Professional Journals
Here’s How Sugar, the World’s Most Popular Legal Drug Destroys Your Health!
Date: 30/12/2021

Addiction to sugar is similar to chronic drug use, you will first feel the pleasure because more dopamine will be released in your body when you consume excessive sugar, hence, you would experience a strong sense of excitement. Also, as the sugar level in your body increases, your insulin secretion will also increase. If your body is addicted to sugar, you might get extremely fatigued if you try to suppress your desire for sugar, hence you will be losing your concentration and feel irritable! What’s worse is that you might get crazy over sugary foods and overeat desserts. 

“Be it emotional or psychological dependency on sugar, excessive consumption of sugar can lead to a vicious cycle.”

Tip to stay healthy: Avoid foods that are high in sugar content 

According to the suggestion from World Health Organization (WHO), the ideal daily calorie intake for an adult is approximately 2,000kcal, while the sugar intake should be maintained at not more than 10% (which is 200kcal). It also means that the intake of refined sugar should be controlled within 50g (about 10 sugar cubes). It would be most ideal if to maintain the sugar intake at 5% (25g) of the overall calorie intake.

The most common types of sugar seen in the market are sucrose, glucose, and fructose.

Sucrose is a disaccharide, white granulated sugar, cube sugar, and brown sugar are all belonging to sucrose. Glucose is known as simple sugar which can replenish energy, whereas fructose is a monosaccharide, which provides the highest sweetness among all the natural sweeteners. Its sweetness is equivalent to 1.7 times that of sucrose, followed by sucrose, then glucose, its sweetness is about 0.7 times that of sucrose.

Tip to healthier food selections: Compare Glycemic index (GI) value 

You might not know whether the foods that you eat are healthy, but you can apply GI value as a standard to opt for healthier choices.

GI value refers to a rating system that measures the rise in blood sugar in the body after food is ingested. A food that is high in GI value can cause your blood sugar to rise rapidly, while a low-GI food makes your blood sugar rise slowly. 

The advantages of maintaining a low-GI diet include: lesser accumulation of body fat, feeling more energetic, and providing a greater sense of satiety. Other than that, it can also help to lower triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol, and bad cholesterol (LDL), as well as maintain healthier blood sugar levels. A high-GI diet can lead to overweight or obesity. When sugar is not being metabolised in time, it will then accumulate in the liver and muscles, hence, turn into body fat that will affect the body's absorption of calcium, vitamins, and other substances, causing malnutrition over time.

Glycemic Index Chart

The terrifying truth of sugar is that you might slowly get addicted to it without you knowing. Foods that are high in sugar content can make you happier but at the same time destroy your health. Therefore, we should pay more attention to our sugar intake to avoid dependency.  

Content extracted from Facebook LIVE by Dr. Lee

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