The Impact of Sugar on Human Health

The Impact of Sugar on Human Health—A Narrative Review

“Sugar leads to diabetes.” This is what you hear, and “you must stay away from white sugar in order to protect yourself from diabetes.

Sugar has harmful effects on health, the most important of which is tooth decay, which is a problem no less important than diabetes. But for diabetes, sugar does not lead to disease, and even the Diabetes Association in the United Kingdom described this saying as a myth, as does the American Diabetes Association. 

There are two types of diabetes:

 Type 1 diabetes,

 which occurs when the immune system attacks the pancreatic cells that make insulin and destroys them. This occurs as a result of a problem in the body’s immune system and has nothing to do with the amount of sugar that a person consumes.

As for type 2 diabetes

, it occurs as a result of increased cell resistance to insulin and as a result of genetic factors, physical inactivity, and weight gain. 

Now, eating an excessive amount of calories (whether they are from simple sugars such as sugar, fructose, etc., or complex carbohydrates such as bread and rice, proteins such as meat and legumes, and fats such as butter and olive oil) leads to weight gain and thus increases the risk of diabetes.The problem with promoting that diabetes is caused by eating sugar is that it ignores the real factors, so a person may be obese and inactive, but he thinks that he is safe from diabetes as a result of abstaining from sugar.

Here it must not be understood that sugar is good, as sugar is bad and harmful, whether white sugar (sucrose), brown sugar (white sugar with molasses added), or fruit sugar (fructose) found in honey, which is added to manufactured foods and drinks in the form of high fructose corn syrup.

 One of the most important harms of sugar is tooth decay and the increased risk of obesity when consumed in large quantities. Also, sugary drinks and sweets are empty foods, meaning you eat calories without getting vitamins or minerals.The other thing is that research has shown that drinking sugary drinks is linked to type 2 diabetes, so the American Diabetes Association recommends that people avoid drinking sugar-sweetened beverages to help prevent diabetes, and again, the problem here is not with solid sugar or sugary foods, but with drinks.  This brings us back to the fact that these drinks provide empty calories. The person drinks them and is not satisfied, of course, and then eats food, so he ends up eating a large amount of calories that increases the risk of obesity, and thus diabetes.
 

Only two crimes

 There are two crimes of drunkenness that have been proven by medical studies, and the remaining accusations do not have sufficient evidence for them. As for his proven crimes, they are: - Tooth decay occurs as bacteria in the mouth analyze and digest sugar in food, producing acids that attack the surface of the tooth, leading to its loss of minerals and the occurrence of tooth decay. The relationship between tooth decay and sugar is proven, and this includes juices, honey, molasses, and sweets, all of which cause tooth decay.

 

The degree of harm that sugar causes to the tooth is also related to other factors, such as how long the sugar remains in the mouth. Sugar in juice, for example, is less harmful than sugar in cakes because it is swallowed faster. Another factor is the degree of viscosity of sugary food. For example, cotton candy and raisins are very harmful to the teeth because they stick to them and thus stay longer in the mouth and provide food for the bacteria that produce acids.

 Malnutrition, which is the second crime that has been proven regarding sugar, is linked to the person not obtaining the necessary nutrients such as vitamins and minerals such as calcium and dietary fiber. To be clear, malnutrition here does not mean that a person is living in famine. As long as he can buy cold canned juices and chocolate, he is most likely living in Bahbouha, a place whose residents do not suffer from food shortages.
But what is meant is that this person’s body is experiencing famine, resulting from eating large amounts of calories without beneficial nutritional content.

Sugary foods, such as chocolate and ice cream, usually contain empty calories; that is, they contain an amount of energy but without useful nutrients, which makes them among the so-called “junk foods.”.

In children, for example, eating sweets suppresses the child’s appetite for healthy food, and therefore one of the basic questions that the doctor asks the mother of the child who suffers from anemia or malnutrition is: Does he eat sweets? How much is it? Also, if a person consumes sugary drinks, for example, such as juices and soft drinks, it may mean that he does not get or drink a sufficient amount of nutritious drinks, such as milk, which means that his body does not get an adequate amount of calcium.

Therefore, the conclusion on this topic is: You must reduce your intake of sugar, as it is harmful and leads to tooth decay and malnutrition, but it does not lead to diabetes.