One food may cause 45 diseases! Doctors remind you not to eat more than this amount!

They all say it’s a “sweet burden”, but how heavy is it?

On April 5, a study published in the British Medical Journal by Liu Liangren's team from West China Hospital of Sichuan University found that:

High sugar intake is associated with increased risk of 45 diseases!

Specifically, they include 18 endocrine diseases, 10 cardiovascular diseases, 7 cancers, and 10 other diseases (neurological, dental, liver, bone, and allergy).

For example, for every additional 355 ml of sugary drinks consumed per day, the risk of developing high blood pressure increased by 11%.

Source: Research screenshot

In the study, sugar categories included sugary drinks, fructose, sucrose, lactose, added sugars, free sugars and total sugars.

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In response to the current health hazards of a high-sugar diet, studies recommend that daily sugar intake be less than 25 grams and weekly sugary beverage intake be less than 355 ml. [1][2]

01

How a high-sugar diet can ruin a person's health

Stories about health problems caused by eating too much sugar may happen every day, but some are not serious and do not attract attention.

In a high-sugar diet, sugary drinks are easy to drink without feeling sick. Once consumed for a long time, the problems caused are obvious and serious.

for example--

1. A man drank sugary drinks for 15 days and his waistline increased by 4.5 cm without him noticing

A TikTok blogger conducted an experiment on himself in order to explore the effects of sugary drinks on the body.

Without changing their lifestyle habits, drink three cans of sugary cola (335 ml) drinks every day for 15 days.

Source: Internet

After drinking 24 cans of Coke for 8 consecutive days, he developed a lot more pimples on his face due to excessive sugar intake.

After drinking 36 cans of Coke on the 12th day, his mental state had deteriorated significantly. Without changing his work and rest schedule, he often dozed off at work and his face had lost color.

By the 15th day and 45 cans of Coke later, his waistline had increased significantly.

The waist circumference was 70 cm when the experiment began, and it had grown to 74.5 cm on the 15th day.

Before I knew it, my waistline had grown 4.5 cm in 15 days.

2. A woman who liked to drink sweet drinks was diagnosed with a host of metabolic problems two years later

Sanxiang Metropolis Daily shared a true story. A 21-year-old female college student has fallen in love with milk tea in the past two years. She drinks at least one cup of milk tea a day on average, and sometimes two cups.

He usually doesn’t like to drink water, so he drinks cola, Sprite and other carbonated drinks instead. He also likes to stay up late, and it is normal for him to not rest until two or three in the morning.

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During a physical examination in March this year, I found that my fasting blood sugar was as high as 17.9 mmol/L.

After visiting the Endocrinology Department of Hunan Provincial People's Hospital, it was found that not only was his blood sugar significantly elevated, but he might also have diabetic ketoacidosis. His blood lipids and blood uric acid were also significantly elevated, leading to comorbidities such as obesity and fatty liver, and a lot of problems.

Doctors warn that unhealthy eating and living habits can easily lead to metabolic disorders such as “high blood sugar + high blood lipids + high uric acid”. [3]

3. The teenager drinks beverages when he is thirsty, and his uric acid level is too high in the physical examination

The Yangcheng Evening News also reported the experience of Xiaowen, a 16-year-old boy from Guangzhou. During a physical examination, he was found to have a blood uric acid level of 620 micromoles/liter, which was far beyond the normal range. If his condition continued to develop, he would most likely develop gout!

According to Yang Xiuyan, chief physician of the Department of Rheumatology at the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Xiaowen's usual eating habits are that he neither drinks alcohol nor often eats high-purine foods such as seafood.

But when asked if Xiaowen usually drinks a lot of water, his answer was that he rarely drinks water and usually drinks beverages when he is thirsty.

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Fructose is generally added to beverages. In addition to increasing the sweetness, fructose also makes the taste better.

If a small amount of fructose enters the human body, it can be quickly converted into calories and consumed and utilized by the human body. However, if the amount of fructose ingested is large and exceeds the body's needs, it may be converted into fat.

