Sugar Shock – The Scary Impact of Sugar on Your Body
Connie Bennett spent a lot of time interviewing doctors and other health professionals before writing her book, “Sugar Shock.” A self-professed former sugar addict, she now enjoys good health that she directly relates to her ability to kick the sweet stuff to the curb. The author of several sugar-related books wants you to enjoy that same life-changing swing to excellent health and wellness.
She doesn’t sugarcoat her response (sorry, I couldn’t help but write that!) when people ask her if eating sugar is really the cause of so much disease and illness. She’ll tell you that not only can a sugar addiction kill you, but it wrecks your life along the way. It’s not as if you are enjoying the most wonderful health, emotions, and mental abilities as a sugar addiction leads you to severe illness, disease, and in some cases, death.
Even with all we know about the damaging impact sugar has on the human body, you might be asking yourself some of the following common questions. Is eating too much sugar that big of a deal? Doesn’t it provide a nice energy boost whenever you need it? Is eating lots of sugar and other simple carbohydrates as bad as everyone says it is?
The short answers to those questions: “Yes, yes, and yes.”
You can turn to sugar and other simple carbohydrates for an energy boost. That’s what they give you. They are called simple carbohydrates because their construction is very simple. They are broken down quickly and enter your bloodstream rapidly. This is why you get an energy boost very soon after eating sugar and other simple carbs.
Additionally, eating too much refined sugar, a food item that is not needed by the human body, has been linked to a myriad of health problems. Other simple carbohydrates that deliver very little nutrition are also just as problematic as sugar in many ways. As the author of the book “Sugar Shock” tells it, the condition known as sugar shock is:
” … a mood-damaging, personality-bending, health-destroying, confusion-creating constellation of symptoms affecting millions of people…” She further adds, “These people are suffering from what they may call sugar addiction or carbohydrate addiction.”
Read that quote again. Without using scientific terms and medical mumbo-jumbo, it tells you exactly how sugar impacts your body. It can damage moods and emotions. It changes your personality, and studies show that sugar has the power to alter your brain chemistry. It destroys your health and creates a “constellation of symptoms” that affect millions of people worldwide, all while sending your system on a roller coaster ride of sugar highs and lows.
The Insulin Impact That Sugar Causes
The Turkish-born Mehmet Cengiz Öz, better known as Dr. Oz for his television show and multiple best-selling books on health and wellness, agrees that sugar shock is a severe problem. During an interview with Bennett, Dr. Oz pointed out that sugar causes a natural insulin response in the human body. Unfortunately, dramatic levels of sugar consumption cause insulin activity to spike and fall.
You might have experienced this. Does the following scenario sound familiar?
You grab a sugarcoated pastry to enjoy with your morning coffee. That morning caffeine boost contains two or more teaspoons of sugar. You feel full of energy in minutes. Soon enough, though, you crash and burn. Then you want more sugar. The dangerous cycle continues.
This insulin yo-yo effect leads to inflammation, which is the basis of most chronic diseases. You can also irritate the inner linings of your blood vessels and, over time, experience radical mood swings, powerful headaches, fatigue, anxiety, and depression … all from eating sugar and simple carbohydrates. Remember the last time you had a “sugar crash”? Were you a bit cranky?
Sugar impacts your health negatively by messing with your insulin levels. Your emotions, physical and mental health all pay dearly. That sounds like too much of a price to pay for putting a substance you don’t even need into your body, doesn’t it?
What Happens During Sugar Shock?
Shocking your body is not always a bad thing. When you lift heavy weights, exerting yourself more than you usually do, you shock your muscles. You create tiny tears in your muscles because you are forcing them to work harder than they are accustomed to working. As a naturally healthy and normal response, your muscles begin to repair themselves, and they eventually become stronger than they were previously.
This is why resistance training like lifting heavy weights or performing bodyweight exercises leads to bigger, stronger muscles.
Unfortunately, when your sugar shocks your system, you are not doing yourself any health favors. Countless amounts of research show over-consuming sweeteners and bad carbohydrates leads to a dramatically negative up and down swing in your blood sugar levels.
This sugar shock swing is linked to more than 140 health problems, including diabetes, like heart disease, cancer, neurological disorders, obesity, and those mentioned earlier.
Your body instantly gets an energy boost because of the massive amount of sugar you consume. As you probably know, this sugar or simple carbohydrate flood is soon followed by an energy crash. You feel tired, fatigued, and experience a “brain fog.”
Since sugar did a good job of giving you an energy boost, what do you reach for instead? You eat more processed foods, snacks, sugar, baked goods, white rice, French fries, potato chips, sodas, and energy drinks that you remember boosted your energy level immediately.
This leads to a repetitive sugar shock effect, delivering all of the unfortunate health problems we just discussed. It’s a nasty cycle that keeps on repeating.
Because it’s so addictive, cutting back on sugar can be difficult. However, many people that slowly reduce the amount of sugar they eat find that they naturally desire less of it over time. You can create the same wonderfully healthy response in your body. By doing so, you may enjoy the best health and wellness you’ve experienced for as long as you can remember.
