Most people love sugar and the foods or candies it comes in. Whether alone or with other people, that sweet snack tastes so good. Unfortunately, the sweets you love so much are causing you to age faster.
A common problem with eating excess sugar and sweet foods, including coffee with creamer, is that it can make you put on some pounds. People with too much weight gain find it easy to put on the pounds but much harder to remove.
When there is too much sugar in the blood for extended periods, it will start to break down the collagen. The collagen loses flexibility and strength, resulting in saggy and wrinkly skin.
Consuming excess amounts of sugar in the foods you eat for long periods can also lead to diabetes. When that happens, your body has a problem regulating your blood sugar levels, which may lead you to need insulin shots.
Uncontrolled sugar levels will damage all the organs in your body. You may develop problems such as cardiovascular disease, vision problems, kidney damage, and more. Other health issues can also appear that will cause you to age faster.
Excess sugar in the blood may also speed up the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Keeping the sugar levels high has been shown recently to decrease the activity of a part of your brain called the hippocampus. It is where your brain stores memories, which is how you learn. Some people, as they start to develop Alzheimer’s, have damage to this part of their brain, and excess sugar may make it seem worse.
Aging faster may not be too bad if it only affects your appearance. Unfortunately, it goes beyond that and may shorten your life. Recent animal studies have shown that reducing calorie intake animals has resulted in longer life for them – sometimes enabling them to live 1.5 times their normal lifespan.
Stress leads many people to increase their sugar consumption. Cortisol, in response to stress, normally causes your sugar levels to rise. When cortisol levels are high (caused by stress), people find relief in comfort foods – aka sweets or carbohydrates. Eating sugary foods or drinks when stressed reduces the ability of cortisol to control your blood sugar, which will raise your levels even more.
High blood sugar levels for extended periods can also increase your risk of cancer. Although sugar itself does not cause cancer or enable it to grow faster, too much sugar can lead to being overweight – and that can increase your risk of cancer. Overweight people have an increased risk factor for 13 different types of cancer.
The fat that accumulates to store the extra sugar also produces hormones that affect the rate of cancer growth. One of them is estrogen, which can help feed endometrial and breast cancers.
It is recommended that women and children limit their added sugars to 6 teaspoons per day (most sodas contain 7 to 9 teaspoons of sugar). Men should limit their added sugars to 9 teaspoons per day.
Too much sugar can lead to premature aging. If you want to continue looking young and staying healthy, you need to reduce your added sugar intake and your stress. Exercise can help you lose the extra pounds, give you better control of your blood sugar levels, provide stress relief, and increase your longevity.
