Time to Face the Facts about Sugar

It is high time that we face the facts about sugar.

If I had a nickel for every person who told me that they don’t eat sugar, I would be a gazillionaire. And I get it. I truly do. We associate sugar with candy bars and donuts. Trust me, I have this argument every day with my dad.

Don’t We Need Sugar?

Your body breaks down everything you eat into sugar.

Let that sink in.

Whether you eat cookies, mashed potatoes, bread, or steak, each of these foods converts into glucose. The only difference is how much glucose each food produces.

Starchy foods like bread, pasta, and rice create more blood glucose, and in some cases even more so than sweet foods, than say a steak or chicken breast.

Foods that contain a higher percentage of carbohydrates convert more readily to glucose than foods that are higher in protein or fat.

You may have heard your body needs sugar. Your body doesn’t need sugar but it does require glucose. Now you know that you create glucose from everything you eat.

What happens next?

When you consume food and it converts into glucose, anything that you don’t require right away (as energy) gets stored in the liver and muscles as glycogen to use later. And, of course, insulin is involved but I have discussed that in another post.

Once your liver and muscles have all the glycogen they can store, anything above and beyond is stored as fat.

The more glucose you create in the body by eating starchy and sugary carbohydrates, the more likely it is that excess body fat will appear. It has to go somewhere!

Glycation and Aging

Excess fat is only one possible outcome of excess glucose. Another is the fact that there is a connection between sugar and aging.

Sugar = Wrinkles

Do I need to go on? Seriously though, the connection is not only with wrinkles but speeding up the aging process both inside and outside your body.

Glycation

Simply put, glycation is a natural process in our body. It is when sugar molecules (such as glucose or fructose) bond to protein and fat molecules in the body, including your skin.

The result is the formation of advanced glycation end products or AGEs.

You’ve got to love it when it is right out there in the open. AGEs is the acronym that says it all.

When this happens, the proteins and lipids involved in the glycation process become damaged and are therefore unable to perform their normal functions properly. 

When sugar molecules bind to collagen and elastin proteins in the skin, for example, those proteins are unable to properly support the structure of the skin, leading to wrinkles and other signs of accelerated aging.

So what triggers this reaction to occur? To be fair, a number of factors can cause glycation, including high sugar consumption, increased blood-glucose levels caused by stress, and oxidative stress caused by UV exposure, air pollution, or poor lifestyle habits. 

The bad news is that glycation cannot be stopped. Spoiler alert…we are all going to age!

The good news is that you can slow it down. Our bodies can use antioxidants to combat the negative effects of glycation, but this defense is often not enough when dealing with accelerated AGE formation. 

The first step toward reducing glycation and its effects on the skin is to avoid or significantly reduce exposure to those things that cause it:

• sugar consumption
• UV radiation from the sun
• Pollution, smoking, chronic stress, and other skin stressors 

Some amount of glycation will naturally occur throughout the body, but high levels of AGEs caused by excessive glycation can wreak havoc on the body and skin. These factors can cause more AGEs to form in the skin. This is why skin starts to fall or sag and needs extra help to continue looking youthful.

Impacts on the Inside of your Body

There are many other harms that high levels of AGEs cause throughout the body. High levels of AGEs are associated not only with premature aging but also with the development, or worsening, of many degenerative diseases, such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, chronic kidney disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.

AGEs harm the body’s cells by promoting oxidative stress and inflammation.

Get Moving

In addition to your diet, an inactive lifestyle can cause AGE levels to skyrocket.

Movement is key for so many positive benefits and it is no different in terms of AGEs.

Regular exercise helps reduce the amount of AGEs in the body. We just can’t escape the long list of benefits that exercise provides.

What To Do?

Diet and exercise are the best answer for almost every health question you ask. The biggest determinate is diet and it is the least understood and in my opinion needs to be the most indiviualized.

I believe that any diet can produce weight loss but the best diet produces weight control and health benefits as reflected in markers such as inflammation, triglycerides, fasting glucose, and fasting insulin.

Taking the time and energy to fine tune an eating plan that works for you is worth the effort!

DISCLAIMER: This website is for informational purposes. I am not a health practitioner and no information should be construed as personal medical advice or diagnosis.

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