76 Ways Sugar Can Ruin Your Health

Contributed by Nancy Appleton, Ph.D
Author of the book Lick The Sugar Habit

In addition to throwing off the body's homeostasis, excess sugar may result in a number of other significant consequences.

The following is a listing of some of sugar's metabolic consequences from a variety of medical journals and other scientific publications.

1. Sugar can suppress your immune system and impair your defenses against infectious disease.^1,2

2. Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in your body: causes chromium and copper deficiencies and interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium. ^3,4,5,6

3. Sugar can cause can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline, hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children.^7,8

4. Sugar can produce a significant rise in total cholesterol, triglycerides and bad cholesterol and a decrease in good cholesterol.^9,10,11,12

5. Sugar causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function.¹³

6. Sugar feeds cancer cells and has been connected with the development of cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, biliary tract, lung, gallbladder and stomach.^{14,15,16,17,18,19,20}

7. Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose and can cause reactive hypoglycemia.^21,22

8. Sugar can weaken eyesight.²³

9. Sugar can cause many problems with the gastrointestinal tract including: an acidic digestive tract, indigestion, malabsorption in patients with functional bowel disease, increased risk of Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis.^{24,25,26,27,28}

10. Sugar can cause premature aging.²⁹

11. Sugar can lead to alcoholism.³⁰

12. Sugar can cause your saliva to become acidic, tooth decay, and periodontal disease.^31,32,33

13. Sugar contributes to obesity.³⁴

14. Sugar can cause autoimmune diseases such as: arthritis, asthma, multiple sclerosis.^35,36,37

15. Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections)³⁸

16. Sugar can cause gallstones.³⁹

17. Sugar can cause appendicitis.⁴⁰

18. Sugar can cause hemorrhoids.⁴¹

19. Sugar can cause varicose veins.⁴²

20. Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses in oral contraceptive users.⁴³

21. Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis.⁴⁴

22. Sugar can cause a decrease in your insulin sensitivity thereby causing an abnormally high insulin levels and eventually diabetes.^45,46,47

23. Sugar can lower your Vitamin E levels.⁴⁸

24. Sugar can increase your systolic blood pressure.⁴⁹

25. Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children.⁵⁰

26. High sugar intake increases advanced glycation end products (AGEs)(Sugar molecules attaching to and thereby damaging proteins in the body).⁵¹

27. Sugar can interfere with your absorption of protein.⁵²

28. Sugar causes food allergies.⁵³

29. Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy.⁵⁴

30. Sugar can contribute to eczema in children.⁵⁵

31. Sugar can cause atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.^56,57

32. Sugar can impair the structure of your DNA.⁵⁸

33. Sugar can change the structure of protein and cause a permanent alteration of the way the proteins act in your body.^59,60

34. Sugar can make your skin age by changing the structure of collagen.⁶¹

35. Sugar can cause cataracts and nearsightedness.^62,63

36. Sugar can cause emphysema.⁶⁴

37. High sugar intake can impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in your body.⁶⁵

38. Sugar lowers the ability of enzymes to function.⁶⁶

39. Sugar intake is higher in people with Parkinson's disease.⁶⁷

40. Sugar can increase the size of your liver by making your liver cells divide and it can increase the amount of liver fat.^68,69

41. Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney such as the formation of kidney stones.^70,71

42. Sugar can damage your pancreas.⁷²

43. Sugar can increase your body's fluid retention.⁷³

44. Sugar is enemy #1 of your bowel movement.⁷⁴

45. Sugar can compromise the lining of your capillaries.⁷⁵

46. Sugar can make your tendons more brittle.⁷⁶

47. Sugar can cause headaches, including migraines.⁷⁷

48. Sugar can reduce the learning capacity, adversely affect school children's grades and cause learning disorders.^78,79

49. Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha, and theta brain waves which can alter your mind's ability to think clearly.⁸⁰

50. Sugar can cause depression.⁸¹

51. Sugar can increase your risk of gout.⁸²

52. Sugar can increase your risk of Alzheimer's disease.⁸³

53. Sugar can cause hormonal imbalances such as: increasing estrogen in men, exacerbating PMS, and decreasing growth hormone.^84,85,86,87

54. Sugar can lead to dizziness.⁸⁸

55. Diets high in sugar will increase free radicals and oxidative stress.⁸⁹

56. High sucrose diets of subjects with peripheral vascular disease significantly increases platelet adhesion.⁹⁰

57. High sugar consumption of pregnant adolescents can lead to substantial decrease in gestation duration and is associated with a twofold increased risk for delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant.^91,92