Fructose produces uric acid when it is converted into fat. In addition, fructose itself will affect the excretion of uric acid by the kidneys.

This dual effect can lead to hyperuricemia in the human body. [4]

02

Beware! We can really get addicted to sugar

Why can't we say no to sugar even though we know it's bad for us?

In February 2012, an article titled “Public health: The toxic truth about sugar” published in the journal Nature pointed out that sugar is like tobacco and alcohol, and its harm is far greater than fat and calories. [5]

Source: Internet

In addition, researchers have also proved through animal experiments that sugar addiction has a dual effect.

On the one hand, sugar affects hormones in the body, preventing the brain from sending signals of fullness, so the more you eat, the more you become addicted, and you want to continue eating even when you are full.

On the other hand, the impact of sugar on hormones in the body is also manifested in that it causes the brain to continuously send signals to consume sugar. Just like a smoking addiction, people who eat sugar will like it more and more.

A study published in the journal Cell Metabolism in March 2022 pointed out that regular consumption of high-sugar foods will change our brain, reshape the brain's reward circuit, and activate the dopaminergic system.

Through these changes in the brain, people unconsciously prefer foods that contain high amounts of sugar.[6]

Therefore, it is recommended not to exceed the recommended amount of sugar!

The "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022)" states that adults need to control their intake of added sugar to no more than 50 grams per day, and it is best to control it below 25 grams.

What is the concept of 25 grams? According to the West China Hospital of Sichuan University, if we convert it into the food we usually eat in life, it is really too easy to exceed the standard.

A bottle of Coke

A 500ml bottle of Coke contains 10.6% sugar. Drinking a whole bottle is equivalent to consuming 53 grams of sugar, which is seriously exceeding the limit!

Two pieces of cake

The average sugar content of an ordinary piece of cake is 20 grams per 100 grams. If you eat two 100-gram pieces, the 40 grams of sugar is definitely above the limit.

A box of cookies

The sugar content of sandwich biscuits that children like to eat is about 35 grams per 100 grams. A box weighs 55 grams, so two boxes exceed the standard.

Just talking about snacks, in addition to foods that are specially marked as sugar-free, bread, cakes, biscuits, spicy strips, and dried tofu;

Yogurt, jelly, pork jerky, shachima, fried dough twist, glutinous rice balls, some puffed foods such as potato chips, as well as soda, soy milk, and probiotic drinks all contain added sugar.

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Not to mention that when people stir-fry twice-cooked pork, braised pork shreds, or fish-flavored pork shreds, or mix white meat or cold noodles, they all add a spoonful of sugar. If you also like to eat snacks, it is almost impossible not to exceed the sugar intake limit. [7]

So why do you find that your blood sugar is high during a physical examination? Why do you suddenly break out in acne? Why do you feel sleepy even after a good sleep? Why don’t you lose weight even after trying to lose weight?

Maybe you're overloading your diet with added sugars.

So although snacks and drinks are delicious, you really should use them in moderation!

References:

[1] Dietary sugar consumption and health: umbrella review

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2022-071609

[2] 2023-04-06 Medical Novi "BMJ: Huaxi scholars found that sugar may increase the risk of 45 diseases, and every bite is fatal"

[3] 2023-04-01 Sanxiang Metropolis Daily: "A cup of milk tea every day causes a 21-year-old female college student's blood sugar to soar"

[4] 2017-09-08 Yangcheng Evening News: “Shocking! 16-year-old boy is just one step away from gout!”

[5] Public health: the toxic truth about sugar[J]. Nature, 2012, 482(7383): 27-29.

[6] Edwin Thanarajah et al., Habitual daily intake of a sweet and fatty snack modulates reward processing in humans, Cell Metabolism (2023), https://doi.org/ 10.1016 /j.cmet. 2023.02.015

[7] 2022-07-04 West China Hospital, Sichuan University "West China experts say, guess why people still gain weight even though they drink so many "sugar-free" drinks?"

Source: Health Times

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