Indian farmers of the Gupta Dynasty

Sugar, a derivative of the Sugar Cane plant, was discovered by Indian farmers of the Gupta Dynasty in 350 and is the most commonly used sweetener worldwide. In 1989, the World Health Organization listed that a person’s intake of sugar should be less than 12 teaspoons per day. The recommended value dropped in 2015 to only 6 teaspoons a day. Despite these recommendations, the amount of sugar consumed in the United States is so high the average American exceeds the recommended value by at least 3 times every single day.

We walk around enjoying sugar as if there is nothing wrong with it, or so it seems, but on the inside it is extremely harmful to your health.

Sugar absolutely ravages your body. Sugar enters your blood flow and raises your blood pressure, your blood sugar level, and when eaten in very excessive amounts can even stick to the sides of your veins and arteries. A study performed by Harvard Medical School shows that the number one cause for obesity (besides for genetics) is sugar.

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Obesity leads to a less circulated blood flow, potentially causing a heart attack or stroke. Not only does sugar cause obesity, but it is a large and direct cause of heart disease. Over the course of a 15-year study on sugar and heart disease, participants who took in 25% or more of their daily calories as sugar were more than twice as likely to die from heart disease as those whose diets included less than 10% sugar. By making the digestive system acidic, sugar depletes magnesium and potassium which are both essential for Cardiac health.

Sugar also impairs liver function which leads to skin issues such as acne, early skin aging, and Melanoma (skin cancer). The American Institute for Cancer Research also lists sugar as a strong cause of colon, liver, and pancreatic cancers.

One way to stop sugar from destroying our bodies would be to stop eating it. There’s only one problem-sugar is addictive. When you eat sugar, a neurotransmitter associated with addictive behavior called Dopamine, is released by your brain. When a certain behavior causes an excess release of dopamine, you feel a pleasurable “high” that you want to re-experience, and that causes an urge to repeat the behavior. As you repeat that behavior more and more, your brain starts to release less dopamine. The only way to feel the same “high” as before is to repeat the behavior more frequently and in larger amounts. This means that every time you eat sugar you make your brain more dependent on sugar and you increase your sugar craving, building up a tolerance like any other drug. Research performed on rats in Connecticut College shows that Oreo cookies activate more neurons in the brain’s pleasure center than cocaine does.

Additionally, bad bacteria are attracted to sugar. Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus sorbrinus are the two destructive bacterias found in the mouth. Both of them feed on the sugar you eat and form dental plaque, which is a sticky, colorless film that forms on the surface of the teeth (2). If the plaque is not washed away by saliva or brushing, the environment in the mouth becomes more acidic and cavities may start to form. The pH scale measures how acidic or basic a solution is, with 7 being neutral. When the pH of plaque drops below normal, or less than 5.5, the acidity start to dissolve minerals and destroy the tooth's enamel (3, 4). In the process, small holes or erosions will form. Over time, they will become larger, until one large hole or cavity appears.

Sugar has almost no benefits besides for the fact that it tastes good and gives off small and short-lived bursts of energy. There are alternative foods for obtaining energy that have a balanced way of releasing energy as your body requires it, such as protein.