Sugar consumption and obesity -
Consuming empty calories undermines the health benefits of consuming other foods and drinks that do have nutritional value.
It can also cause imbalances, where nutrient deficits can lead to further health complications. In most cases, sugary foods and drinks are high in calories. Consuming too many of these products will lead to weight gain, even with regular exercise. There is strong evidence showing that excess dietary sugar is a cause of weight gain.
As the body usually digests products containing added sugars more quickly, they do not offset hunger for very long. This can lead to eating more regularly throughout the day and a greater calorie intake overall. There is also some evidence to suggest that sugar can affect the biological pathways that regulate hunger.
Leptin is a hormone that regulates hunger by determining how much energy the body needs. Disruption to leptin functioning can lead to weight gain and obesity. A study in rats from revealed that a diet high in fat and sugar could lead to leptin resistance.
Leptin resistance occurs when the body no longer responds to leptin correctly. The study authors found that removing sugar from the diet reversed leptin resistance. Another study from found that sugary drinks could be a particular problem for leptin resistance. It is important to note that sugar does not cause weight gain and obesity by itself.
Sugar is one of several causes. Being overweight or obese is the result of a complex interaction between diet, physical activity, genetics, and social and environmental factors. However, limiting the amount of sugar in a diet is one of the simplest ways to prevent weight gain.
There is a link between consuming sugary drinks and developing type 2 diabetes. It is not true that sugar causes diabetes. A high-calorie diet of any kind can lead to type 2 diabetes. However, in most cases, diets high in sugar are high in calories. This can increase the risk of diabetes.
A meta-analysis of data from , people found that those with a high consumption of sugary drinks had a 26 percent greater risk of type 2 diabetes than those with a low consumption. The American Diabetes Association recommend avoiding sugary drinks to prevent type 2 diabetes.
For more science-backed resources on nutrition, visit our dedicated hub. After eating sugar, bacteria in the mouth form a thin layer of plaque over the teeth. These bacteria react with the sugars present in foods and drinks. This reaction triggers the release of an acid that damages teeth.
It is possible for the body to repair some of this damage itself. Over time, however, a diet high in sugar will cause lasting damage.
This can lead to tooth cavities. Cavities are permeant holes that form on teeth. Limiting the intake of foods high in sugar is one effective way to prevent tooth cavities.
High-sugar diets may increase the risk of heart disease. The results of a year study suggest that people with a lot of added sugar in their diet are significantly more likely to die from heart disease than people with minimal amounts of added sugar in their diet.
Again, research suggests that sugary drinks may be particularly problematic for increasing the risk of heart disease. Front-of-package labelling systems should be implemented to help guide consumers to make healthful beverage and food choices and stay within added sugar and free sugar targets.
Access of SSBs should be limited in schools, by adopting polices that restrict sales of SSBs and provision in school meal programmes. Access to potable water in schools should be prioritized. Access to SSBs should be limited in health-care facilities, government institutions and other public spaces, by adopting polices that restrict sales of SSBs and provision in institutional meals.
Access to potable water and healthful alternatives should be prioritized. Healthful beverages, such as water, should be made the default choice by adopting policies that promote them, or by voluntary action in the hospitality and service industries.
Specific guidelines for healthful beverage consumption should be included in national and international dietary recommendations.
Health risks linked to the over-consumption of SSBs should be included in national and international programmes and reports that target prevention of obesity and chronic diseases. Policies and regulatory action that ensure access to potable water in all communities should be adopted.
Implementation of multiple actions is expected to be more effective at reducing intake levels than single standalone policies. Policy actions should be accompanied by concurrent public health education campaigns to reinforce key messages and ensure effectiveness.
SSBs are consumed on a global scale, with intake levels above recommendations in many high-income countries and on the rise in LMICs. The evidence for other conditions, including stroke and specific types of cancer, is less consistent and further research is warranted. Although specific thresholds for intake of SSBs have not been identified as most observations are from dose—response analyses, clinically important weight gain and risk of attendant cardiometabolic conditions are associated with intake of SSBs at commonly consumed levels, such as one serving per day.
SSBs might promote weight gain through multiple mechanisms, including incomplete compensation for liquid calories by reductions in food intake at subsequent meals, hyperinsulinaemia induced by the rapid absorption of large amounts of sugar and possibly through neural pathways of food addiction.
These beverages are thought to increase T2DM and cardiometabolic risk through weight gain. In addition, SSBs act independently of weight gain through a high glycaemic load and the unique metabolic effects of excess fructose in the liver, which has been linked to accumulation of visceral adipose tissue and ectopic lipid deposition, gout and NAFLD.
Various policies and regulatory strategies to reduce intake of SSBs are in place or are being considered in several countries. Continued evaluation of these policies is needed in order to gauge their effectiveness over time.
In addition, more and higher quality trials are required to identify new strategies or combinations of actions that are effective in reducing SSB intake at the individual and population level.
Key areas for which future research is warranted include examining the effects of different sugars on health outcomes over a broad range of doses, investigating the health effects of sugar consumed in solid form compared with liquid form and further elucidating biological mechanisms of energy compensation and sugar addiction.
Important research gaps also exist regarding suitable alternative beverages, including the health effects of consuming ASBs over the life-course, examination of different types of juices and ensuring global access to potable water.
In the coming years, as the world grapples with rising obesity and chronic disease burdens alongside infectious diseases, such as the COVID pandemic that has been worsened by obesity, there will be an urgent need for coordinated actions across all sectors of society to prioritize obesity prevention.
These efforts should focus on nutrition policies and regulatory strategies aimed at improving overall diet quality, creating healthier food environments and reducing health disparities. Given the strength and consistency of the evidence across different populations and increased consumption patterns associated with nutrition transitions, SSBs present a clear target for policy action.
With the high intake levels across the globe, reducing consumption of SSBs remains an important step in improving diet quality, which could have a measurable effect on weight control and in improving global health. NCD Risk Factor Collaboration NCD-RisC.
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Aside from causing you to put on excess body fat, eating too much added sugar can significantly increase your risk of chronic conditions, such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. If you want to reduce added sugars in your diet to avoid weight gain and improve your overall health, try out a few of the simple tips listed in this article to help kick your sugar habit for good.
Eating lots of sugar is a surefire way to raise your risk of many different diseases. This article provides several useful tricks to reduce your…. People disagree on how much sugar is safe to eat each day.
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How Well Do You Sleep? Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Nutrition Evidence Based 6 Ways Added Sugar Is Fattening. By Jillian Kubala, MS, RD — Updated on April 23, Here are 6 reasons why added sugar is fattening. Share on Pinterest. High in empty calories. Summary Added sugar is a source of empty calories and offers little in terms of nutrition.
Foods rich in added sugars tend to be high in calories, which can cause weight gain. Impacts blood sugar and hormone levels. One way hyperglycemia leads to weight gain is through promoting insulin resistance.
Summary High-sugar diets contribute to prolonged elevated blood sugar, insulin resistance, and leptin resistance — all of which are linked to weight gain and excess body fat.
Sugar consumption and obesity total of cnosumption, children and adolescents anf identified Sugwr a consumpgion survey conducted in Shandong, China. The mean daily SSB intake Sugar consumption and obesity children and adolescents was Approximately, Reducing water retention Consumption of any types of SSBs had a positive impact on SSB sugar intake in both children and adolescents. The prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents was increasing year by year in countries around the world, and the burden of various chronic diseases caused by this has become a serious public health problem 1. More than million children and adolescents worldwide were suffering from obesity and related chronic diseases 2.
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