Sugar: The happiness poison

Have you ever wondered why there are desserts and sugary treats at every “happy” event? Why is it so important to have “something sweet” at all events and functions in our lives which are connected with happiness? Had a child? Please have some sweets. Birthday? Please have cake. Passed an exam? Have something sweet. In India, if you just go out to try something you deserve some yoghurt and sugar. Graduation? You have to have something sweet. Job, wedding etc. and the list is endless.

Why is it so important to connect sugar and happiness? And what exactly do you think this connection has done? This has given social sanction to have a toxic chemical which is eight times more addictive than cocaine.

Yes, sugar is by far the most addictive substance legally available and acceptable by all social structures. You could be living in a democracy, in a communist country or under a monarchy or dictatorship, all of them approve of this drug called sugar. Why do I feel it is deadlier than alcohol or cigarettes or tobacco? Because you can’t buy any of these below the age of 21, in some countries 18. But can you be given any of these at the age of 2? No. Then why is it OK to give something like sugar, which is more addictive than an illegal narcotic like cocaine, to even a two-year-old?

You really never thought of it in this manner, did you? Well in this day and age of the internet and information, if you don’t know that sugar is the biggest poison in your life because it is in everything that goes thru your mouth and into your body, then you need to wake up real hard. You must be thinking how could I be making such an atrocious claim without any hard facts? So let’s get down to the science behind my claim.

Fructose, which is sugar found in fruits but also added as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in nearly all processed foods. Fructose fools your metabolism by turning off your body’s appetite control system. It fails to stimulate Insulin which in turn fails to suppress Ghrelin, the hunger hormone which then fails to stimulate Leptin, the satiety hormone. This causes you to eat more and develop Insulin resistance, better known as type 2 Diabetes.

The more simple carbohydrates you eat, sugary foods and any processed or junk food, the more your body will ask for the same. If you eat any form of junk or processed foods you will realize that you want more of the same food again and again. You will never be satisfied by just having a small portion of it. If you are into drinking sodas (carbonated soft drinks) you will realize that you can’t just have a bottle and be satisfied for the day, you will end up drinking 2 to 3 bottles of your favourite cola or soft drink. And the manufacturers know this fact and capitalize on it, that's why they have been increasing the portion size of snacks and especially drinks and beverages. The more you eat, the more your stomach expands to adapt to the new portion size, the more you want it again and again. Now you know why that happens. Ghrelin and Leptin are not stimulated and there fore you are forever hungry and not satiated. Sugar does this to you.

Sugar causes metabolic dysfunction. Eating sugar causes a barrage of symptoms known as classic metabolic syndrome which includes weight, abdominal obesity, decreased HDL (good cholesterol) and increased LDL (bad cholesterol), elevated blood sugar, elevated triglycerides, high blood pressure and high Uric acid levels. All of these increase the risk of heart and kidney disease manifold. Insulin is important in the body for controlling blood sugar, but it may play a different role in the brain, where insulin appears to disturb memory and learning. It is proven now after many studies that a high fructose diet harms the brain as well as the body.

The hippocampus is the centre for emotion, new memory, memory storage and organization and autonomic nervous system . Experiments have proven that higher blood glucose levels were linked with bad memory as well as a smaller hippocampus. Each time your blood glucose levels rise the hippocampus is inflamed and over time it just shrinks. MRI’s of Alzheimer’s and Dementia patients have proven this.

Sucrose and high fructose corn syrup are liquid sweeteners often added to processed foods and common beverages such as soft drinks and juices. These added sugars are quickly absorbed in the blood where it lowers the production of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a substance known to influence the formation of new memories and regulate learning. Individuals with impaired glucose tolerance were found to have low levels of this chemical. Low levels of BDNF have been associated with depression and dementia. Have you noticed that nowadays the cases of depression and dementia are way too many? Even when an individual who seemingly has everything, money, job, relationship but suddenly becomes a victim of depression. When counselled, the individual doesn’t even know why he/she is depressed. Well, now you know that there are certain contents in the so-called happy foods that you eat which in the long run actually make you depressed. Remember the hippocampus is responsible for emotions too? It simply cannot stay healthy if you keep on eating foods which have added sugars daily. Added sugars are a major culprit for health complications including poor memory and cognitive damage.

Now scientists have unravelled the specific molecular link between glucose and Alzheimer’s disease, suggesting people who consumed a lot of sugar but not necessarily diabetics were at an increased risk. Studies have proven that people with high blood sugar had a faster rate of cognitive decline than those with normal blood sugar. The higher the blood sugar the faster the cognitive decline.

All of us who have children know what happens to their kids at a birthday party, especially after eating cake. Sugar has a powerful effect on children’s behaviour and this is in direct proportion to the number of sugary foods they consume. Studies have shown that the “spike” in blood sugar that comes from the consumption of sugary foods can cause outbursts or tantrums in the short term when the inevitable sugar crash occurs. When sugary foods are consumed regularly, it can affect attention span and learning ability and can aggravate hyperactivity in children with ADHD. Simple and refined sugars like glucose and fructose suppress the immune system and can cause up to a 50% decrease in the ability of white blood cells to engulf bacteria and kill germs. This suppression of the immune system can last up to five hours. Complex carbs in comparison do not negatively affect the immune system. Now, do you realize why your sugar eating happy kid keeps falling sick?

