124 Ways Sugar Can Ruin Your Health

By: Elna Botes van Schalkwyk

Contributed by Nancy Appleton, Ph.D., author of the book "Lick The Sugar Habit".

In addition to throwing off the body's homeostasis, excess sugar may result in a number of other significant consequences.

The following is a listing of some of sugar's metabolic consequences from a variety of medical journals and other scientific publications.

Sugar and its Evils
1.Sugar can suppress the immune system

2.Sugar upsets the mineral relationships in the body

3.Sugar can cause hyperactivity, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, and crankiness in children

4.Sugar can produce a significant rise in triglycerides

5.Sugar contributes to the reduction in defense against bacterial infection (infectious diseases)

6.Sugar causes a loss of tissue elasticity and function, the more sugar you eat the more elasticity and function you loose

7.Sugar reduces high density lipoproteins

8.Sugar leads to chromium deficiency

9.Sugar leads to cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostrate, and rectum

10.Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose

11.Sugar causes copper deficiency

12.Sugar interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium

13.Sugar can weaken eyesight

14.Sugar raises the level of a neurotransmitters: dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine

15.Sugar can cause hypoglycemia

16.Sugar can produce an acidic digestive tract

17.Sugar can cause a rapid rise of adrenaline levels in children

18.Sugar malabsorption is frequent in patients with functional bowel disease

19.Sugar can cause premature aging

20.Sugar can lead to alcoholism

21.Sugar can cause tooth decay

22.Sugar contributes to obesity

23.High intake of sugar increases the risk of Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis

24.Sugar can cause changes frequently found in person with gastric or duodenal ulcers

25.Sugar can cause arthritis

26.Sugar can cause asthma

27.Sugar greatly assists the uncontrolled growth of Candida Albicans (yeast infections)

28.Sugar can cause gallstones

29.Sugar can cause heart disease

30.Sugar can cause appendicitis

31.Sugar can cause multiple sclerosis

32.Sugar can cause hemorrhoids

33.Sugar can cause varicose veins

34.Sugar can elevate glucose and insulin responses in oral contraceptive users

35.Sugar can lead to periodontal disease

36.Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis

37.Sugar contributes to saliva acidity

38.Sugar can cause a decrease in insulin sensitivity

39.Sugar can lower the amount of Vitamin E in the blood

40.Sugar can decrease growth hormone

41.Sugar can increase cholesterol

42.Sugar can increase the systolic blood pressure

43.Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children

44.High sugar intake increases advanced glycation end products (AGEs)(Sugar bound non- enzymatically to protein)

45.Sugar can interfere with the absorption of protein

46.Sugar causes food allergies

47.Sugar can contribute to diabetes

48.Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy

49.Sugar can contribute to eczema in children

50.Sugar can cause cardiovascular disease

51.Sugar can impair the structure of DNA

52.Sugar can change the structure of protein

53.Sugar can make our skin age by changing the structure of collagen

54.Sugar can cause cataracts

55.Sugar can cause emphysema

56.Sugar can cause atherosclerosis

57.Sugar can promote an elevation of low density lipoproteins (LDL)

58.High sugar intake can impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in the body

59.Sugar lowers the enzymes ability to function

60.Sugar intake is higher in people with Parkinson’s disease

61.Sugar can cause a permanent altering the way the proteins act in the body

62.Sugar can increase the size of the liver by making the liver cells divide

63.Sugar can increase the amount of liver fat

64.Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney

65.Sugar can damage the pancreas

66.Sugar can increase the body's fluid retention

67.Sugar is enemy #1 of the bowel movement

68.Sugar can cause myopia (nearsightedness)

69.Sugar can compromise the lining of the capillaries

70.Sugar can make the tendons more brittle

71.Sugar can cause headaches, including migraine

72.Sugar plays a role in pancreatic cancer in women

73.Sugar can adversely affect school children's grades and cause learning disorders

74.Sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha, and theta brain waves

75.Sugar can cause depression

76.Sugar increases the risk of gastric cancer

77.Sugar and cause dyspepsia (indigestion)

78.Sugar can increase your risk of getting gout

79.Sugar can increase the levels of glucose in an oral glucose tolerance test over the ingestion of complex carbohydrates

80.Sugar can increase the insulin responses in humans consuming high-sugar diets compared to low sugar diets

81.High refined sugar diet reduces learning capacity

82.Sugar can cause less effective functioning of two blood proteins, albumin, and lipoproteins, which may reduce the body’s ability to handle fat and cholesterol

83.Sugar can contribute to Alzheimer’s disease

84.Sugar can cause platelet adhesiveness

85.Sugar can cause hormonal imbalance; some hormones become underactive and others become overactive

86.Sugar can lead to the formation of kidney stones

87.Sugar can lead to the hypothalamus to become highly sensitive to a large variety of stimuli

88.Sugar can lead to dizziness

89.Diets high in sugar can cause free radicals and oxidative stress

90.High sucrose diets of subjects with peripheral vascular disease significantly increases platelet adhesion

91.High sugar diet can lead to biliary tract cancer

92.Sugar feeds cancer

93.High sugar consumption of pregnant adolescents is associated with a twofold increased risk for delivering a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infant

94.High sugar consumption can lead to substantial decrease in gestation duration among adolescents

95.Sugar slows food's travel time through the gastrointestinal tract

96.Sugar increases the concentration of bile acids in stools and bacterial enzymes in the colon

97.Sugar increases estradiol (the most potent form of naturally occurring estrogen) in men

98.Sugar combines and destroys phosphatase, an enzyme, which makes the process of digestion more dificult

99.Sugar can be a risk factor of gallbladder cancer

100.Sugar is an addictive substance

101.Sugar can be intoxicating, similar to alcohol

102.Sugar can exacerbate PMS

103.Sugar given to premature babies can affect the amount of carbon dioxide they produce

104.Decrease in sugar intake can increase emotional stability

105.The body changes sugar into 2 to 5 times more fat in the bloodstream than it does starch

106.The rapid absorption of sugar promotes excessive food intake in obese subjects

107.Sugar can worsen the symptoms of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

108.Sugar adversely affects urinary electrolyte composition

109.Sugar can slow down the ability of the adrenal glands to function

110.Sugar has the potential of inducing abnormal metabolic processes in a normal healthy individual and to promote chronic degenerative diseases

111.I.Vs (intravenous feedings) of sugar water can cut off oxygen to the brain

112.High sucrose intake could be an important risk factor in lung cancer

113.Sugar increases the risk of polio

114.High sugar intake can cause epileptic seizures

115.Sugar causes high blood pressure in obese people

116.In Intensive Care Units: Limiting sugar saves lives

117.Sugar may induce cell death

118.Sugar may impair the physiological homeostasis of many systems in living organisms

119.In juvenile rehabilitation camps, when children were put on a low sugar diet, there was a 44% drop in antisocial behavior

120.Sugar can cause gastric cancer

121.Sugar dehydrates newborns

122.Sugar can cause gum disease

123.Sugar increases the estradiol in young men

124.Sugar can cause low birth weight babies