Why you need to stop consuming sugar now as it damages your gut, health and planet

Perhaps it is a refusal to accept that something we all love so much could be harmful, it took a long time for the scientific community to accept the negative impact of sugar. Now, overindulgence of refined processed sugar is recognised as one of the most harmful lifestyle habits we can inflict on our bodies. Overwhelming evidence from robust clinical studies, firmly establish that people who eat a lot of processed sugar have significantly higher risks of premature ageing and early death from the biggest killers of mankind including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, dementia and stroke.

In this article, I explore the underlying mechanisms of why sugar harms us and offer some practical tips to reduce its negative influence:

Processed sugar is rapidly digested and absorbed. In response, the body triggers an exaggerated insulin release. High levels of insulin, over time, stresses the mechanisms that remove sugar from the blood stream which leads to insulin resistance and hence type two diabetes. Eventually, the pancreas, which has to pump out insulin 24/7, gives up the ghost and fails, the point people living with type two diabetics have to start taking insulin injections. Diabetes increases the risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke.

Fatigue, insomnia, low mood and demotivation: The yo-yoing high and then particularly low sugar causes low energy levels then fatigue. Coupled with poor gut health and higher inflammation, this leads to low mood and demotivation to embark on other healthy lifestyle habits such as exercise or eating a healthy diet. Studies have shown that sugary foods in the evening, can disrupt regular sleep patterns by adversely affecting sleep hormones such as melatonin and cortisol. Chronic insomniacs have an increased risk of dementia, obesity, high blood pressure and heart disease.

Obesity: The appealing nature of high calorific sugary food combined with their low satiating nature means they tend to be eaten in excess which contributes to obesity. Furthermore, after the blood sugar levels spike in response to a sugary drink, they then drastically dip, leaving you ravenous, further encouraging overeating. Obesity,raises the risk of breast, ovary and uterine cancer and other medical conditions particularly if there'sabdominal fat, combined with raised cholesterol, blood sugars and inflammation, a condition called metabolic syndrome.

High Cholesterol: Many studies are linking sugar intake with raised cholesterol, particularly LDL (Bad) varieties. The explanation is most likely that high insulin levels and chronic inflammation tricks the body into thinking it's in survival mode so needs to store more energy as cholesterol.

Poor gut health (Dysbiosis): Several studies have found that sugar preferentially feeds the bad bacteria - as opposed the good bacterial which love other forms of energy such phytochemicals. Unfortunately, despite not having the same calorific content artificial sweeteners were found to do the same thing. Both can lead to dysbiosis, gut inflammation leading to food intolerances, bloating and wind as well as bowel cancer and colitis. A chronic inflamed gut leads "leaky gut syndrome" which causes toxins to leak into the blood stream triggering an inappropriately inflammatory reaction throughout thebody. This elicits collateral damage to many organs including the joints causing arthritis, pancreas causing diabetes, bones causing osteoporosis and the brain causing dementia.

Dysbiosis is also linked to more severe consequences of covid and have more side effects after flu and covid vaccinations. There is a higher risk cancer at many sites, people are less likely to respond to the newer targeted and cancer treatments and research shows that cancer patients are more likely become resistant to treatments earlier. Gut dysbiosis effects hormone imbalance which can increase hot flushes, low mood and joint pains which is why it’s sensible to reduceprocess sugar during the menopause and adapted other guthealth enhancing lifestyle habits.

What can we do to reduce our processed sugar intake?

The worse culprits are free simple sugars such as glucose, fructose or sucrose (table sugar) added to food or fizzy drinks. One study found that just one sugary cola a day doubled the pancreatic cancer risk. In must be noted that whole fruits are very healthy and have relatively low sugar levels compared to processed sugar. They are rich in fibre, minerals and vitamins and phytochemicals. Large cohort studies reported that people who regularly ate 1 apple/day had a lower cancer risk and other research has linked whole fruit consumption with a lower diabetes risk despite their sugar content. As well as anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects the phytochemicals in fruit actually slows the transport of sugar across the gut wall reducing the glycemic impact.

Although whole fruits are healthy the same cannot be said for juices or smoothies as the fibrous structure is broken down, and sugar hits the bloodstream much faster. It's better to juice vegetables and eat your fruit whole. Sweets, mints, toffees are particularly bad, as is adding sugar to tea or coffee with play havoc with the gut health and insulin pathways.

Processed sugar on an empty stomach, such as first thing in the morning, is particularly harmful as it is absorbed even more rapidly. Try to avoid sugary cereals, jam, bread with added sugar or even dried fruit which increases the sugar content from around 10% to 80%.. Alternatively go for nuts, whole fruit or a cooked breakfast with eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms and spinach.

Sometimes, it’s not so obvious where sugar has been added, especially, salad dressings, pasta sources, yoghurt look a-likes or muesli cereals. Avoid savoury foods which have added sugar by reading the label of crisps and snacks and stick to the ones with no added sugar. Be careful with processed foods, pre-packed ready meals or those labelled as ‘diet’ which often contain sugar or sugar substitutes. Some restaurants add sugar to their curries and stews – you can ask the waiter to ask the chef to omit the sugar.