Also, do you complain that your child doesn’t want to eat veggies and complains of being full? When sugar moves into the digestive tract, it sends a signal to the brain to tell the
body that its full. The more the added sugar children consume, the less likely they are to eat healthy brain foods like grains, vegetables, fruits and dairy products. And since the sugar in your child has cheated his/her nervous system, the poor kid thinks that he/she is full at that time. But very soon the child feels hungrier than ever and goes for another sugary fix, just like a drug addict. Not your kids' fault, sugar is a drug and I’ll tell you why.

Brain scans have confirmed that intermittent sugar consumption affects the brain in ways similar to certain drugs. Sugar uses the same neurological pathways as narcotics, to hit the pleasure centre of the brain that sends out the signals: “eat more, eat more”. Recently, researchers have found that sugar is 8 times more addictive than cocaine. It does this by affecting the chemistry of the of the limbic system, the part of the brain that’s associated with emotional control.

Intermittent access to sugar can lead to behavioural and neurochemical changes that resemble the effects of a substance of abuse. It’s these findings that spurred Paul van def Velpen, head of Amsterdam’s health services, to warn people that sugar is a drug, “just like alcohol and tobacco.” The truth is that not everyone exposed to high sugar foods is going to become addicted and seek it out regularly. The same is true with drugs like cocaine or alcohol. The difference is that alcohol is not sold to anyone under 21 years of age,
but you can buy high sugar content foods at any age.

And please artificial sweeteners are way more dangerous than sugar itself. Anything that says “zero sugar” and still tastes sweet is filled with artificial sweeteners. These beverages are stacked with preservatives, additives and artificial sweeteners and are very dangerous, as are the ones with sugar or HFCS.

On the contrary, studies have repeatedly shown that artificial sweeteners cause greater weight gain than regular sugar. Studies have also repeatedly linked artificial
sweeteners with increased hunger. For example, one study published in the journal Physiology & Behavior in 1988 found that intense (no- or low-calorie) sweeteners
can produce significant changes in appetite. Of the sweeteners tested, aspartame produced the most pronounced effects. Scientific evidence shows that aspartame actually worsens insulin resistance to a greater degree than sugar.

Aspartame has been found to cause cancer - leukaemia, lymphoma and other tumours - in laboratory animals and should not be in the food supply.

HFCS is everywhere! Soft drinks, fruit juices, sports drinks, energy drinks and even supposedly “healthy” bottled teas. Made from corn starch through a complicated process, HFCS emerged as a cheaper, significantly sweeter, easy to transport and easy to use (especially in beverages, since its a liquid) alternative to sugar. Soft drinks, fruit juices and energy drinks are almost always sweetened with HFCS.

Fruit juices do not have ANY fruit at all. They’re made from concentrate. Even if the label says “100% juice” and “not from concentrate”. They’re made from specially sourced bad quality and rotting fruit which is then heated at very high temperatures and the juice is stored in huge oxygen-depleted holding tanks for about a year before it is packaged.

Since most of the flavour is lost in these holding tanks, the manufacturers need to add “flavour packs”, which contain sugar, additives, artificial flavours and preservatives, to give you the flavour of fruit juice. Would you keep freshly squeezed orange juice you made in your kitchen for a year before having it?

But this versatile sweetener doesn’t stop there. Its also in countless other products - many you wouldn’t expect unless you read the label. These include baked goods,
cookies or biscuits, jams and jellies, ketchup, pasta sauce, salad dressing, bread, condiments and many many others.

Recently an old study from 1968 has revealed that sugar causes cancer. Sucrose increases breast cancer. Also, several studies have found an increased risk of endometrial cancer in women who consumed high levels of sucrose. Cancer cells love sugar! That is why refined carbohydrates like white sugar, white flour, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and soft drinks are extremely dangerous for anyone trying to prevent or reverse cancer.

Sugar essentially feeds tumours and encourages cancer growth. Cancer cells uptake sugar at 10-12 times the rate of healthy cells.  In fact, that is the basis of PET (positron emission tomography) scans -- one of the most accurate tools for detecting cancer growth.   PET scans use radioactively labelled glucose to detect sugar-hungry tumour cells.  When patients drink the sugar-water, it gets preferentially taken up into the cancer cells and they light up!

If you want to know how bad sugar is, research has even shown that sugar is a major cause of erectile dysfunction, mostly in diabetic men. High sugar, hard to digest foods seriously hinder your libido.

Leptin is the hormone that tells your body when to stop eating and also helps to monitor sexual behaviour. Sugar creates Leptin resistance in the body, which in turn leads to a decrease in sex drive. Sugar can also affect the levels of testosterone in men. Decreased testosterone levels will directly impact your libido.

