People have been sounding warnings about the dangers of too much sugar for a long time. As early as 1957, John Yudkin, a professor of nutrition at Queen Elizabeth College in London, began arguing that when it came to heart disease and other chronic ailments, sugar — not fat — was the culprit.
SINS OF SUGAR
1. Cavities: Tooth decay occurs when the bacteria that line the teeth feed on simple sugars, creating acid that destroys enamel. Because acid is a key culprit, sour candies are especially bad.
2. Weight gain & Obesity: Sugary foods are full of calories but will do little to satiate your hunger. Just one can of soda each day could lead to 15 pounds of weight gain in a single year, and each can of soda increases the odds of becoming obese, a JAMA study noted.
3. Insulin resistance. Sugar causes insulin to rise. When insulin levels are consistently high, your body’s sensitivity to the hormone is reduced, and glucose builds up in the blood.
4. Diabetes: study that followed 51,603 women between 1991 and 1999 found an increased risk of diabetes among those who consumed more sugar-sweetened beverages (soda, sweetened ice tea, energy drinks).
5. Liver failure: High doses of sugar can make the liver go into overdrive. That’s one reason excess fructose is a “key player” in the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, where fat accumulates in the liver. People with this diagnosis have been found to have almost double the soda intake of the average person.
6. Pancreatic cancer: A handful of studies have found that high-sugar diets are associated with a slightly elevated risk of pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancers.
7. Kidney disease: Rats fed extremely high-sugar diets — consuming about 12 times the percentage of sugar recommended in the WHO’s new guidelines — developed enlarged kidneys and a host of problems with regular kidney function.
8. High blood pressure & Heart Disease: eating lots of added sugar has indeed been linked to high blood pressure. a CDC study of 11,733 adults concluded that there is “a significant relationship between added sugar consumption and increased risk for CVD [cardiovascular disease] mortality.”
9. Nutritional deficiencies: “High-sugar foods displace whole foods (eg, soft drinks displace milk and juice consumption in children) and contribute to nutritional deficiencies,” noted a statement from the American Heart Association.
Source: British Medical Journal, 2008; Advances in Chronic Kidney Disease, 2012 & http://www.businessinsider.com/effects-of-eating-too-much-sugar-2014-3#ixzz2zuToMJ8Q
