Is Sugar Wreaking Havoc on Your Body?

Hello, and welcome to part two of our blog series on the negative effects that sugar can have on your body. While the glucose found in sugar is an important component to the health of your body, fructose is not. Fructose, the same fructose in high fructose corn syrup, mimics the sweet taste of sugar while carrying with it none of the benefits. Fructose leads to the development of fat deposits within the body, and scientist warn that excessive amounts of fructose are one of the leading causes of the American obesity epidemic. At SoPure Stevia, we want to help address this epidemic. Obesity not only leads to a higher mortality rate but also negatively impacts the quality of life of those who are afflicted by it. In today’s post, we are going to continue exposing some of the very negative side effects that excessive amounts of sugar can have on the body. We hope that this blog will convince you, the reader, to limit the amount of sugar you consume on a daily basis.

Do You Keep Track of How Much Sugar You Consume in a Day?

When looking at the nutrition facts of food items, have you ever noticed that nearly everything contains sugar? If you have, have you noticed that sugar is the only ingredient that does not include the daily percentage guideline beside it? While those in the sugar industry will argue that this is because there is no daily guideline as to how much sugar an individual should consume, this explanation is simply untrue. Experts agree that that the average male and female should only consume around 40 and 25 grams of sugar a day respectively. When you take into consideration that the average can of Coca Cola contains 39 grams of sugar in it, you can start to understand why the sugar industry has lobbied so hard against including daily percentages next to sugar. Consuming sugar in this quantity on a daily basis can start to have some serious impacts on the overall health of the population. Below, we have listed a few more negative side effects associated with excessive sugar intake.

• Sugar Affects Cholesterol and Triglycerides: When your liver generates fat, most of that fat is passed on as Very Low Density Lipoprotein (VLDL) particles. While the scientific name may make them sound somewhat beneficial, in reality these particles are full of cholesterol and triglycerides. Anyone who has had blood work done at a doctor knows that these substances are not something that you want to have an excessive amount of in the blood stream. High levels of cholesterol and triglycerides affect blood pressure levels negatively and can even cause plaque buildup in arteries. Additionally, high levels of these substances in the blood stream can negatively affect blood lipids, increasing the risk of obesity, heart disease, and type II diabetes.

• Insulin Resistance: Insulin is released by the pancreas to naturally drive glucose from the bloodstream into the cells of your body. Your cells require glucose to function and are an important part of cellular life. However, excessive amounts of sugar can cause your body to become insulin resistant. When your body becomes insulin resistant, the pancreas starts to excrete even more insulin in an attempt to regulate the amount of glucose in the blood stream. If this isn’t bad enough, insulin is also responsible for telling fat cells to filter fat from the blood stream. If your body becomes resistant to this natural process you are more likely to suffer from obesity which, as we all know, leads to a host of other negative health effects.

• Sugar Makes You Hungry: Growing up, most of us were told not to eat dessert before dinner because it would ruin our appetites. While this effect may be true in the short term, excessive amounts of sugar actually cause people to crave more food. When exposed to glucose, or natural sugars, an area of the brain called the hypothalamus sends out signals to the body telling it that it is full. However, when exposed to fructose, the hypothalamus receives more blood flow and does not release the chemicals necessary to tell our body when we are full. Excessive fructose intake actually causes people to want to eat more while also making them feel as though they aren’t as full as they should be. If this concerns you, it should.

• Sugar is Addictive: the final point we wanted to make, and one of the most concerning in our opinion, is that table sugar is addictive. Sugar, like heroin and cocaine, cause the brain to release dopamine. Because dopamine is one of the most pleasure-inducing chemicals in the human brain, once our bodies find a substance that releases it they want more. This addiction leads to more sugar intake which, in turn, brings with it negative health effects.

If you are ready to reduce the amount of sugar you consume in a day, visit our website. Our all natural stevia extracts are a more effective sweetening option than sugar and do not come with any of the negative side effects that fructose has on the human body. Visit our site today and learn why you should replace the sugar in your life with our stevia extracts.