Additionally, sugar causes cellular inflammation. As you probably know, whenever there is chronic inflammation, problems follow. High sugar levels also cause acne and dermatitis. Carbohydrates like bread, cereals, rice, and pasta cause an increase in insulin and androgen (a male sex hormone) production. Androgens prompt skin glands to produce excess sebum, clogging pores and leading to breakouts.
Moreover, Candida is a yeast that lives in the digestive tract and on the skin. As a yeast, it thrives on sugar. Eating too much sugar causes the yeast to overgrow, leading to nail infections, vaginal infections, athlete’s foot, and oral thrush.
Over time, high blood sugar can also lead to diabetic neuropathy, causing tingling and pain in the feet. Furthermore, internal inflammation and increased insulin production can cause cells to reproduce abnormally and rapidly. Cancer cells feed on sugar, giving you yet another reason to kick the habit.
What Too Much Sugar Does to Your Body
Cancer has been considered a global epidemic. In a Swiss study on worldwide cancer incidence, the overconsumption of sugar in industrialized countries was identified as a major culprit. In the United States alone, an estimated 30 to 40% of healthcare expenditures are devoted to treating sugar-related diseases.
A 2014 study published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation was the first to examine how malignant and benign cancer cells react to increased glucose. All cells consume glucose for fuel. What researchers discovered is that not only do cancer cells (both malignant and benign) consume sugar, but excess sugar disrupts normal cellular expression and causes an “upregulated canonical oncogenic signaling” (tumor development). This is driven by the cells’ complex metabolic reactions to sugar.
Interestingly and encouragingly, when sugar intake is reduced, cells regain their normal function over time.
Simply put: eating too much sugar will make you gain weight. Clinical studies have unequivocally proven that increased sugar consumption leads to weight gain. In fact, a meta-analysis showed that after a one-year observation period, the propensity to gain weight and become obese among people who regularly consumed sugary foods was, on average, 55% higher than among those who reduced their sugar intake.
The Dangers of Soda
The amount of soda and carbonated beverages consumed is particularly correlated with significant weight gain, leading directly to obesity and diabetes. Diet soda is just as bad as its regular counterpart because artificial sweeteners are not metabolized by the body and are therefore stored in fat cells, causing inflammation and weight gain.
