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How sugar is making us sick (and 8 reasons to avoid it)

From the desk of Robb Wolf

<p><span style="font-weight: 400">Obesity, diabetes, leaky gut, heart disease, cancer, dementia… These health problems don’t have just one cause—they’re multifactorial. But if we could eliminate one thing from the modern diet to reduce the risk of developing these conditions, one could make a strong case to eliminate refined sugar.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">Even organizations like the American Heart Association and the CDC, typically behind the curve on nutrition, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/healthy_eating/sugar.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">caution</a> against sugar. For example, the CDC advises we limit added sugars to less than 10% of daily calories. However, on a 2000 calorie diet, that’s 12 teaspoons of </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400">added</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400"> sugar! Imagine spooning that down.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">There is much gnashing of teeth about whether or not sugar is actually addictive. What’s not controversial is that it’s easy to overconsume. An <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27492320/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimated 17%</a> of the average American adult’s daily calories come from added sugar, and drinks in particular. Sodas, fruit juices, and so-called “sports” drinks are hyperpalatable, but they’re not satiating. Overconsumption of these sugar-loaded beverages is a major driver of the US “diabesity” (obesity + diabetes) epidemic.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">You probably already know that sugar is bad for you, but I wrote </span><span style="font-weight: 400">this article</span><span style="font-weight: 400"> to really dive into </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400">why</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400">. We&#8217;ll define what sugar is, cover how its overconsumption is linked to specific consequences, and I&#8217;ll wrap up by recommending a great alternative to sugar. Stick with it—I think you’ll learn something new!</span></p><h2>What is Sugar?</h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400">When most people talk about sugar, they’re talking about sucrose, aka table sugar. Sucrose is a disaccharide, meaning it’s composed of two simple sugars, or monosaccharides—namely, glucose and fructose, the two natural forms of sugar found in plants.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">Other sugars include galactose, lactose, and maltose, but when I discuss the problems with sugar, I’m mostly referring to added sugar—the sucrose, fructose, and high fructose corn syrup added to processed foods to make them easy to overeat. High fructose corn syrup is a liquid sweetener similar to sucrose, and it’s what you’ll find in many modern beverages.</span></p><h2><strong>Sugar, Insulin Resistance, and Inflammation</strong></h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400">Eating too much sugar has been linked to nearly every chronic disease. </span><span style="font-weight: 400">But before exploring these links, we need to talk about insulin resistance and inflammation. </span><span style="font-weight: 400">Understanding this will lay the foundation for why sugar is harmful.</span></p><h3><strong>Sugar Drives Insulin Resistance</strong></h3><p><span style="font-weight: 400">When you eat sugar, that sugar ends up in your blood. And the more sugar you eat, the higher your blood sugar gets. </span><span style="font-weight: 400">High blood sugar is a dangerous, inflammatory state—and your body knows it. So when blood sugar gets high, your pancreas releases insulin to clean up the mess.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">Insulin commands your blood sugar. It tells glucose to kick rocks, shuttling it out of your bloodstream and into the cells of your liver and muscle tissue. It&#8217;s there that glucose stored in the form of glycogen, which can be called upon for later use.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">But glycogen stores are not infinite. They fill up quickly, and when they do, insulin is forced to store excess blood sugar as body fat instead. On a high-sugar diet, this gets out of hand FAST. With nowhere to put the excess blood sugar, fat stores can accumulate pretty rapidly. It’s a vicious cycle, particularly when we consider how <a href="https://science.drinklmnt.com/did-you-know/symptoms-of-sugar-withdrawal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">easy</a> it is to overconsume candy, dessert, and soda.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">Take it too far, and you&#8217;ll fundamentally alter your cells&#8217; ability to listen to insulin. It becomes difficult to store glucose as glycogen, and so glucose builds up in your blood instead. This is known as <em>insulin resistance</em></span><span style="font-weight: 400">, and it’s the hallmark of type 2 diabetes and <em>many</em> other conditions.</span></p><h3><strong>Sugar Drives Inflammation</strong></h3><p><span style="font-weight: 400">Inflammation is a low-grade immune response in the absence of specific disease. Think of it as a harmful effect of immune system confusion. </span><span style="font-weight: 400">It&#8217;s good to keep chronic inflammation low if you&#8217;d like to live a long, healthy life.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">Where does sugar come in? High sugar diets have been </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11864854" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400">correlated with</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> chronic inflammation—specifically, with high circulating levels of an inflammatory particle called C-reactive protein, or CRP.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">Sugar consumption is always a few steps removed from inflammation. Consider the following:</span></p><ul><li><span style="font-weight: 400">Sugar causes excess fat storage, which leads to inflammation.