An ever-increasing number of nutritionists and doctors are telling people to cut down on refined sugars. If you have diabetes, you’re already aware of what a powerful impact sugar has on the body. Nonetheless, we wanted to find out what the fuss is all about, so this article looks at what refined sugar does to your body.
What Is Refined Sugar
Refined sugar comes in many disguises apart from the white granules, you’re familiar with. Everything from brown sugar, to sucrose, dextrose, fructose, right through to corn and malt syrup come into play here. Processed foods, even of the savory kind often contain refined sugar.
What Refined Sugar Does to Your Body
To begin with, you need to know that refined sugar gives you absolutely nothing other than energy. No vitamins, no minerals, no fiber. So, what happens when you eat sugar? Well, the body turns it into fructose and glucose. While the body needs glucose for energy, it doesn’t need fructose. So, if you overeat sugar, and the liver cannot process it, it gets stored as fat.
If you have diabetes, your pancreas will not be able to deal with lots of refined sugars. Depending on your diabetes type, you will either experience hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia.
In addition, the stores of vitamins and minerals get used up when the body digests refined sugar. As a result, you may lack vitamin B, calcium, and magnesium.
This is some of what refined sugar does to your body. Of course, there’s also tooth decay and obesity.
Final Thoughts
When examining what refined sugar does to your body, it soon becomes clear that it doesn’t deliver many positives. Nonetheless, most people love sweet things, so perhaps the key is to find good substitutes. That way, you get to enjoy a little sweetness without the many downsides of refined sugar.
