Sugar – you add it to your morning cup of coffee or tea; bake it into pastries, cakes, and cookies. You even sprinkle it all over your breakfast cereal or your oatmeal for added “flavor.”
Sugar is also hidden in some beloved “treats” that people consume on a daily basis, such as sodas, fruit juices, candies, and ice cream. It also lurks in almost all processed foods, including breads, meats, and even your favorite condiments like Worcestershire sauce and ketchup.
Most people view sugary foods as tasty, satisfying, and irresistible treats. Most doctors, however, would use these three words to accurately describe sugar: toxic, addicting, and deadly.
Sugar is one of the most damaging substances that you can ingest – and what’s terrifying about it is that it’s just so abundant in our everyday diet. This intense addiction to sugar is becoming rampant, not just among adults, but in children as well.
But how exactly does sugar work in our body, and what are the side effects of eating too much sugar on people’s health?
Ideally, an adult should only consume 30 grams (1 ounce) of added sugar a day, but the average daily consumption of sugar is nearer double that, at 58.8 grams (2 ounces).
Benenden have created an interactive online tool that allows you to track the effects of excess sugar in your diet. Using the tool, you can scroll through and learn about the impact of a high-sugar diet on your brain, skin, teeth, liver, kidneys, heart, digestive system, and immune system. You are also able to see and compare the different effects on men, women, and a five-year-old child.
In a press release, Dr. John Giles, Medical Director at Benenden, said: “Sugar is a food that is often hard to resist, and cutting sugar out of your diet can be challenging. The tool provides a guide on how sugar can affect the body if above average amounts are consumed for a long period of time.”
To see all the ill effects of sugar, check the tool for yourself right here.