</span></li><li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Sugar increases blood sugar levels (hyperglycemia is an inflammatory state).</span></li><li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Sugar feeds pathogenic gut bacteria and increases gut permeability (leaky gut).</span></li><li style="font-weight: 400"><span style="font-weight: 400">Sugar decreases the production of ketones, which have anti-inflammatory effects.</span></li></ul><p><span style="font-weight: 400">The takeaway is: Eating sugar increases inflammation, and inflammation drives chronic disease.</span></p><h2><strong>8 Reasons to Avoid Sugar</strong></h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400">Now that we&#8217;ve laid the framework, let’s look at some specific issues linked to excess sugar intake:</span></p><h3><strong>#1: Obesity</strong></h3><p><span style="font-weight: 400">In the United States, obesity has reached </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK459357/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400">epidemic proportions</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400">. Over 30% of US Americans are obese, and hundreds of thousands die each year from obesity-related diseases like diabetes, </span><span style="font-weight: 400">heart disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative disease. Obesity, it’s clear, is a significant risk factor on a patient’s chart.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">Sugar deserves a large chunk of the blame. Study after study </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2862465/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400">indicates</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> that the more sugar someone consumes, the more weight they gain. </span><span style="font-weight: 400">But what drives sugar-induced weight gain?</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">First, a bit of common sense: added sugar increases your calorie intake. There&#8217;s a couple of factors contributing here. For one, s</span><span style="font-weight: 400">ugar isn’t satiating—100 calories of high fructose corn syrup simply won&#8217;t fill you up like 100 calories of fat or protein. Second, sugar provides your brain with a nice hit of dopamine. So it&#8217;s easy to want more, and it&#8217;s easy to eat more without getting full.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">Lastly, sugar consumption leads to insulin resistance, which activates fat-storage mode. Put it all together and you have a recipe for obesity.</span></p><h3><strong>#2: Type 2 Diabetes</strong></h3><p><span style="font-weight: 400">Closely linked to obesity and insulin resistance is type 2 diabetes, a metabolic disorder defined by high blood sugar, high insulin, high blood pressure, and excess fat mass.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">One </span><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15328324/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400">study</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> followed over 90,000 women over 8 years, </span>comparing 2 groups. Those in the first group consumed more than one sugary beverage per day, and those in the second group consumed less than one sugary drink per month. The study showed that group 1 correlated with an 83% higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes than group 2. <span style="font-weight: 400">Pretty significant!</span></p><h3><strong>#3: Heart disease</strong></h3><p><span style="font-weight: 400">Everything we’ve talked about so far—insulin resistance, inflammation, obesity, and diabetes—also increases one’s risk of heart disease.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">When I say heart disease, I’m talking about atherosclerosis, or the buildup of plaque on the arterial wall that eventually leads to stroke or heart attack. Globally, heart disease is the number one cause of death.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">According to a </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5793267/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400">review</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> in the journal </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400">Nutrients, </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400">a person’s risk of heart disease rises by 10 to 20 percent for each additional sugary beverage consumed daily. Other </span><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17646581/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400">data</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> from The Framingham Heart Study found that drinking more than one sugary beverage per day was linked to high blood pressure and high triglycerides, both heart disease risk factors.</span></p><h3><strong>#4: Cognitive decline</strong></h3><p><span style="font-weight: 400">Multiple lines of evidence point to high sugar diets impairing cognition. When you look at </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6662517/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400">population data</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400">, for instance, you find more age-related cognitive decline at higher sugar intakes.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">In animals, researchers have found that excess intake of fructose and sucrose—different forms of sugar—all appear to have negative effects on the hippocampus, a region of the brain involved in memory processing.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">Sugar also impairs brain function in humans. </span><span style="font-weight: 400">In one </span><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031938417304328" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400">study</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400">, drinking a glucose or sucrose solution caused declines in mental performance compared to placebo.