Here Are All The Scary Things Sugar Does to You
They make “Supersize Me” seem tame in comparison.
Isaiah McCall
Isaiah McCall
Dec 18, 2020 · 7 min read
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The average American consumes 17 teaspoons (71.14 grams) every day. That translates into about 57 pounds of added sugar consumed a year. About 11 newborn babies of added sugar that we shouldn’t be eating.

According to the American Heart Association, men should consume no more than 9 teaspoons (36 grams or 150 calories) of added sugar per day and women no more than 6 teaspoons (24 grams or 100 calories). Most Americans are doubling the amount of added sugar they should be consuming.

In “That Sugar Film,” Australian actor Damon Gameau launched an experiment where he switched to a low-fat, high sugar diet for 60-days. Gameau would eat 40 teaspoons of sugar a day and did so without changing the number of calories he consumed.

The results were so shocking they made “Supersize Me” seem tame in comparison.

Despite being a healthy male in his 30’s:

He developed fatty liver disease
Gained 20 pounds in 2 months
Was on a steady track for type-2 diabetes.

When Gameau called the producer of the film to relay the startling developments, all he heard on the other end was a delighted yelp:

“Brilliant! Now we have a movie!”

Sugar is Stupid Simple

Sugar isn’t complicated; in fact, it’s simple, a simple carbohydrate to be exact. It can come in two forms; one sugar molecule or “monosaccharides” (glucose and fructose) and two sugar molecules, or “disaccharides” (sucrose and
lactose).
Here’s an even simpler guide to understanding sugar:

Glucose: The primary source of energy our body uses. Whenever we eat carbs, they get turned into glucose, thus spiking our blood sugar. This is why marathon runners carb-up days before a race; they want as much energy as possible (athletes tend to time blood sugar spikes for training).
Fructose: It’s the naturally occurring sugar in fruit, honey, and high fructose corn syrup. Instead of being absorbed into the blood like glucose, fructose is handled by the liver. If you overeat fructose, the liver won’t be able to keep up and will store the excess as triglycerides (the body’s main form of fat).
Sucrose: This is the household crystallized white powder that we’ve all come to know and love. It’s extracted from the sugar cane plant and receives an extraneous refinement process. The refinement process is what makes sucrose dangerous; 10 pounds of sugar cane results in one pound of sugar. Sucrose is a disaccharide made up of 50% glucose and 50% fructose.
Lactose: It’s the milk sugar that I and 65% of the human population are intolerant to. The reason being that we can’t produce an enzyme known as lactase, which helps break down milk sugars. Almond milk and coconut milk are good alternatives, and they’re lower in calories (and they taste good too).

Sugar Isn’t Created Equal

Like calories, all sugars aren’t created equal, and each has different impacts on your blood sugar.

Eating an apple may have a minor effect on your blood sugar, but eating watermelon will spike it higher than stocks on Wall St. This is due to how fast your body absorbs the food — faster is not better in this case.

You can figure out which foods cause less of a spike by looking at the glycemic index (GI). This ranks the impact of foods on your blood sugar from 1 (very low) to 100 (very high).

In case you were wondering, watermelon has a GI of 76, which is higher than a can of coke or a snickers bar.

‘Inflammation’ — Which Isn’t The Boogeyman Everyone Makes it Out to Be

When we eat sugar the body sends out an inflammatory response. You might’ve heard the word “inflammation” thrown around from time to time, it sounds bad, but actually, it’s quite natural.

Inflammation is our body’s natural healing function; it happens when we’re sick, after a workout or if we’re fighting infection. It only becomes a problem when our bodies are in a constant state of inflammation, otherwise known as “chronic inflammation.”

1. Are you not recovering enough from a workout?

2. Smoking a pack a day?

You’ve got chronic inflammation.

Even stress and higher levels of body fat lead to chronic inflammation. That said, sugar is the biggest culprit for chronic inflammation today.

A study conducted by the National Library of Medicine instructed 29 healthy people to consume 40 grams of added sugar from a can of soda a day.

The participants had severely increased inflammatory responses from drinking only one can of soda. They also became more insulin resistant, meaning their bodies couldn’t absorb the glucose from sugar and allowed it to build-up.
‘Insulin Resistance:’ The Most Important Thing to Know About Sugar

Insulin resistance usually leads to pre-diabetes which one in three Americans have. Sugar also breaks down collagen in the body and might be the reason why you’re showing wrinkles early, experiencing joint pain, or don’t have a good complexion.