Insulin is a hormone our body produces to move sugar into our cells so it can be used for energy. Because insulin is chemically similar to the ovarian hormones that help our eggs mature, the ovaries confuse elevated insulin with their own growth factors and down-regulate the production of reproductive hormones. This can potentially interfere with egg maturation and ovulation. Consistently elevated insulin levels, as seen with insulin resistance, can cause the cells in the ovarian tissues to produce too much testosterone. This excess of testosterone may cause abnormal hair growth, acne and hair loss that is sometimes associated with polycystic ovary syndrome or PCOS.

Sugar causes dental problems. Each time you eat a sugary treat, there is an acid attack on your teeth by harmful bacteria because the sugar has to be digested. These acids remove minerals from tooth enamels, which is the shiny outer layer of your tooth. This process is called demineralization. The minerals in saliva help to remineralize and strengthen tech. However, repeated acid attacks cause a mineral loss in the enamel. Tooth decay is then inevitable.

I just want to mention the sugar content in a few products as it is humanly impossible to mention all of them. Remember - One teaspoon = 4grams

Cola = 39 grams of sugar and 140 calories

Orange soda = 44 grams of sugar and 160 calories

Clear (lemon-lime) = 38 grams of sugar and 140 calories

Sports drink = 21 grams of sugar and 80 calories

Sweetened bottled iced tea = 35 grams of sugar and 135 calorie

Vitamin-infused water (20-ounce bottle) = 32 grams of sugar and 120 calories

Sweetened cranberry juice cocktail) = 38 grams of sugar and 165 calories

Caffeinated energy drink = 41 grams of sugar and 165 calories

Apple juice (10 ounces) = 32 grams of sugar and 140 calories

Coconut water = 13 grams of sugar and 60 calorie

1 piece of Jalebi = 15 to 20 grams of sugar

1 piece of Rasgulla = 4-6 grams of sugar

1 piece of Gulab Jamun= 16-18 grams of sugar

Five Star chocolate 15g= 7.2 grams of sugar

Kit Kat = 21 grams of sugar

1 slice of white bread = 2 to 3 grams of sugar

Baskin Robbins ice cream 4oz. = 28 grams of sugar

Haagen Daas half cup = 21 grams of sugar

Kwality Walls 100g = 9 grams of sugar

Mother Dairy ice cream 50g = 8 grams of sugar

Vadilals ice cream 1 cup = 10 grams of sugar

1 cup of Gaajar Halwa = 27 grams of sugar

Above I have only mentioned sugary treats but please remember all simple carbohydrates are sugar. So if you think a pizza is better than an ice cream, you are sadly mistaken. Simple carbs have a high glycemic index and are treated by your body in the same way a sugar food is. Also, you should know that the pizza dough has sugar, the tomato sauce has sugar and to top it all its made from white flour which is a simple carb.

Most of you are consuming totally about 50 to 60 grams of sugar in a single day but don’t even know it. Manufacturers are getting smarter and hide the sugar under different names. You will be quite surprised to know that sugar has 56 different names! And many of them aren’t even required to be mentioned on the label. Try this experiment, write down the sugar value of each and every product that you consume in one day, starting from your morning tea or coffee till bedtime. Total it up and get ready to be shocked.

The AHA or The American Heart Association has recommended no more than 24 grams of sugar or 6 teaspoons of sugar in a day. According to me, this is way too high but even if we follow this it would be beneficial. Now read the labels of whatever you consume and do the math, you will be surprised at your daily sugar.

So by now you know that sugar is a poison, yes it tastes sweet but it is a poison. A poison which interferes which causes disease in every part of your body and brain as well. It is an addictive drug like any other drug. If you won't give your child cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana or cocaine because they are addictive and cause physical and mental harm, then WHY would you give sugar, which has the same effect?

As a culture, as a people, we have to arm ourselves with information and protect ourselves and our families. we have to change the way we think about sugar and happiness. Happiness doesn’t have to come from a chemical, may it be tobacco or alcohol or cocaine or sugar. Birthdays do not necessarily have to have cakes and sugary treats. I have stopped sugar myself and we have decided as a family to not keep cakes on birthdays. No pizzas, no burgers, no cakes and no juices and still we will keep enough food. Real food that is, but no cake.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that many conscious parents here (in the US) have started doing exactly that. Please don’t bother about what people say or think about your decision, your decision to cut out sugar from your lives will save your and your family’s life, how does it matter what people think?

Just because sugar is available to any age group and is socially acceptable doesn’t mean we should have it and give it to our children. Smoking and drinking are socially acceptable too but so many of us don’t smoke or drink, would you offer those to your kids? Ignorance made us do certain things whether in lifestyle or cooking and those things made us happy. We didn’t know that they are dangerous for us and we kept having them, but now we know.

The food industry has made a very successful effort in making all of us addicts. Instead of making fresh food from scratch without the use of any bottled or canned products, people just conveniently eat out, get ready to eat meals, microwave them and have them. That is not food, those are just seal packed chemicals which you heat up and eat.

Real food is never packed. Make and eat your meals. Please, please, please save yours and the lives of your loved ones. Ban sugar from your lives, ban this poison from your lives. Lead a healthier lifestyle, make smarter food choices, you were not meant to be diseased.