America’s Favorite “Family-Friendly” Drug - Pt. 1
I was raised being told that eating too much sugar was bad for me. I know several parents who also try to limit the intake of sweets for their children. We are told that sugar is bad for our teeth and that we will get cavities if we have too much. We were also told that we would gain too much weight if we ate too many sweets. I know that as a child, I didn’t exactly know or understand why sugar was bad, but I just knew that it was. Funny enough, until recently, I still didn’t fully understand why or how sugar was bad for our bodies. It is just one of those things everyone sort of knows, but not everyone fully understands why. In this presentation we will take a look into some sweet facts that you might or might not have heard of before.
If you ask most any person if sugar is considered healthy or unhealthy, most people will tell you that it is unhealthy. As I mentioned previously, many parents try to restrict the amount of sugar that their children eat and many people put themselves on diets to restrict their own sugar consumption. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to leave sugary foods, such as doughnuts, candy, syrups, sodas and such. Have you stopped to think why it is so hard for some people to leave the sugar? Why can’t we just stop? Well, researchers have taken the time to look into this subject and there are some pretty incredible results. This research shows that for some people who are more vulnerable to sugar, eating sweets actually produces chemical changes in the limbic region in the brain. The limbic system consists of an area in the brain that takes care of our emotions and behaviors, including those of survival, such as feeding and reproduction, as well as our flight-or fight response. Not only this, people in general show signs of an actual addiction to sugar when it is consumed. This includes cravings and withdrawal symptoms whenever the spike of the sugar has returned to normal. What does this mean for us? If consuming sugar affects your limbic system and causes symptoms of cravings and withdrawals, this means that your emotions will be going up and down and even make a person act irritable if they don’t keep getting that sugar supply. I am going to read the following from an article in the Wildwood Center for Health Evangelism website: “Hoebel and associates have demonstrated that rats eating large amounts of sugar actually undergo neurochemical changes in the brain that appear to mimic those produced by substances of abuse, including cocaine, morphine, and nicotine.” Sadly enough, when these rats were no longer given sugar for a long period of time, they would work even harder to get the sugar back when it was reintroduced to them. They would then eat even more sugar than before, which indicates that they might be showing craving and relapse behavior. When their sugar supply stopped, they began drinking more alcohol than normal. This shows that when eating larger quantities of sugar and sugary items, it is opening the paths to other destructive behaviors and addictions, such as alcohol in the case of the rats. Quoting once again from the Wildwood article: “Unfortunately, it was worse than that. After receiving a dose of amphetamine, normally so minimal that it usually has no effect, the rats became significantly hyperactive. The increased sensitivity to the psychostimulant has a long-lasting brain effect that is indicative of an addiction.” So friends, we can see that sugar is more harmful than we would think!
Now, does this mean that all sugars are just as bad? God is good and knew that we humans would enjoy the sweet things in life. Thankfully, not all sugar is just as bad, but of course moderation in everything. The best way to have anything sweet is in its natural state, whether this be in fruit or vegetables. In this form, there is hardly any risk for developing coronary heart disease. Refined sugars and processed foods are the main concern for developing diseases, such as coronary heart disease. In the US, 75% of all packaged foods and beverages contain added sugars, one of the worst sugars being high-fructose corn syrup. These products seem to raise CHD risk more than other sugars, such as glucose. There is a 7 year study that has been done on half a million Chinese adults. It found that eating a 100g portion of fruit a day, mainly raw apples and oranges, was found to have one-third less cardiovascular mortality. The reason for this is that raw fruits do not only contain their natural sugars, but also come with added benefits, such as antioxidants, dietary fiber and potassium, as well as several anti-inflammatory compounds. Fruits also hardly have any sodium, fat and calories. So as we can see that the more natural and less refined, the better.
As mentioned in our first point, sugar can affect the brain, but in more ways than one. A study done that included more than 70,000 postmenopausal women found that a diet high in refined carbs, such as sweets, sweetened beverages and white rice could lead to an internal risk for new-onset depression. On the flip side, more dietary fiber, veggies, whole grains and non-juice fruits were associated with a decreased chance of getting depression. Although diet is not the only way of getting or getting rid of depression, it is a large factor that could help ease symptoms and could be used as a way of prevention. It is always good to pair any mental health treatments with a good lifestyle regimen. Sugar also affects your cognitive performance in several ways. It can decrease your ability to think outside of the box and solve problems. Eating or drinking anything sugary on an empty stomach is not the best idea, as sudden rises and dips in blood sugar decrease mental performance. Your gut bacteria plays a huge role in how your cognitive state is. If a person’s gut bacteria is healthy as a result of eating good and nutritious meals, then one has less of a chance of getting brain fog and is more prone to have cognitive flexibility, which means that one can adapt and adjust to change easier. If your gut bacteria is unhealthy, due to a sugary and processed diet, then your brain function will not be as good. A study done on rats shows that after consuming a diet high in sugar showed impairment of early learning for both short and long term memory.
So, would we all be able to agree that sugar isn’t as sweet to our body as it is to our tongue? It affects so many areas of our body, acting as a drug and affecting both our mental and physical state. God created fruits and even some veggies, such as corn and carrots to be a sweet treat, but as only if eaten in their whole state. You can’t take out one specific component of an apple or orange and expect it to have the same benefits as when you eat it all together. Just the same way, we can’t have a full Christian experience if we pick and choose what we want to follow and don’t want to follow. Our walk with Jesus can be sweet, only if we abide by all of His commandments for us. Otherwise, we miss out on all the blessings that come from wholly devoting ourselves to Jesus. For some people, it may be more difficult to eat a plate of fruit than a box of chocolates, just as sometimes it is difficult to follow every word of God versus only the “sweet” parts, but we know which way will bring the greatest blessing. Thank you!🌻
References:
https://wildwoodhealth.com/learn-how-sugar-affects-the-executive-functions-of-the-brain/
https://wildwoodhealth.com/does-sugar-consumption-cause-heart-disease/
- Victoria F. (Medical Missionary Student)
1/29/2024