More sugar tends to lead to more weight. It also speeds up the production of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), harmful compounds that form when protein or fat combine with sugar in the bloodstream.

Too many AGEs leads to more stress and more inflammation. An inflammatory response is like our bodies sending in the troops for war, and sometimes it’s warranted.

My softball-sized ankle as a result of a 20-mile run this week is telling me right now it needs the troops down there healing me up.

If you’re in the habit of drinking three-sodas a day, your body is nuking itself over something you likely figured innocuous.

Sugar’s Crazy Dangerous Effect on The Mind

Sugar’s effects on the body, while devastating, are a joke when compared to what it does on the mind.

When we consume sugar, our brains release endogenous opioids (natural pain killers) and dopamine into the body. These chemicals reassure us that whatever it is we’re taking, it’s making us happy.

Dopamine is very problematic when dealing with addiction. The more we’re adjusted to the dopaminergic effect we receive, the more stimulus we need to reach that same level of pleasure.
Dopamine Desensitization — Very Scary

As I reach for my fifth cup of coffee this morning, I, along with many of you, are likely familiar with needing more of a stimulus to achieve that “high.” This is known as dopamine desensitization.

The pleasure that was once rewarded from a small dosage or behavior now requires more stimulus to receive that same high.

An addictive substance or behavior might still provide a physical response, but it’s just not doing it for our dopamine receptors. Instead of feeling happier, we’re left unsatisfied and on the hunt for more stimulants. Except now, we have to take more to receive the same amount of pleasure.

As BB King once sang, “The thrill is gone.”

Scientific Proof That Sugar is Addiction

What’s scarier is that researchers have found sugar “lights up” your brain’s nucleus accumbens — the same area of the brain activated in response to heroin and cocaine.

A 2019 study attempted to measure the effects of sugar on the brain in Göttingen minipigs (brains similar to humans). They wanted to see if the addictive behaviors of sugar were comparable to that of drug addictions.

Researchers concluded the brain does have an opioid-like response to sugary foods and paralleled the response of drug addiction.

And like addicts, the pigs needed more sugar as the study progressed. Those late-night raids on your refrigerator for sweets begin to look a lot less like a lack of willpower and more like an addiction.
The 56 Names For Sugar

These are the many, many scary things that sugar does to you. If you stayed this long I applaud you — you just got a jam-packed lecture on sugar. But that’s not all.

If you thought sugar couldn’t get any worse, here are the 56 names that sugar can go under. Since this is the end of our journey, consider checking out my eBook to learn more about sugar and the psychological benefits of good health.
Mind and Muscle: The Psychological Benefits of Healthy Habits
Mind and Muscle: The Psychological Benefits of Healthy Habits – Kindle edition by McCall, Isaiah . Download it once and…
www.amazon.***
Basic Simple Sugars (monosaccharides and disaccharides):

Dextrose
Fructose
Galactose
Glucose
Lactose
Maltose
Sucrose

Solid or Granulated Sugars:

Beet sugar
Brown sugar
Cane juice crystals
Cane sugar
Castor sugar
Coconut sugar
Confectioner’s sugar (aka, powdered sugar)
Corn syrup solids
Crystalline fructose
Date sugar
Demerara sugar
Dextrin
Diastatic malt
Ethyl maltol
Florida crystals
Golden sugar
Glucose syrup solids
Grape sugar
Icing sugar
Maltodextrin
Muscovado sugar
Panela sugar
Raw sugar
Sugar (granulated or table)
Sucanat
Turbinado sugar
Yellow sugar

Liquid or Syrup Sugars:

Agave Nectar/Syrup
Barley malt
Blackstrap molasses
Brown rice syrup
Buttered sugar/buttercream
Caramel
Carob syrup
Corn syrup
Evaporated cane juice
Fruit juice
Fruit juice concentrate
Golden syrup
High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)
Honey
Invert sugar
Malt syrup
Maple syrup
Molasses
Rice syrup
Refiner’s syrup
Sorghum syrup
Treacle
Me: When I became a Diabetic Type 2, I immediately gave up Salt and Sugar and now I manage without both