In today’s world, sugar has become the culprit behind various diseases. Well, it is not the sole cause of lifestyle diseases, but your lifestyle majorly plays significant role behind it. However, its excessive intake can have detrimental effects on your health. Let’s understand why it is unhealthy, understand the limits of its healthy consumption, and learn to manage its cravings for better health.

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Why its excessive intake is not healthy for you?

Life without sugar may seem bland on your taste buds, but believe me, it is true blessing for your organs. Its excessive intake can trigger to various health conditions, effectively making it a slow poison.
If we look from modern nutrition perspective, it is high in calories with low nutritional value. From the Ayurvedic perspective, consuming sweet taste in excess can aggravate Kapha dosha which ultimately lead to slow metabolism causing further weight gain, lethargy, and sluggishness. It can also hamper digestion and cause indigestion, hyperacidity, and inflammation.

Harmful effects of its excessive intake:

When it’s consumed excessively, it increases fat accumulation, especially in liver and abdominal area, which can lead to overweight and obesity. It can increase chronic inflammation, increasing the risk of developing heart disease. Also, it can lead to insulin resistance, which can lead to diabetes. Last but not the least, it can cause skin aging through the process of glycation, where sugar in the blood gets attached to protein to form harmful compound AGEs (Advance Glycation End Products). These AGEs damages essential proteins like collagen and elastin, which helps to maintain firm skin. Due to this, skin becomes more prone to wrinkles, sagging, and other skin aging signs.
Harmful effects of sugar

How to prevent its consumption?

If you want to prevent its over consumption, you must follow dietary awareness in the following way:
  • Always read product labels: Sugar comes under many names in the product labels like sucrose, fructose, corn syrup, starch, lactose, dextrose, honey, molasses, and glucose. So, always read your labels and then purchase your products.
  • Choose whole food: Consume more whole foods, like fruits, vegetables, grains, which don’t have any added form of it.

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How much sugar is good?

I feel consuming it in moderate amount is not an issue if you are managing to follow an active lifestyle. But, someone with diabetes, PCOS, obesity, or any other lifestyle disorder, you must completely avoid refined sugar. Coming to its quantity, I would suggest consume its natural form from fruits, dates, raisins, and honey. It’s important to be mindful of how much of it you’re consuming, especially in syrups, ketchup, beverages like tea and coffee, which can lead to unintentional excess intake. Reducing these along with other sweet items, is essential for managing your overall consumption.

How to manage its cravings?

  • First of all, do not stop consuming it all of the sudden if you have been consuming it in excess every day. Slowly reduce its amount in your diet. Replace refined sugar with jaggery, mishri, or coconut sugar for your daily intake in tea or coffee.
  • Stop purchasing sugar rich snacks like biscuits, chocolates, or sweets. If you don’t have any at home you won’t be able to access it.
  • If you get sugar cravings, drink some spiced buttermilk, sip water, or you can also drink fennel-cinnamon boiled water. This will help you manage your cravings.
Sugar in its natural form within moderate amount is safe. The only issue is with the excessive intake of refined sugar. By following healthier eating habits with active lifestyle, you can manage your health.