Your Body Sends Sugar Alarm Signals
Ever wonder why you reach for that afternoon candy bar like it’s a magnet pulling you in? Your body might be screaming that it’s drowning in sugar. The average adult consumes an estimated 17 teaspoons of added sugar each day, which is way more than the recommended amount. That’s like eating a whole bag of sugar cubes without even realizing it. Eating sugar gives your brain a surge of a feel-good chemical called dopamine. That explains why you’re more likely to crave a candy bar at 3 p.m. than an apple or a carrot. Because whole foods like fruits and veggies don’t cause the brain to release as much dopamine, your brain starts to need more and more sugar to get that same feeling of pleasure. Think of it like needing louder music to feel the same excitement – your brain becomes sugar-dependent.
Constant Sugar Cravings
This causes those “gotta-have-it” feelings for your after-dinner ice cream that are so hard to tame. If you find yourself thinking about cookies during meetings or scanning the office kitchen for sweet treats, your body’s sugar alarm is going off. These cravings aren’t just about willpower – they’re your brain’s way of asking for its next dopamine hit. Sugar stimulates the release of dopamine, the feel-good chemical in your brain. So when you eat a lot of sugar, you may begin to rely on it to maintain your energy or improve your mood. It’s like your brain has developed a sweet tooth that never gets satisfied. The more sugar you eat, the more your brain wants, creating a cycle that’s tough to break.
Energy Crashes
The occasional candy or cookie can give you a quick burst of energy (or “sugar high”) by raising your blood sugar levels fast. When your levels drop as your cells absorb the sugar, you may feel jittery and anxious – that’s the dreaded sugar crash. Picture riding a roller coaster: you zoom up high with energy, then plummet down feeling tired and grumpy. A 2019 study found that 1 hour after sugar consumption, participants felt tired and less alert than a control group. This crash-and-burn cycle can happen multiple times a day if you’re constantly reaching for sugary snacks. Your energy becomes as unpredictable as the weather, making it hard to focus on work or enjoy activities.
Weight Gain (Especially Around the Belly)
This probably isn’t news to you, but the more sugar you eat, the more you’ll weigh. Research shows that people who drink sugar-sweetened beverages tend to weigh more — and be at higher risk for type 2 diabetes — than those who don’t. One study even found that people who added more sugar to their diet gained about 1.7 pounds in less than 2 months. Excess amounts of sugar can inflame fat cells causing them to release chemicals that increase weight. Think of sugar as a sneaky storage unit that your body loves to keep around your midsection. If you drink a can of soda every day and don’t trim calories elsewhere, in three years you’d be 15 pounds heavier.
Frequent Hunger
Consuming fructose increases your hunger and desire for food more than glucose, the main type of sugar found in starchy foods. Additionally, animal studies show that excessive fructose consumption may cause resistance to leptin, an important hormone that regulates hunger and tells your body to stop eating. In other words, sugary beverages don’t curb your hunger, making it easy to quickly consume a high number of liquid calories. It’s like your hunger switch gets stuck in the “on” position. The hormone leptin tells the brain a person has had enough to eat. However, according to a 2008 animal study, a diet high in sugar may cause leptin resistance. This may mean, that over time, a high sugar diet prevents the brain from knowing when a person has eaten enough. You end up feeling hungry even after eating a full meal.
Brain Fog & Poor Focus
High sugar consumption has been linked to cognitive impairments, memory problems, and emotional disorders like anxiety and depression. Ever feel like your brain is wrapped in cotton after a sugar binge? That’s not your imagination. Improved focus, since sugar crashes can make it hard for you to concentrate. When your blood sugar spikes and crashes, your brain struggles to maintain steady focus, like trying to drive a car with a sputtering engine. Eating too much simple sugar may lead to headaches in certain individuals due to how rapidly simple or processed sugars are absorbed, leading to a rapid spike in blood sugar and then a rapid decline. This erratic blood sugar pattern can cause headaches, as opposed to consuming the sugar in complex carbohydrates, which are absorbed more slowly. Your thoughts become foggy, and simple tasks feel harder than they should.
