Table of contents:
- 1. Always want to eat
- 2. Fat in the stomach
- 3. Dental caries
- 4. Liver damage
- 5. Heart disease
- 6. Metabolic dysfunction
- 7. Insulin hormone resistance
Who doesn't love the sweet taste of sugar? Plus, it's hard to resist the temptation to give up ice cream, cookies, candy, soda, and other sugary foods. Finally, without realizing it, sugar can easily enter your body in excess amounts in the form of food or drink. What are the consequences if you consume excess sugar?
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends reducing the amount of sugar intake to less than 10 percent of daily energy intake, or even better if it is less than 5 percent.
The recommended limit for sugar intake for adults is 50 grams or the equivalent of twelve teaspoons of sugar per person per day. While American Heart Association (AHA) recommends children ages 2 to 18 years not to consume more than six teaspoons of sugar in their daily diet. These recommendations do not cover sugars that are found naturally in milk, fruit or vegetables.
When you consume sugar, your body gets glucose, which comes from sugar. This glucose substance will be stored in the body as reserve energy. However, even though sugar can provide energy, you still have to limit your body's intake of sugar. Because if not, excess sugar in your body will have a bad impact on your health. Here are some of the consequences of excess sugar consumption in your body.
1. Always want to eat
Apart from being a burden to the liver, excess fructose in the body can disrupt the body's metabolic system by turning off your appetite control system. This condition triggers the body's failure to stimulate the production of the hormone insulin, increases the production of the hormone ghrelin which plays a role in causing hunger, but decreases the production of the hormone leptin which plays a role in causing satiety.
This is evidenced in studies showing that excessive consumption of direct sugar / fructose can increase the production of ghrelin, and reduce the body's sensitivity to the hormone insulin. This is what makes you always hungry even though you have eaten a lot.
2. Fat in the stomach
The more sugar you consume, the more it will increase the risk of accumulating fat in your waist and belly circumference. It can also increase the risk of obesity.
3. Dental caries
Dental caries occurs when bacteria that live in the mouth digest the remaining carbohydrates from the food you eat, whether it is leftover from sugar in the donuts you eat or something else. The bacteria will rot and produce acids that can destroy tooth enamel / dentin.
4. Liver damage
Sugar that enters the bloodstream from the digestive tract will be broken down into glucose and fructose. Unfortunately, fructose is not produced by the body in significant amounts - because it is not really needed by the body. So, consumption of excess sugar can make the body excess fructose which can burden the liver and cause fatty liver. This is what can lead to health complications.
5. Heart disease
Although the link between excess sugar consumption and heart disease is not so clear. However, studies in Journal of the American Heart Association 2013 states that excess sugar consumption can interfere with the workings of the heart organ in pumping blood.
Other studies have also shown that consumption of sugary drinks in excess can increase blood pressure and stimulate the liver to flush fat into the bloodstream. Both of these things can increase the risk of heart disease.
6. Metabolic dysfunction
Excess sugar consumption can lead to classic metabolic syndrome, such as weight gain, abdominal obesity, decreased HDL, increased LDL, high blood sugar, increased triglycerides, and high blood pressure.
7. Insulin hormone resistance
The more sugar you consume, the more insulin hormone your body will produce. The hormone insulin plays a role in helping convert food into energy. However, when the body's insulin levels and sugar levels are high, it will reduce the sensitivity of hormone production and make glucose accumulate in the blood. Symptoms experienced by this condition, which is known as insulin resistance, are fatigue, hunger, brain fog, and high blood pressure.
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