you eat far too little, or as in your example, do not eat for two days, that such a thing is not good for your body. Kind of a strange example. Seems like the same as: I gave my child a kilo of candy and then he suddenly became hyperactive….
A little thinking goes a long way.
The body does not need sugar. Sugar has only been in our diet for a few centuries as added sugar. In addition, when body fat is consumed, the necessary fuel for muscles and brain is produced in the body itself.
Not surprising when you realize that in earlier times people had to hunt to get their food and then regularly had to go without for a few days. It may of course be the case that if your body is used to a daily dose of sugar, you have to reduce it with policy.
I myself regularly fast for a few days and it doesn't bother me, I even feel good about it.
If interested, google "Jason Fung" a Canadian doctor who has published a lot about this.
We need to eat less sugar, that's true. But as early as 8.000 B.C. sugar cane was planted there, it spread as early as 1000 BC. to all of Asia, where the sugar palm also provided sweetness. From 700 AD. Sugar cane was grown by Arab countries and it came to Europe around 1400 where it was initially an expensive luxury product. Dates also contain a lot of sugars. Only after the slave-cultivated sugar cane plantations in America did the product sugar become cheaper and more widely distributed.
The word 'sugar' originates from India ('sarkara'), and came to Europe via the Arabic 'sukkar'. We owe a lot to the medieval Arab civilization.
For example, we owe our numbers and their positional significance to early medieval Arab mathematicians (and it is no coincidence that the word Algebra is of Arabic origin). Try calculating with the Roman numerals; if only because the Romans did not even know the 0 (zero), that is a kriem. So in Europe, trade switched over at that time. Unfortunately, the Arabic civilization has fallen. Coincidentally or not, their science declined and their Islam (complete with a sugar fest!) rose at the same time. It does not follow from des Araben's contribution to algebra at the time that we are obliged to be happy with everything of Arab origin. Incidentally, sugar in Europe only really became a disaster when the industrial revolution turned that stuff into a mass product.
Then perhaps a useful addition: you have to do your best with the current mass poisoning with the help of sugar, but with really too little sugar you get into ketosis. That is the state in which your body starts to produce sugar because it has a shortage of it, so that your brain no longer receives enough sugar. But the sugar supplied by the body is of a dozen times stickier type than 'regular' sugar. That sticking is one of the dangerous properties of sugar, partly (note this word 'among other things') because of the creation of crosslinks, which are cross connections that clog your veins. If you get into ketosis, you lose weight (the crux of the Atkins diet) but also (unnoticed for now, but still) your health.
Sugar is, among other things, the fuel of cancer cells, too much sugar is disastrous, as this article shows, the sugars in fruit and vegetables in particular are good.
Sugar is also very addictive because it produces dopamine.
If you want to consume less sugar and you now use a lot of sugar, slowly reduce that addiction or replace it with the sugars in fruit and vegetables; eat no or as little processed food as possible, all that produced food contains a lot of sugar.
Good luck and good health.
Nico B
Only when I was forced to point out the use of sugar did it become apparent to me on further investigation that sugar is added to an unimaginable number of products, apparently with only one purpose, nice and tasty and buy buy this product.
Unfortunately, sugar comes to us in too large quantities and can safely be referred to as a “silent killer” if we do not intervene in time and diabetes rears its head.
I blame the manufacturers for continuing to do this unabated and I believe that this cannot be warned enough, watch the sugars in what you consume would be the message.
DJ
Less sugar in Thailand means, carefully read the packaging for the ingredients.
Pots of mayonnaise for example, the percentage of sugar varies between 4% and 30%!.
30% sugar in mayonnaise and then it is also called salad cream.
Something that should actually be a bit sour.
The Thai love sugar in the kitchen so when I go to eat somewhere I always ask without sugar as far as possible many dishes are already prepared and there is already sugar in it. It is true that sugar feeds cancer cells, it is addictive and there is no need to take extra sugar, there is already enough in the daily fresh fruit.
If you ask "without sugar", the Thai think it's ok if they don't add sugar themselves. But they forget that they already use products that are packed with sugar.
For example, I once asked "without sugar" and saw them use a pot of milk / cream. Afterwards, look for that product in the supermarket. It turned out to be sugared milk of more than 40% sugar.