How sugar affects the body

IT IS estimated that the average North American consumes an astounding three pounds of sugar each week. Sugar consumption there has increased from five pounds per person annually in 1,900 to about 150 pounds per person per year today, and Jamaicans are strongly mimicking this tendency.

This is not surprising as highly refined sugars in the forms of high-fructose corn syrup, and to a lesser extent refined cane sugar (sucrose), are being wantonly processed into many popular foods and beverages such as sodas, breads, biscuits, candy, breakfast cereals, mayonnaise, peanut butter, ketchup, spaghetti sauce, low fat salad dressings, and a host of other convenience foods.

To make things worse, other highly processed carbohydrates like the starches and flours are themselves rapidly broken down in the body to sugar. Modern man's sugar load is very heavy. Our ancestors on the other hand, had very little dietary sugar: only from fruit when in season and occasionally honey.

Heart disease, cancer and diabetes was rare in the early 1900's and medical research has shown that many of these modern ills may be related to our excessive sugar consumption. Here are some of the consequences of too much sugar as documented in a variety of medical journals and scientific publications.

Sugar and the immune system

Vitamin C is vital to health and is especially important to the immune system and is rapidly absorbed by the white blood cells in high concentrations. Now glucose (blood sugar) and vitamin C both have similar chemical structures, and they actually compete with each other to enter the white blood cells. If there is excess glucose in the blood, less vitamin C gets into the white blood cells and this reduces their ability to destroy viruses, bacteria and even cancer cells.

An almost normal blood sugar value of 120 reduces white blood cell function by 75.

Sugar and cancer

Research shows that high blood sugar levels increase one's risk of dying from cancer. Not only does glucose fuel the growth of rapidly multiplying cancer cells, but it promotes high blood insulin levels. Insulin is well-known to stimulate the growth of potential cancer cells. Sugar can actually damage the structure of your DNA and a high sugar intake has been connected with cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, lung, gall bladder and stomach, and this will also influence your cancer risk. And a weak immune system will make you more cancer prone.

High sugar consumption also increases inflammation in the body, a condition which promotes cancer.

Sugar and the brain

A diet high in sugars is associated with fluctuations in blood sugar levels - sometimes high, sometimes low. As the brain is almost totally dependent on glucose (blood sugar) for energy, many nervous system disorders are related to or made worse by eating sugar, and children are particularly at risk.

These disorders include Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, panic attacks, alcoholism and other addictions, epileptic seizures and migraine headaches. In juvenile rehabilitation camps, when children were put on a low sugar diet, there was a 44 per cent drop in antisocial behaviour. Sugar can increase your risk of Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

Brain researchers in Australia have found that even slight blood sugar elevation is associated with significant shrinkage of the brain, particularly in the parts of the brain involved in memory. Even pre-diabetics suffer accelerated brain shrinkage.

Sugar and the digestive system

Sugar can cause digestive tract problems like GERD (acid reflux disease), indigestion, malabsorption and increased risk of Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis. Sugar can enlarge your liver and create fatty liver disease. It can damage your pancreas and promote constipation, gall stones, and gall bladder disease.

Sugar and metabolism

Sugar may induce abnormal metabolic processes in a normal healthy individual and promote chronic degenerative diseases.

Sugar can cause a decrease in your insulin sensitivity, thereby causing abnormally high insulin levels and eventually diabetes. A recent study demonstrated that drinking only one 12-ounce soda each day increases the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 18 per cent. Sugar can elevate your cholesterol, your triglycerides, your risk of gout and, of course, obesity.

Sugar causes chromium and copper deficiencies and interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium.

Sugar can cause hormonal imbalances such as: increasing oestrogen in men, elevating the male hormones (androgens) in women, exacerbating polycystic ovarian syndrome and PMS, and fluid retention.

Sugar and ageing

Sugar can change the structure of protein and cause a permanent alteration of the way those proteins act in your body. Thus, by changing the structure of collagen, a protein in the skin, sugar can make your skin age prematurely. By changing the proteins in the lens of the eye, sugar can cause cataracts. Diets high in sugar will increase free radicals and oxidative stress, known causes of accelerated ageing.

What about the effects of sugar on the heart, the blood pressure, the circulation, the blood vessels and your sex life? Don't allow a little sweet to make you really bitter.

You may email Dr Tony Vendryes at tonyvendryes@gmail.com or listen to 'An Ounce of Prevention' on POWER 106FM on Fridays at 8 p.m. His new book 'An Ounce of Prevention, Especially for Women' is available locally and on the Internet.