The Health Impacts of Sugar Consumption

It’s no coincidence that we’re putting sugar under the spotlight with Good Friday so close and April 7 being World Health Day. Humans are born with a preference for sugar (1) and with a growing body of evidence highlighting the negative effects of excessive or prolonged intake, (2) we’ve come up with a checklist to explain why sugar laden goodies are really no good.

1. Disrupting gut health

Diet has been demonstrated to be capable of restructuring the microbiome within days, with simple sugars able to override host genetic effects on the microbiome. (1) Sugar alone has been associated with profound dysbiosis of the gut microbiome, (2) with a high intake shifting the balance of microbiota. (3) A high simple sugar diet was also found to increase small intestinal permeability in healthy humans. (3) By increasing pro-inflammatory properties and decreasing the capacity to regulate the integrity of the gut lining, it also affects mucosal immunity. (3) Since gut health strongly influences overall health and immunity, it runs interference right where vitality starts, creating a knock-on effect to further health implications.

2. Affecting mood, behaviour and cognition

Sugar affects mood, behaviour, learning, and memory, with high sugar diets also linked to emotional disturbances, such as stress, anxiety, and depression. (4) Many of these issues appear to coincide with the fact that sugar acts as an addictive molecule. (4)
Predisposing individuals to changes in activity in areas of the brain, known to be associated with reward, learning reward, and eating behaviour, (4)  it causes overeating and withdrawal, (4) and there is strong evidence of the existence of addiction. (5)
5 out of 11 criteria for substance use disorder appear specific to its ingestion including: use of larger amounts and for longer than intended, craving, hazardous use, tolerance, and withdrawal. (5) Often associated with phrases like ‘sugar high/rush/crash’, it’s a slippery slope from cravings to becoming sugar addicted with constant excessive consumption impacting mental wellbeing as much as physical health.

3. Causes inflammation

Dietary sugar is a key factor in inducing low-grade chronic inflammation, autoimmune diseases, and even neuroinflammation. (6) With increased intestinal permeability comes the release of inflammatory factors, leading to liver and systemic inflammation. (6)
Interestingly, a large number of studies have shown that some plant compounds have an inhibitory effect on systemic inflammation caused by excessive intake of dietary sugars. For example, curcumin appears to inhibits inflammation caused by high fructose through multiple pathways. (6)

4. Contributes to chronic diseases

Sugar is now recognised as being one of the major culprits contributing to chronic disease. Added sugar in processed food results in metabolic, cardiovascular, inflammatory and nervous disorders including: (1) (4) (6)

• Metabolic syndrome
• Obesity
• Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM)
• Cardiovascular disease
• Stroke
• Coronary heart disease
• Dyslipidaemia
• Hypertension
• Liver disease
• Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
• Multiple sclerosis (MS)
• Psoriasis
• Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
• Cognitive diseases
• Alzheimer disease

Staying off the Slippery Sugar Slope

There’s good reason to keep Easter treats just for Easter. Addressing your intake is somewhat of a speciality here at Livewell, between our Naturopaths, Nutritionists and Dieticians, we’ve got you covered if you need to chat about sidelining the sugar in your diet.

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