Sugar Rush

This white crystal makes you fell yellow (happy), followed by red (ill)

- Sushil

Just think of a drug, and having it every weekend. The dose increases every time someone tries it to getter a bigger 'hit' and a longer, deeper 'high'. Now imagine having a food product, which has similar effects on the human brain and you eat it everyday, multiple times, thinking its the most innocent, sweetest food to have every existed. That's sugar for you. Moreover, at least abusing drugs is frowned upon in the society but having sugar isn't. In fact, sugar consumption is encouraged among adults and kids. A kid can be weaned, but try taking it's lollipop and watch it throw tantrums. We have all experienced it at least once. And it's not about being ill-mannered or improper upbringing. It's how their, and our body has progressively learned to crave sugar every time we feel low. It's all physical. Let's explore some of these physical changes and their effects on us.

Physical effects:

1. Insulin Resistance: Insulin is an hormone which is released in response to food ingestion. It's primary function is informing the various cells of our body that nutrients are available in the blood stream and the cells should open their doors and allow these nutrients to enter inside. It is released at a slow rate in response to protein and fat digestion as they take a long time to digest. Refined sugar, however gets digested extremely fast. It gets broken down into glucose and fructose. Glucose enters the blood stream and causes an insulin spike. Note that the blood glucose levels are maintained within strict upper and lower limits. Body works extremely hard to maintain blood glucose within these limits (using hormones). Every time you ingest sugar, or any food that spiked blood glucose for that matter, insulin is released at a very high quantity so it can be pushed into cells, either to be used for energy production or to be stored as fat. This, hyper-secretion of insulin over a long period of time, sometimes over a lifetime, causes a condition called hyperinsulinemia, which results in Insulin Resistance. In an insulin resistant individual, cells of the body stop listening to Insulin's message. Thus, glucose can't enter the cells to be used for energy and it takes the route towards fat cells, and gets stored as body fat. This leads to fat gain, and all other health issues follow. This is only the glucose part of sugar, Fructose, does not have any effect on insulin. It goes straight to the liver. 95% of this fructose gets converted to fat and stored in liver as visceral fat (ever heard of anyone having fatty liver, without having alcohol?) and the remaining 5% gets converted to uric acid, which, when crystalizes near joints, causes gout and arthritis.

2. AGEing: Insulin resistance takes long time to manifest. It takes a while for your blood glucose to regulate after having sugar. During this time, glucose floats around in the blood. Now, blood contains a mixture of proteins like RBCs, albumin, lipoprotein (which you may know as cholesterol, which is incorrect), etc., along with glucose. Glucose in blood tends to react with these proteins and make them denatured, or to put in simple terms, render them useless. Have you noticed how bread turns brown when toasted? That is the sugar in bread reacting with the protein in bread, in presence of heat. This same thing happens inside the human body. We are made up of protein and fat, and our body temperature is ~37°C. The only ingredient required is now glucose, which you have provided by having sugar. This, reaction, known as glycation happens between proteins floating in blood, and gives rise to something called Advanced Glycated Endproducts. This when happens to lipoproteins, the carriers of cholesterol, results in plaque build up in blood vessels, also known as atherosclerosis. This happening on skin cells, leads to dry, wrinkled skin. AGE can be formed on the nerve endings, end of joints, cells of the lungs, brain, kidneys, and eyes, resulting in loss of sensation, numbness, joint pain, difficulty breathing, asthma, dementia, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, blurry vision and glaucoma, kidney damage as well as type 2 diabetes. Do these sound like diseases of the old? To me, yes, and the abbreviation suits them well, AGE. We all age with time, but sugar and foods that have sugar like effects speed up the entire process.

Emotional effects: Whatever emotions you are capable of experiencing in life, are a result of chemicals called neurotransmitters being released in your brain. Emotional effects, thus are nothing but physical changes happening inside the brain. Let's explore how your body reacts to sugar -

1. Addiction: Every time you eat sugar, dopamine is released which provides a momentary happiness. That moment when you're at a birthday party, and the smile that appears on your face when cake is about to get served, makes you feel as such because it triggers dopamine release. While you need dopamine to lead a healthy, happy life, constantly having sugar causes temporary highs and lows and creates a pattern in brain, wherein you get wired to have sugar to feel good. Have you ever looked for something sweet to eat after a bad day at work? Or when you're stressed? That is because body craves for a dopamine hit. You react to sugar the same way you react to drugs like cocaine.

Sugar causes the same regions of the brain to activate and light-up as cocaine. Thus, when you try to stop sugar, you experience withdrawal symptoms like anxiety, irritability, confusion, fatigue, etc.

1. Anxiety and depression: Once the sugar addiction manifests, it's difficult to get out. The dopamine highs and lows cause severe mood swings. Overconsumption of sugar triggers imbalances in certain brain chemicals leading to depression and anxiety. The spontaneous highs and lows in dopamine leads to dopamine fatigue. It's like saying your brain forgets to feel happy without sugar and it's effects. And when you don't get what you need, you get irritable and anxious. The frequent high and low in blood sugar also makes you cranky, weak, dizzy and moody. As if you're missing a strong 'hit'. You must have realized how a cup of tea after a long day of work rejuvenates you. You suddenly feel high, strong and alive. The stress is gone and you're ready for more. Well, would you have as many cups of tea as you do on a stressful day, without sugar in it?

As harmless as it appears to be, you have to keep in mind that sugar is a highly processed food product, which wasn't a part of our regular diet for 99% of our existence on earth (which is around 2 million years). The food you put inside your body is like information. It tells your body what to do with it. Sugar, tells your body to spike blood glucose, and since a constantly high blood glucose is only as recent as a few centuries, it causes health issues which are also as recent as a few centuries. There was time when people were getting overweight, diabetic and hypertensive at 60 years of age. A lifetime of abuse because of sugar consumption has led that age come down to merely 30s now. The environment of excess insulin secretion during gestation leads to underdeveloped fetus, resulting in infants born with immature skeletal structure which presents itself as crowded teeth, narrow pelvis in females and kids who gain fat as early as 10 years old (ref. Nutrition and Physical degeneration by Weston Price).

As scary as it sounds, there is still light at the end of this dark sugary tunnel. All you have to do is quit sugar and foods that have the same effect as sugar and you can reverse the damage done not only to yourself but also ensure that your future generation will be much stronger and more resilient. Add in all the required nutrients and you will lead a disease free life.

If you want to learn more, or go on the right approach to lose fat, gain strength and prevent/treat PCOD/PCOS, fat gain, anxiety, depression and diabetes, reach out to me directly. Till then,

Eat Well, Stay Strong, Live Free Cheers, Sushil Dhokne