58. Sugar is an addictive substance.⁹³

59. Sugar can be intoxicating, similar to alcohol.⁹⁴

60. Sugar given to premature babies can affect the amount of carbon dioxide they produce.⁹⁵

61. Decrease in sugar intake can increase emotional stability.⁹⁶

62. Your body changes sugar into 2 to 5 times more fat in the bloodstream than it does starch.⁹⁷

63. The rapid absorption of sugar promotes excessive food intake in obese subjects.⁹⁸

64. Sugar can worsen the symptoms of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).⁹⁹

65. Sugar adversely affects urinary electrolyte composition.¹⁰⁰

66. Sugar can slow down the ability of your adrenal glands to function.¹⁰¹

67. Sugar has the potential of inducing abnormal metabolic processes in a normal healthy individual and to promote chronic degenerative diseases.¹⁰²

68. I.V.s (intravenous feedings) of sugar water can cut off oxygen to your brain.¹⁰³

69. Sugar increases your risk of polio.¹⁰⁴

70. High sugar intake can cause epileptic seizures.¹⁰⁵

71. Sugar causes high blood pressure in obese people.¹⁰⁶

72. In intensive care units: Limiting sugar saves lives.¹⁰⁷

73. Sugar may induce cell death.¹⁰⁸

74. In juvenile rehabilitation camps, when children were put on a low sugar diet, there was a 44 percent drop in antisocial behavior.¹⁰⁹

75. Sugar dehydrates newborns.¹¹⁰

76. Sugar can cause gum disease.¹¹¹

Grapes reduce risk factors for heart disease and diabetes.

Could eating grapes slow what's for many Americans a downhill sequence of high blood pressure and insulin resistance leading to heart disease and type 2 diabetes?

Scientists at the University of Michigan Health System are teasing out clues to the effect of grapes in reducing risk factors related to cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome. The effect is thought to be due to phytochemicals -- naturally occurring antioxidants - that grapes contain.

Findings from a new animal study will be presented today at the Experimental Biology convention in Anaheim, Calif., and show encouraging results of a grape-enriched diet preventing risk factors for metabolic syndrome, a condition affecting an estimated 50 million Americans and is often a precursor to type 2 diabetes.

Researchers studied the effect of regular table grapes (a blend of green, red and black grapes) that were mixed into a powdered form and integrated into the diets of laboratory rats as part of a high-fat, American style diet. All of the rats used were from a research breed that is prone to being overweight.

They performed many comparisons between the rats consuming a grape-enriched diet and the control rats receiving no grape powder. Researchers added calories and sugars to the control group to balance the extra calories and sugars gained from getting the grape powder.

After three months, the rats that received the grape-enriched diet had lower blood pressure, better heart function, and reduced indicators of inflammation in the heart and the blood than rats who received no grape powder. Rats also had lower triglycerides and improved glucose tolerance.

The effects were seen even though the grape-fed animals had no change in body weight.

In all, researchers say the study demonstrates that a grape-enriched diet can have broad effects on the development of heart disease and metabolic syndrome and the risk factors that go along with it.

"The possible reasoning behind the lessening of metabolic syndrome is that the phytochemicals were active in protecting the heart cells from the damaging effects of metabolic syndrome. In the rats, inflammation of the heart and heart function was maintained far better," says Steven Bolling, M.D., heart surgeon at the U-M Cardiovascular Center and head of the U-M Cardioprotection Research Laboratory.

The researchers also looked for signs of inflammation, oxidative damage and other molecular indicators of cardiac stress. Again, the rats who consumed the grape powder had lower levels of these markers than rats who did not receive grapes.

There is no well-accepted way to diagnose metabolic syndrome which is really a cluster of characteristics: excess belly fat (for men, a waist measuring 40 inches or more and for women, a waist measuring 35 inches or more); high triglycerides which can lead to plague build-up in the artery walls; high blood pressure; reduced glucose tolerance; and elevated c-reactive protein, a marker for inflammation in the body.

Those with metabolic syndrome are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

But the U-M study suggests that it may be possible that grape consumption can change the downhill sequence that leads to heart disease by prolonging the time between when symptoms begin to occur and a time of diagnosis.

"Reducing these risk factors may delay the onset of diabetes or heart disease, or lessen the severity of the diseases," says E. Mitchell Seymour, Ph.D., lead researcher and manager of the U-M Cardioprotection Research Laboratory. "Ultimately it may lessen the health burden of these increasingly common conditions."

Rats were fed the same weight of food each day, with powered grapes making up 3 percent of the diet. Although the current study was supported in part by the California Table Grape Commission, which also supplied the grape powder, the researchers note that the commission played no role in the study's design, conduct, analysis or preparation of the presentation.

Research on grapes and other fruits containing high levels of antioxidant phytochemicals continues to show promise. U-M will further its research this summer when it begins a clinical trial to test the impact of grape product consumption on heart risk factors.

"Although there's not a particular direct correlation between this study and what humans should do, it's very interesting to postulate that a diet higher in phytochemical-rich fruits, such as grapes, may benefit humans," Bolling says.

Bolling says that people who want to lower their blood pressure, reduce their risk of diabetes or help with weakened hearts retain as much pumping power as possible should follow some tried-and-true advice to eat a healthy diet low in saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol, achieve a desirable weight and increase physical activity.