Skin Breakouts & Premature Aging
High blood sugar, high insulin levels, and alterations in hormones like testosterone, caused by eating too much sugar, can lead to acne. Additionally, a 2019 study suggests that lowering sugar consumption may decrease insulin-like growth factors, androgens, and sebum, all of which may contribute to acne. But sugar doesn’t just mess with your skin in the short term – it ages you faster too. Another side effect of inflammation is that it may make your skin age faster. Excess sugar attaches to proteins in your bloodstream and creates harmful molecules called “AGEs,” or advanced glycation end products. These molecules do exactly what they sound like they do: age your skin. They have been shown to damage collagen and elastin in your skin — protein fibers that keep your skin firm and youthful. Think of sugar as rust for your skin – it breaks down the very fibers that keep you looking young.
Mood Swings & Irritability
While a healthy diet can help improve your mood, a diet high in added sugar and processed foods may contribute to changes in mood and emotions. It may even increase your chances of developing depression. A 2017 study following 8,000 people showed that men who consumed 67 grams or more of sugar per day were 23% more likely to develop depression than men who ate less than 40 grams per day. One of the latest showed that men who ate more than 66 grams of sugar a day — almost double what’s recommended — were 23% more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety or depression than men who ate 40 grams or less. Too much sugar could fuel depression through swelling, or inflammation, in your brain, which is more common in people with depression. Your emotions become as unstable as your blood sugar, swinging from high to low like a pendulum.
Tooth Decay & Gum Issues
Added sugar intake from sweetened beverages is strongly linked to an increased risk of cavities and tooth decay. This is because bacteria in the mouth break down sugar and produce acid that may damage your teeth. Thus, cutting out added sugar can protect your teeth. Too much sugar can lead to weight gain, energy crashes and an increased risk of tooth decay, diabetes and heart disease. Think of sugar as food for the bad bacteria in your mouth – the more you feed them, the more they multiply and create acids that eat away at your teeth. Your dentist probably notices the sugar damage before you do, seeing weakened enamel and early signs of decay. It’s like having tiny construction workers constantly chipping away at your teeth with acid hammers.
High Blood Pressure & Cholesterol
Consuming too much added sugar can raise blood pressure and increase chronic inflammation, both of which are pathological pathways to heart disease. “The effects of added sugar intake — higher blood pressure, inflammation, weight gain, diabetes, and fatty liver disease — are all linked to an increased risk for heart attack and stroke,” says Dr. Hu. When you eat or drink too much sugar, the extra insulin in your bloodstream can affect your arteries all over your body. It causes their walls to get inflamed, grow thicker than normal and more stiff, this stresses your heart and damages it over time. This can lead to heart disease, like heart failure, heart attacks, and strokes. Research also suggests that eating less sugar can help lower blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart disease. Your blood vessels become like old pipes that get clogged and stiff, making your heart work harder to pump blood through them.
Increased Thirst & Frequent Urination
If you have diabetes, too much sugar can lead to kidney damage. The kidneys play an important role in filtering your blood. Once blood sugar levels reach a certain amount, the kidneys start to release excess sugar into your urine. If left uncontrolled, diabetes can damage the kidneys, which prevents them from doing their job in filtering out waste in your blood. This can lead to kidney failure. Consuming excess sugar leads to a condition called insulin resistance, which is a precursor to type 2 diabetes, a fatty liver, and cardiovascular disease. Insulin is responsible for the body’s absorption of glucose — or sugar for energy. Those with insulin resistance experience a buildup of glucose in the blood. Soon the body does not respond to insulin as well, and the sugar level in the blood stays higher, which leads to diabetes. Your body tries to flush out the excess sugar through your kidneys, making you feel thirsty and sending you to the bathroom more often. It’s like your body’s natural alarm system telling you something’s wrong.
