Sugar isn’t so Sweet!
Sugar makes you put on weight. In fact, it converts to fat quicker than fat itself: sugary foods raise your insulin levels, which cause fat storage. Studies show that 40% of the sugar we eat is converted straight to fat, and that’s in a relatively healthy weight individual. If you’re already overweight, up to 60% is converted straight to fat and stored around your stomach, waist and hips – meaning 60% of that cupcake is heading straight for your tummy. Put simply – if you eat sugar everyday, you’ll always find it a struggle to lose weight and you’ll never have a flat tummy.
Sugar also makes you more wrinkled. Your skin is supported by something called collagen – this is a protein found in the connective tissue of the skin. It’s like a mattress that keeps the skin plump, bouncy and firm to the touch and looking young. Over time, however, collagen breaks down causing a sagging, wrinkled appearance, and sugar ultimately speeds up the breakdown. So that cupcake won’t just add inches to your waistline – it will add wrinkles and years to your face too.
Sugar also leaches vitamins from your body, and a body starved of vitamins becomes hungry. That’s why overweight people can be hungry al the time – they simply don’t eat enough vitamin-rich food and are actually malnourished. Sugar will never satisfy you or fill you up. Plus, sugar also makes you tired, lowers libido and weakens the immune system.
So why do we love sugar so much? Sugar is physically and emotionally addictive. It’s physically addictive because it has the same effect on the brain as pain-killing medication, such as morphine, producing an almost instant feeling of pleasure and satisfaction and giving you an energy hit. But this energy is all too fleeting – sugar raises your blood-sugar levels too quickly, causing then to crash, and leaving you exhausted.
It’s emotionally addictive too. Most sugar fans grew up viewing it as a treat or a reward, just like I did in the form of birthday cakes or a bag of sweets. And now, as an adult it can still be seen that way! Sugar has always been associated with making us feel better.
As the Mary Poppins lyrics go:
“A Spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down
The medicine go down-wown
The medicine go down
Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down
In a most delightful way”
We need to look beyond the birthday cake and pink icing and see sugar for what it is – a fattening toxin that makes us all wrinkled, tired and malnourished, while adding a layer of flesh on to your tummy!
Thank you for reading!
Source: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Wendy O’Hare