Ways Sugar Can Ruin Your Health (but i stll like it)

Contributed by Nancy Appleton, Ph.D

In addition to throwing off the body's homeostasis, excess sugar may result in a number of other significant consequences. The following is a listing of some of sugar's metabolic consequences from a variety of medical journals and other scientific publications.

1. Sugar can suppress your immune system and impair your defenses against infectious disease.^1,2

2. Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in your body: causes chromium and copper deficiencies and interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium. ^3,4,5,6

3. Sugar can cause can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline, hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children.^7,8

4. Sugar can produce a significant rise in total cholesterol, triglycerides and bad cholesterol and a decrease in good cholesterol.^9,10,11,12

5. Sugar causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function.¹³

6. Sugar feeds cancer cells and has been connected with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, biliary tract, lung, gallbladder and stomach.^{14,15,16,17,18,19,20}

7. Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose and can cause reactive hypoglycemia.^21,22

8. Sugar can weaken eyesight.²³

9. Sugar can cause many problems with the gastrointestinal tract including: an acidic digestive tract, indigestion, malabsorption in patients with functional bowel disease, increased risk of Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis.^{24,25,26,27,28}

10. Sugar can cause premature aging.²⁹

11. Sugar can lead to alcoholism.³⁰

12. Sugar can cause your saliva to become acidic, tooth decay, and periodontal disease.^31,32,33

13. Sugar contributes to obesity.³⁴

14. Sugar can cause autoimmune diseases such as: arthritis, asthma, multiple sclerosis.^35,36,37

15. Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections)³⁸

16. Sugar can cause gallstones.³⁹

17. Sugar can cause appendicitis.⁴⁰

18. Sugar can cause hemorrhoids.⁴¹

19. Sugar can cause varicose veins.⁴²

20. Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses in oral contraceptive users.⁴³

21. Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis.⁴⁴

22. Sugar can cause a decrease in your insulin sensitivity thereby causing an abnormally high insulin levels and eventually diabetes.^45,46,47

23. Sugar can lower your Vitamin E levels.⁴⁸

24. Sugar can increase your systolic blood pressure.⁴⁹

25. Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children.⁵⁰

26. High sugar intake increases advanced glycation end products (AGEs)(Sugar molecules attaching to and thereby damaging proteins in the body).⁵¹

27. Sugar can interfere with your absorption of protein.⁵²

28. Sugar causes food allergies.⁵³

29. Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy.⁵⁴

30. Sugar can contribute to eczema in children.⁵⁵

31. Sugar can cause atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.^56,57

32. Sugar can impair the structure of your DNA.⁵⁸

33. Sugar can change the structure of protein and cause a permanent alteration of the way the proteins act in your body.^59,60

34. Sugar can make your skin age by changing the structure of collagen.⁶¹

35. Sugar can cause cataracts and nearsightedness.^62,63

36. Sugar can cause emphysema.⁶⁴

37. High sugar intake can impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in your body.⁶⁵

38. Sugar lowers the ability of enzymes to function.⁶⁶

39. Sugar intake is higher in people with Parkinson's disease.⁶⁷

40. Sugar can increase the size of your liver by making your liver cells divide and it can increase the amount of liver fat.^68,69

41. Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney such as the formation of kidney stones.^70,71

42. Sugar can damage your pancreas.⁷²

43. Sugar can increase your body's fluid retention.⁷³

44. Sugar is enemy #1 of your bowel movement.⁷⁴

45. Sugar can compromise the lining of your capillaries.⁷⁵

46. Sugar can make your tendons more brittle.⁷⁶

47. Sugar can cause headaches, including migraines.⁷⁷

48. Sugar can reduce the learning capacity, adversely affect school children's grades and cause learning disorders.^78,79

49. Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha, and theta brain waves which can alter your mind's ability to think clearly.⁸⁰

50. Sugar can cause depression.⁸¹

51. Sugar can increase your risk of gout.⁸²

52. Sugar can increase your risk of Alzheimer's disease.⁸³

53. Sugar can cause hormonal imbalances such as: increasing estrogen in men, exacerbating PMS, and decreasing growth hormone.^84,85,86,87

54. Sugar can lead to dizziness.⁸⁸

55. Diets high in sugar will increase free radicals and oxidative stress.⁸⁹

56. High sucrose diets of subjects with peripheral vascular disease significantly increases platelet adhesion.⁹⁰

57. High sugar consumption of pregnant adolescents can lead to substantial decrease in gestation duration and is associated with a twofold increased risk for delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant.^91,92

58. Sugar is an addictive substance.⁹³

59. Sugar can be intoxicating, similar to alcohol.⁹⁴

60. Sugar given to premature babies can affect the amount of carbon dioxide they produce.⁹⁵

61. Decrease in sugar intake can increase emotional stability.⁹⁶

62. Your body changes sugar into 2 to 5 times more fat in the bloodstream than it does starch.⁹⁷

63. The rapid absorption of sugar promotes excessive food intake in obese subjects.⁹⁸

64. Sugar can worsen the symptoms of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).⁹⁹

65. Sugar adversely affects urinary electrolyte composition.¹⁰⁰

66. Sugar can slow down the ability of your adrenal glands to function.¹⁰¹

67. Sugar has the potential of inducing abnormal metabolic processes in a normal healthy individual and to promote chronic degenerative diseases.¹⁰²

68. I.V.s (intravenous feedings) of sugar water can cut off oxygen to your brain.¹⁰³

69. Sugar increases your risk of polio.¹⁰⁴

70. High sugar intake can cause epileptic seizures.¹⁰⁵

71. Sugar causes high blood pressure in obese people.¹⁰⁶

72. In intensive care units: Limiting sugar saves lives.¹⁰⁷

73. Sugar may induce cell death.¹⁰⁸

74. In juvenile rehabilitation camps, when children were put on a low sugar diet, there was a 44 percent drop in antisocial behavior.¹⁰⁹

75. Sugar dehydrates newborns.¹¹⁰

76. Sugar can cause gum disease.¹¹¹