Nutrition series: How sugar is damaging your health (part 1) - DAY 3 ( 30 days writing challenge)

This is my third post in the nutrition series that I will be covering for the next 30 days. If you want to know more about why I'm doing this series you should check out this post here.

Today we are going to start tackling the big and nasty problems that come with ingesting table sugar, but don't worry, I will break them down into bite-size bits ( pun intended 😉)

I am going to rely on the notions that I talked about in my previous posts, so if don't have any clue about what sugar actually is and how it works, you should read the previous two posts here and here.

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The main focus of this post will be how sugar impacts one of the most important parts of the body: the head and the organs it contains.

Your teeth

As a kid you were probably annoyed when your parents sent you to brush those pearly whites. Well...they were right in telling you that, because the bacteria in your mouth which cause cavities love to indulge on all that sugar that remains in your mouth after you've enjoyed that chocolate or soft drink.
So if you want to be able to still smile with your own teeth when you'll be 80, drastically cutting back on food that contains added sugar is a must.

Your face

Even if you don't care about having fake teeth when you're about to retire, an older and more wrinkled face even if you're relatively young will surely make you think twice about sugar.
Here's how it works: having to much sugar in your diet will lead to abnormally high glucose levels in your blood ( or a hyperglycemic state), that glucose ( and other monosaccharides) can react with components of our body's proteins leading to a compound that is called advanced glycation end products or AGEs - and they make you ...wait for it... age faster ( I bet the scientists who came up with the acronym had a few nerdy giggles between themselves).

These bad boys have a lot of nasty effects that contribute to aging but we shall focus on what it does to the skin for now. Collagen and elastin are proteins that are very important to maintaining the architecture of your skin. AGEs can change the structure of these proteins making your skin saggy and wrinkled.
And that's not all, AGEs also promote inflammation and inhibits natural antioxidant enzymes leading to a more UV sensitive skin and even faster aging.

Your brain

Here sugar can really cause some nasty stuff.

Effects on your self-control

Similar to other drugs, sugar can make your brain function like that of an addict because it stimulates the release of feel good chemicals like dopamine. The problem is that the brain can get used to that dopamine surge and the dopamine receptors become less and less sensitive to it; that means you will have to eat more sugar to get a bigger dopamine response in order to feel the same pleasure.

Also craving sugar and the anxiety and restlessness accompanying it is a pretty obvious sign of addiction. I know it sounds a bit exaggerated, but society has gotten used to these things and we don't even perceive them as bad.

Studies done on rats showed that they preferred sugar over cocaine, which to me is mind blowing ( link to the article at the end of the post)

Effect on mood

We are all accustomed to the high that comes with eating something that contains sugar, and also the low that comes after that. The problem with long term consumption of too much sugar is that people can get predisposed to being depressed.
Considering how frequent depression is currently, and how much it can impact your life, that's a pretty scary consequence of eating sugar.

That's about it for today. See you tomorrow :)

Previous post in the series:
What is sugar?
Effects of sugar on the metabolism

Resources:

https://www.prevention.com/food/healthy-eating-tips/weird-effects-sugars-having-on-your-body/slide/11
https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/how-sugar-affects-your-body
http://www.thehealthedgepodcast.com/1031-2/
http://www.dermalinstitute.com/us/library/23_article_What_Causes_Skin_Aging_.html
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/connie-bennett/the-rats-who-preferred-su_b_712254.html

Picture sources : pexels and pixabay

My name is Adrian a.k.a "The nearsighted traveler". I'm a running enthusiast who loves to spend time enjoying nature. I write mostly about running, the places I explore and the interesting stuff I learn here on steemit.
If you are new to this platform you might want to check out these posts:

5 Easy Rules for Navigating The Steem Ecosystem
The 6th Easy Rule for Navigating the Steem Ecosystem

And if you want a good laugh you can visit my other account @cmmemes where I fail at being funny but persevere anyway :)