Simple Swaps to Break the Sugar Cycle
Cut back on the amount of sugar you add regularly to beverages and foods including cereal, pancakes, coffee or tea. Try cutting the usual amount of sugar you add by half. Continue to decrease the sugar until your taste buds adjust. However, the unsettling truth is that they usually contain more sugar and sometimes more calories than their full-fat counterparts. For example, a 6-ounce (170-gram) serving of low fat vanilla yogurt contains 24 grams of sugar and 144 calories. The same amount of full-fat plain yogurt contains just 8 grams of naturally occurring milk sugar and only 104 calories. These beverages are the leading sources of added sugar in the American diet. If you’re serious about a sugar reduction diet, opt for healthier drink alternatives. Try fruit-infused water; you can make your own by floating some slices of cut fruit in a water pitcher. Small changes add up to big results when you stick with them.
Read Labels Like a Detective
There are over 60 different names for sugar, so review ingredients carefully. Common ingredients include sucrose, fructose, dextrose, cane sugar, beet sugar, high fructose corn syrup, agave nectar and brown sugar. Be sure to check food labels for added sugar in packaged or processed foods that don’t taste sweet, like salad dressings, pasta sauce and bread. Many foods that we do not consider to be sweet contain a surprisingly large amount of sugar. Some ready-made soups, stir-in sauces and ready meals can also be higher in sugar than you think. When eating out or buying takeaways, watch out for dishes that are typically high in sugar, such as sweet and sour dishes, sweet chilli dishes and some curry sauces, as well as salads with dressings like salad cream, which can also be high in sugar. On the nutrition label for food that comes in a package, review the section labeled “added sugars.” This shows the total amount of added sugars per serving. Look to buy food and beverages with zero or little added sugars. On the ingredients list, added sugars may be listed by several different names. If the added sugar ingredient is higher on the list, there is a higher amount of added sugar in the food item.
Create New Habits That Stick
So, pair a sweet snack with protein—like mixed nuts and no-sugar-added dried fruit. The healthy fats in the nuts slow absorption of the fruit’s natural sugars so you get back into balance and cravings stop. When you do have a meal, add grilled chicken or chickpeas to that pasta salad. Reduce some of the added sugar in recipes by using extracts, such as almond, vanilla, orange or lemon, to add some sweet scent without adding sugar. Enhance foods with warm spices instead of all the added sugar. Try ginger, allspice, cinnamon or nutmeg. What if we told you just one change a day could help you cut back on sugar in your diet and help lower your sugar cravings? Well, it’s not too good to be true, and this seven-day sugar challenge from the Hearst Home book Sugar Shock by Carol Prager and Samantha Cassetty, M.S., R.D., will teach you how. In just seven days, you’ll learn to tap into what’s behind your sugar cravings, ways to reduce your sugar cravings with creative hacks, and how to cut out sweets that aren’t doing your body any good. Building new habits takes time, but your body will thank you for breaking the sugar cycle.
Know Your Daily Sugar Limits
The American Heart Association recommends that men limit sugar intake to 36 grams (nine teaspoons) per day and women and children limit their intake to 25 grams (six teaspoons) a day. O’Brien said that you should look for foods that have less than five grams of added sugar per serving. The findings — in combination with existing guidance from the World Health Organization, World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research — suggest people should limit free sugar intake to less than 25 grams, or about 6 teaspoons, per day. There’s that much sugar in 2 ½ chocolate chip cookies, 16 ounces of fruit punch and about 1 ½ tablespoons of honey. A doughnut has around 15 to 30 grams of sugar, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The average American adult consumes more than twice as much sugar as they should. Knowing these numbers helps you make better choices throughout the day, like choosing water over that afternoon soda or splitting a dessert with a friend instead of eating the whole thing.
Breaking free from excess sugar isn’t about perfection – it’s about progress. Your body has been sending you signals, and now you know how to listen. What surprised you most about these sugar warning signs?
