The Harmful Effects of Too Much
Sugar on the Body

You may not dip into the biscuit tin at every chance but you could be eating sugar, or its constituents, in foods where you didn’t know it existed. Tomato sauce has 23,6% sugar, corn cereal eight percent. Hidden sugars can also be found in fruit juice drinks, processed food like peanut butter, flavored yogurt, salad dressings, etc.

Too much sugar can play havoc with your weight and hormones; it may also cause fatigue, increased hyperactivity and tooth decay. Refined sugar provides empty calories and if a lot of your food contains sugar, there’s no room for the nutrients you need to stay healthy.

When sugar isn’t needed, it’s stored as fat, and by eating sugar, you’re also raising levels of the hormone insulin in your blood. Insulin stores fat, a risk factor of diabetes, and can damage artery walls, making it easier for cholesterol and fat to build up and cause heart disease.

Too much sugar affects immune systems by causing white blood cells to be sluggish, thus lowering resistance to disease.

Source: “Sugar the new danger drug,” Essentials, January 2005.