Over consumption of sugar- the real enemy of your health

When talking about eating healthy and keeping fit, what people think of in general is to avoid food with high calories and fat.  A lot of people do not seem to see sugar as a threat to our health, in reality, eating too much sugar will cause much more serious problems than most people thought, sugar is actually the biggest threat to our health. What makes the situation worse is that a lot of people consume too much sugar nowadays because many types of food and drinks contain sugar.

It is not a good idea to refuse eating sugar, either, because it is a necessary source of nutrition that keeps a person alive. The over-consumption of sugar is the real problem.  One of the most serious problems it will cause is diabetes.  Not all patient gets diabetes because of having too much sugar, but studies have shown that it will significantly the risk of getting diabetes. Diabetes is the disease due to the high blood sugar level that cannot be controlled because of the dysfunction of insulin, which is essential for controlling the blood sugar level.  Over-consumption of sugar will increase the work load of insulin, and this will increase the risk of its dysfunction, thus causes diabetes.

Fig1: type 2 diabetes due to the dysfunction of insulin, your blood sugar level will not be controlled properly if insulin does not work 

Eating too much sugar will also damage a person’s nervous system. Although sugar is a main source of energy that makes our brains work, it requires no more than 40mg per day. Massive amount of sugar will damages the brain, causes poor memory formation, learning disorders and depression. This is the reason professional sportsmen and sportswomen are asked to strictly control the amount of sugar they consume every day. In order to give their best performance on the court, there nervous system must be in the best condition, and too much sugar will not help them with that. Dwight Howard, a NBA basketball star, had a terrible performance in the season of 2012-2013, except for being recovered from back injury; failure to control the amount sugar consumption was another reason for his poor performance.

Nutritionists suggested that in general an adult should eat no more than 25g of refined sugar per day. Many people eat more sugar than they actually need because they eat a lot of processed food, and many processed foods contain a lot of sugar within it .  Besides soft drinks and desserts, some breakfast cereals, which is considered as healthy food, contains a massive amount of sugar, too. If you really want to reduce the consumption of sugar, it is a good idea to start to avoid processed food, eat more natural food instead.

Fig 2;sugar composition of some soft drinks. Remember, a adult need no more than 25 grams of refined sugar per day

Fig3: Nutrition facts of ice-cream

Fig4: Nutrition facts of fruit loops, a type of breakfast cereal, it is surprising to know that this contains a lot of sugar, too.

Over-consumption of sugar will bring a lot of health-related problems besides increasing weight. Controlling the amount of sugar (especially the refined sugar) you eat every day is as important as controlling the calories.  It may be a good idea to have a look at the nutrition table before you eat something so that you know how much you are allowed to eat to keep a healthy sugar level.

-Xupeng Yang