The effects of sugar on the body

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Sugar gives me energy! This is a common phrase that I often hear when I discuss with clients the effects sugar may be having on their health. To a certain extent this is true but what most people don't seem to realise is that it can also make your energy levels crash just as quick.

When you eat sugar or foods that turn into glucose very quickly such as refined carbohydrates (cakes, biscuits and refined white flour products) your body produces a surge of insulin to bring the glucose levels which now will have risen dangerously high in the blood, bringing them back down to a safe level. However this surge of insulin means that the glucose levels fall very quickly and often too low, leaving you craving something sweet in order to bring them back up again.

These fluctuations in blood levels can leave you feeling less than energised and just create a vicious circle leaving you feeling tired and irritable. If you crave sweet or starchy foods, have energy slumps during the day, feel light headed, dizzy or shaky, miss any meals or wake up feeling tired after a full nights sleep then your blood sugar levels are probably fluctuating too much.

Your body works best on a trickle charge of glucose. Sugar and other foods which are fast releasing encourage weight gain. The speed with which a food increases blood sugar (slow or fast releasing)determines whether or not it will cause you to gain weight. The quicker your blood sugar rises the more insulin it has to secrete.

When you eat, your body either uses this as fuel or stores it as fat. High levels of insulin in the blood are thought not only to cause you to change your food into fat but also prevent your body from breaking down previously stored fat!

If you continually ask your pancreas to produce extra insulin it will eventually become exhausted which causes another problem – high blood sugar, as your body is not producing enough insulin to deal with the glucose. This is a pre-cursor for diabetes.

It is important to keep your blood sugar levels stable not just to eliminate any problems you might be experiencing now but also prevent future problems occurring.

Sugar has no nutritional value whatsoever!

In order for the body to process sugar it incurs what is known as a ‘nutrition debt'. You will have to use your body's vital reserves of vitamins and minerals in order to process it. It also depresses immune activity for up to five hours, so if you consume sugar at regular intervals throughout the day you may have a permanently depressed immune system. This is going to leave your body vulnerable to attack and lacking in those vital nutrients that are necessary for the body to repair itself.

Some food for thought then…