</span></p><h3><strong>#5: Cancer</strong></h3><p><span style="font-weight: 400">Compared to healthy cells, many cancer cells love metabolizing glucose for energy. This is called the Warburg effect, and it’s likely why the ketogenic diet (a low-carb diet which keeps blood glucose low) is therapeutic for certain cancers. </span><span style="font-weight: 400">In other words, it&#8217;s likely that eating sugar feeds cancer. And i</span><span style="font-weight: 400">ndirectly, sugar increases inflammation which <em>also</em> creates conditions ideal for cancer progression.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">Fructose is a particularly bad actor here. In mice, the equivalent of one daily soda’s worth of high fructose corn syrup </span><a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190321141924.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400">accelerated</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> the progression of colon cancer.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">To be clear, cancer is an extremely complex condition, and cutting out sugar certainly won&#8217;t cure it. But with the data we have, that seems like a solid move to slow its progression.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">For more on the dangers of fructose, check out Peter Attia’s </span><a href="https://peterattiamd.com/rickjohnson/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400">podcast</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> with Rick Johnson. Both of these guys are very intelligent MDs, and they cover the topic brilliantly.</span></p><h3><strong>#6: Leaky gut</strong></h3><p><span style="font-weight: 400">High sugar diets feed pathogenic bacteria and fungi in the gut. These bad bacteria, in turn, damage the fragile gut barrier, creating a condition called leaky gut.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">When someone has leaky gut, food particles leak through the intestinal wall and into the blood. The immune system then attacks these food particles, creating more damage, more leaky gut, and the cycle continues.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">The good news? Low-carb, low-sugar diets can starve bad bacteria to help heal your gut. If you want to go deep on this topic, I highly recommend reading </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Gut-You-Personalized-Transform-ebook/dp/B078ZLMRCL/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&amp;keywords=healthy+gut&amp;qid=1594049450&amp;sr=8-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400">Healthy Gut, Healthy You</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> by Dr. Michael Ruscio.</span></p><h3><strong>#7: Cavities</strong></h3><p><span style="font-weight: 400">Your dentist was right all along. Sugar is bad for your teeth. </span><span style="font-weight: 400">It feeds bacteria of the mouth (such as Streptococcus mutans) that cause tooth decay. Unsurprisingly, higher sugar consumption is </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5819237/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400">linked</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> to higher rates of cavities in children.</span></p><h3><strong>#8: Kidney disease</strong></h3><p><span style="font-weight: 400">Imagine drinking two liters of Coke after four hours of heated exercise. That’s what twelve healthy adults did in a recent </span><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30601706/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400">study</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> published in the American Journal of Physiology. </span><span style="font-weight: 400">The results revealed a variety of poor biomarkers (like increased creatinine) suggesting the participants had sustained kidney injury.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">To bolster this result, </span><a href="https://cjasn.asnjournals.org/content/14/1/49" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400">observational data</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> on over 3,000 black Americans has linked higher consumption of sugary beverages to higher rates of chronic kidney disease.</span></p><h2><strong>Choosing a Sugar Alternative</strong></h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400">A healthy diet is a low-sugar diet. But does that mean a healthy diet can’t be sweet? </span><span style="font-weight: 400">Not necessarily.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">There are many sugar alternatives available: both high and low-carb varieties of natural sweeteners, and zero calorie artificial sweeteners. While most of the compounds are probably healthier than sugar, there&#8217;s a lot of debate to be had on that subject. Check out <a href="https://science.drinklmnt.com/low-carb/12-popular-sugar-substitutes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>The pros and cons of 12 popular sugar substitutes</em></a> to learn more.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">My recommendation? Go with stevia, a zero-calorie sweetener derived from the leaves of the stevia </span><span style="font-weight: 400">rebaudiana</span><span style="font-weight: 400"> plant. Compared to sugar and artificial sweeteners, stevia </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2900484/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400">appears</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> to blunt the post-meal rise in blood sugar and insulin levels.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400">It has also been shown to l</span>ower inflammation, improve oral health, exert antioxidant effects, lower blood pressure, and reduce liver damage. <span style="font-weight: 400">Like with almost anything, too much stevia may not be optimal (there&#8217;s much debate around whether it materially increases insulin)—but since stevia is about 300 times sweeter than sugar, you don’t need much to get the job done.</span></p><p>Lastly, if you&#8217;re having difficulty steering clear of sugar, check out my other article, <em><a href="https://science.drinklmnt.com/did-you-know/reduce-sugar-cravings/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">5 ways to reduce sugar cravings</a>. </em>And remember, the longer you steer clear of sugar, the easier it gets.</p>