The Sugar Effect and The Body React

4 months ago

Everyday, we eat sugar and it is no doubt that it is part of our diet but then, it has been attributed to conditions like Acne, and increased hunger so I ask myself if it truly has anything to do with any of these and if it doesn't, what effect does sugar have on us.

There was a time in my life when I had to do some serious work and needed to stay active, so I would take soda and chocolate because I wanted to be active and beat that afternoon slump and trust that once I take it, there is this increased in energy level as a result of the intake of sugar known as the sugar rush. The intake of sugar leads to an increase in blood sugar level but then within a few moment, I will begin to feel tired, sluggish and extremely hungry and this is as a result of the drop in sugar level.

www.flickr.com

I realize that this is as a result of the spike and crash in blood sugar level where there is a rapid rise in blood sugar and a rapid drop in the sugar level after the sugar has been consumed. As this happens regularly, it becomes a risk factor for developing insulin resistance. When we take sugar in, the body breaks it down into glucose which then enters into the bloodstream. As we take in sugar, an increase in blood sugar levels would trigger the pancreas to release insulin which is a hormone in our body responsible for our cells to absorb glucose for energy.

You see, as efficient as the pancreas is at releasing insulin which helps you and I with that sugar in the body, high influx at rapid intervals can lead to the overproduction of the hormone which would lead to a drop in blood sugar rapidly leading to a crash. In some cases, when the sugar crash happens, I can experience irritability, lost of energy, lack of concentration and the need for sugar food to get the energy spike back.

People who do this for a very long time suffer from insulin resistance which is when the cells in your body doesn't respond to the insulin being produced because they believe it is produced in excess. When this happens my friend, your body will not be able to take sugar out of the body which can lead to type 2 Diabetes.

You see, if you consume sugar a lot then you should be familiar with this desire to want more. It happens to me a lot and it is referred to as craving. Science has shown that the more sugar we consume, the more our body craves the sugar. This is because when we take sugar, Dopamine a neurotransmitter is released. Dopamine is usually triggered by certain drugs that are highly addictive like nicotine, and it is also triggered by sugar. The more sugar food, the more the brain releases the neurotransmitter dopamine, and the more sugar I am urged to consumed since the body wants to keep experiencing that pleasure and reward feeling making sugar addictive. The brain does this psychologically and the body brings the physiological aspect once when the body crashes very fast causing one to look for a quick replenishing.

https://commons.wikimedia.org

I was reading a research and I saw that increased sugar can alter the taste receptors leading to decreased sensitivity of sweetness which would overtime affect ones ability to pick less sweet taste and would so require increasingly large amount of sugar to satisfy or meet ones sweet tooth. That aside, while I am not fat nor added any weight within the years (Moreover I am not one that takes sugar a lot), so many people have seen biological changes in their body such as weight gain, as a result of increasing sugar consumption. This is because food that aren't high in fiber and extremely sweet are really high in calories and low in nutritional value and when we eat excessive high sugar low nutritional valued food, the body begins to store the sugar as fat in the body.

Continuous intake of sugar would disrupt the hormones in the body like leptin, and ghrelin which are responsible for the signalling of fullness and hunger respectively. This means I might not feel satisfied after consuming a large amount of sugar or any other food over time and my hunger rate can change as a result of the hormones being affected.

People experience dryness and wrinkles on the skin when they over-consume sugar for a very long period of time. There is a connection between high sugar intake and changes in skin health as it enhances aging and acne. This is caused by the changes known as glycation as a result of sugar attaching to protein in his blood leading to harmful molecules known as Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) which damages the skin protein collagen and elastin which is responsible for keeping the skin firm and elastic which leads to wrinkling and sagging of the skin and sugar can also exacerbate skin condition. I haven't had a first-hand experience with this, but there researches that links high glycemic diet to skin flare risk.