Question

In 2 pages “If you are what you eat, then what does it mean that the average American consumes 130 pounds of sugar a year?” explain your thoughts and reasons.

Answer 1

Beyond weight gain, sugar can take a serious toll on your health, worsening conditions ranging from heart disease to cancer. Some physicians go so far as to call sugar a toxin. Americans have the highest obesity in the world which leads to higher medical expenses, long term health disability, and their children are bombarded by sugary advertisement (not drugs). These all are the consequence of higher consumption of sugar. Sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are certainly not “acute toxins”. The question is whether they're “chronic toxins,” which means “not toxic after one meal, but after 1,000 meals.”

Many people rely on quick, processed foods for meals and snacks. Since these products often contain added sugar, it makes up a large proportion of their daily calorie intake. In the US, added sugars account for up to 17% of the total calorie intake of adults and up to 14% for children. Experts believe that sugar consumption is a major cause of obesity and many chronic diseases, such as diabetes.

Why eating too much sugar is bad for your health:

1. Can Cause Weight Gain: Rates of obesity are rising worldwide and added sugar, especially from sugar-sweetened beverages, is thought to be one of the main culprits. Sugar-sweetened drinks like sodas, juices and sweet teas are loaded with fructose, a type of simple sugar. Consuming fructose increases your hunger and desire for food more than glucose, the main type of sugar found in starchy food. Additionally, excessive fructose consumption may cause resistance to leptin, an important hormone that regulates hunger and tells your body to stop eating.

Research has consistently shown that people who drink sugary beverages, such as soda and juice, weigh more than people who don’t. Also, drinking a lot of sugar-sweetened beverages is linked to an increased amount of visceral fat, a kind of deep belly fat associated with conditions like diabetes and heart disease.

2. May Increase Your Risk of Heart Disease: High-sugar diets have been associated with an increased risk of many diseases, including heart disease, the number one cause of death worldwide. Additionally, consuming too much sugar, especially from sugar-sweetened drinks, has been linked to atherosclerosis, a disease characterized by fatty, artery-clogging deposits. Consuming too much-added sugar increases heart disease risk factors such as obesity, high blood pressure and inflammation. High-sugar diets have been linked to an increased risk of dying from heart disease.

3. High-sugar diets can increase androgen secretion, oil production and inflammation, all of which can raise your risk of developing acne. Foods with a high glycemic index, such as processed sweets, raise your blood sugar more rapidly than foods with a lower glycemic index. Sugary foods quickly spike blood sugar and insulin levels, causing increased androgen secretion, oil production and inflammation, all of which play a role in acne development.

4. Increases Your Risk of Diabetes:

Prolonged high-sugar consumption drives resistance to insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas that regulates blood sugar levels. Insulin resistance causes blood sugar levels to rise and strongly increases your risk of diabetes.

5. May Increase Your Risk of Cancer: Diets high in sugar increase inflammation in your body and may cause insulin resistance, both of which increase cancer risk . A study in over 430,000 people found that added sugar consumption was positively associated with an increased risk of esophageal cancer, pleural cancer and cancer of the small intestine. Another study showed that women who consumed sweet buns and cookies more than three times per week were 1.42 times more likely to develop endometrial cancer than women who consumed these foods less than 0.5 times per week.

6. May Increase Your Risk of Depression: While a healthy diet can help improve your mood, a diet high in added sugar and processed foods may increase your chances of developing depression. Consuming a lot of processed foods, including high-sugar products such as cakes and sugary drinks, has been associated with a higher risk of depression.

7. May Accelerate the Skin Aging: Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are compounds formed by reactions between sugar and protein in your body. They are suspected to play a key role in skin aging. Processed Sugary foods can increase the production of AGEs, which can accelerate skin aging and wrinkle formation. Consuming a diet high in refined carbs and sugar leads to the production of AGEs, which may cause your skin to age prematurely. AGEs damage collagen and elastin, which are proteins that help the skin stretch and keep its youthful appearance. When collagen and elastin become damaged, the skin loses its firmness and begins to sag.

8. Eating too much sugar can accelerate the shortening of telomeres, which increases cellular aging. Telomeres act as protective caps, preventing chromosomes from deteriorating or fusing together. As you grow older, telomeres naturally shorten, which causes cells to age and malfunction. Although the shortening of telomeres is a normal part of aging, unhealthy lifestyle choices can speed up the process.

9. A high intake of fructose has been consistently linked to an increased risk of fatty liver. Unlike glucose and other types of sugar, which are taken up by many cells throughout the body, fructose is almost exclusively broken down by the liver. Large amounts of added sugar in the form of fructose overload your liver, leading to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a condition characterized by excessive fat buildup in the liver.

10. Increase kidney disease risk: Having consistently high blood sugar levels can cause damage to the delicate blood vessels in your kidneys. This can lead to an increased risk of kidney disease.

11. Increase the risk of developing gout: Gout is an inflammatory condition characterized by pain in the joints. Added sugars raise uric acid levels in the blood, increasing the risk of developing or worsening gout.

12. Accelerate cognitive decline: High-sugar diets can lead to impaired memory and have been linked to an increased risk of dementia.

Therefore, it depends upon us that what we want to do with our body and health. We are what we eat.