Sucrose, or table sugar, may add sweetness to your favorite treats, but when it comes to your health, it’s not so sweet. Weight gain, poor blood sugar control and heart disease are just a few of the dangers of regularly including sucrose in your diet.
– It Causes Weight Gain
Besides carbohydrates, sugar provides no nutrients. According to USDA data, 1 tablespoon has 12.6 grams of carbs. There is no protein, fat, vitamins or minerals to speak of.
To put this in perspective, the average person needs about 2,000 calories per day. Therefore, if those statistics are accurate, average daily sugar intake would make up 34 percent of daily calories. That’s 34 percent of your daily calories that is completely devoid of nutrients.
The result is that people end up eating more than they think each day and regularly exceed their calorie needs. When you consume more calories than you need, your body stores the excess as fat. Over time, this leads to weight gain and obesity.
– It Spikes Blood Sugar
Table sugar is a carbohydrate, which your body needs each day for energy. However, not all carbs are created equal.
Sugar is a simple carb. It’s easy for the body to break down and passes quickly into the bloodstream. When this happens, blood sugar levels rise dramatically.This is what you may have heard referred to as a “sugar high.” A rapid influx of sugar into the bloodstream causes a quick surge of energy. But very soon, blood sugar levels fall, and your energy level falls as well. This marked fluctuation in blood sugar can have both short-term and long-term deleterious effects.
– It Becomes Addictive
– It Damages Your Heart
Aside from its tendency to promote weight gain and obesity, which negatively impacts heart health, sugar may also directly increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.