Sounding the sugar alarm!
It has been said that sugar gives you empty calories, but Dr. Robert Lustig says they are toxic calories. This pediatrician and research scientist specializes in neuroendocrinology with a focus on childhood obesity and diabetes, and is the author of Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease , in which he takes on the food industry.
Lustig writes that people in this industry have made sugar “into a diet staple because they know when they do you buy more. This is their hook. If some unscrupulous cereal manufacturer went out and laced your breakfast cereal with morphine to get you to buy more, what would you think of that? They do it with sugar instead.” Lustig takes a hard stand on this topic. Whether manufacturers are trying to create an addiction, as he implies, or simply trying to make their product taste better so you will consume more of it, the fact is that sugar has unknowingly become an embedded staple in our diets.

In a TED Talk Lustig gave in 2013, he claimed that 80 percent of the food you find in your grocery store aisles is spiked with sugar. Sugar is everywhere — in pizza, bread, hot dogs, mixed rice, soup, crackers, spaghetti sauce, lunch meat, mayo, and some peanut butters. Sugar is in yogurt, barbecue sauce, hamburger buns, canned fruits and vegetables, as well as all the usual culprits like candy, donuts, and ice cream.

What we are talking about here is refined, processed sugar, with corn syrup being the most widely used processed sweetener. It is astonishing how many places processed sugar can be found if you read the food labels, though it is often disguised so that you may not even know you are eating it. (See the chart of more than sixty names for sugar, and then look for those terms when you read labels.)
Sugar is found naturally in fruits and vegetables. But when we encounter it there we are ingesting it with fiber, and the body is processing it more slowly and healthily than when we are taking it in as processed sugar. Unflavored cow’s milk is another example of a natural food that contains sugar.

It is generally agreed that women should consume about six teaspoons of sugar a day and men about nine teaspoons. Instead, the average is estimated to be between 20 - 22 teaspoons per person. The human body was not designed to process this level of sweeteners. Hence, the growing incidence of associated diseases and conditions: Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cavities, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which is expected to account for the majority of liver transplants in this country.

Soda pop, sports drinks, cakes, cookies, candy, and ice cream are major sources, but the hidden sugar in all those supermarket foods is a serious concern. Pediatrician Dr. Alan Greene says, “What happens is that Americans are having dessert several times a day, and don’t know it.”
How too much sugar affects your body
Insulin is a hormone that helps your body turn blood sugar (glucose) into energy. It also helps your body store glucose in your muscles, fat cells, and liver to use later when your body needs it.

After you eat, your blood sugar rises. This rise in glucose triggers your pancreas to release insulin into the bloodstream, which travels through the blood to your body's cells. The insulin tells the cells to open up and let the glucose in. Once the glucose is inside, the cells convert it into energy or store it to use later.

When this process is working properly, the pancreas matches the glucose entering the bloodstream with the right amount of insulin, enabling us to eat meals that are high in carbohydrates without our blood glucose levels becoming too high. However, this mechanism can break down, and cells can become resistant to the effects of insulin, which makes the pancreas secrete even more to drive the glucose into the cells. Basically, when you become insulin resistant, you will have more insulin in your blood all the time (until the entire process breaks down and leads to Type 2 diabetes).
But insulin also has other functions. One of them is sending signals to our fat cells, telling them to pick up fat from the bloodstream, store it, and avoid burning the fat that is already there. When insulin levels are chronically elevated, much of the energy in our bloodstream gets selectively deposited in the fat cells and stored. Thus, we gain weight.

This is all complicated by an uncomfortable and unpleasant fact. Sugar is addictive, though the immediate effects of this addiction are not as obvious as some other addictions like alcohol and drugs. “Research shows that sugar can be even more addicting than cocaine,” says Cassie Bjork, R.D., L.D., founder of Healthy Simple Life. “Sugar activates the opiate receptors in our brain and affects the reward center, which leads to compulsive behavior, despite the negative consequences like weight gain, headaches, hormone imbalances, and more.” She adds, “Studies suggest that every time we eat sweets, we are reinforcing those neuropathways, causing the brain to become increasingly hardwired to crave sugar, building up a tolerance like any other drug.”

So, is sugar a serious health risk? Has sugar consumption become an epidemic? Should we be alarmed? Each of us has to answer these questions for ourselves, but just look around at any public event in the U.S. Go to the beach. Enter any restaurant. Well over half the people are carrying too much weight, and many are obese or on the edge of obesity. This is not produced just by eating too many fatty foods. It’s the result of eating too much sugar.

So, let us sound the alarm bells. Here is a look at what too much sugar can do:

  • cause weight gain
  • may increase risk of heart disease
  • has been linked to acne
  • will increase your risk of diabetes
  • may increase your risk of cancer
  • may increase your risk of depression
  • may accelerate skin aging
  • can increase cellular aging
  • drains energy (despite spikes) rather than producing it
  • can lead to fatty liver disease
  • can increase the risk of kidney disease
  • causes cavities
  • increases the risk of gout
  • can accelerate cognitive decline
  • can increase joint pain
  • increases the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis
  • stresses your pancreas by asking it to produce more and more insulin, and
  • can affect male sexual health

As an alternative to that scary list, let’s consider a few of the positive things that happen when you cut down on sugar in your diet. It can make your skin look younger. You could see a big decrease in belly fat. You may feel more energetic. And you might lose weight faster. So here's your takeaway – a little sweetness is a good thing, but remember to keep it to a little – and your body will thank you for it.