The Bitter Truth About Sugar!

There are enough ways to aim for a healthy lifestyle. You might have heard about sugar being the bad guy. It’s almost impossible to completely cut off sugar as it initiates a similar chemical process like that of your body when it reacts to drugs. Hence monitoring and minimizing is the key. Knowing the harsh truth about how sugar impacts your body might help you judge for yourself.

Here are 3 honest sugar facts that you need to know.

Sweet dose leading to Stress

If you crave something sweet when you are facing a stressful day, you might be going the wrong way. Stress kicks the body into fight-or-flight mode, which releases a variety of hormones, mainly adrenaline, and cortisol. The same hormones are released when your blood sugar hits a low. The snack begins to compensate for the crash. It helps, we know, but your body relates this as a way to deal with the stress too! This often leads to anxiety, irritability, and sudden shakiness.

Fructose, which has the same chemical formulation as that of glucose, is another enemy you need to look out for. Although it is naturally found in fruits and vegetables, it can be extracted and processed in the form of sweeteners like corn and beets syrup, to sweeten beverages. It impacts your liver just like alcohol. So don’t just look out for sugar or sucrose on the labels of your food. The bad guy runs with almost 50 different names.

Matters of Mind

A diet high in highly processed foods and added sugar increases the risk of you developing depression. Sugar can cause an imbalance in neurotransmitters, inflammation and adversely affect your mental health. Diabetes, cancer, and heart disease are usually common diseases from sugar that can be contracted, often cumulatively known as Metabolic Syndrome. Recent studies have linked high sugar intake to mood swings and, in severe cases, depression. Sugar can also cause gum disease and chronic dental problems.

Skin doesn’t like the sweet life

The natural aging process includes the development of wrinkles, regardless of your health. However, one of the harshest facts about sugar is that it can give you bad wrinkles. Poor food choices can speed up the skin’s ageing process and worsen the wrinkles that develop.
Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are formed when sugar reacts with the protein in your body and that is how you can age prematurely. AGEs are compounds that damage collagen and elastin, which help the skin retain its youthful appearance. If you really want to look your age, it’s better not to indulge in the sinful cravings of the sweet devil.