Even “moderate” sugar consumption kills

Now that we’re all back from a nice long Memorial Day weekend, let’s travel across the Atlantic... 

Because some brand-new research out of Switzerland has just driven yet another nail into sugar’s coffin. (Say it with me now: Sugar kills!) 

This team of Swiss scientists wanted to know whether regular sugar consumption has any other health effects beyond weight gain. And while they could have just asked me that question rather than spending a bunch of research dollars on an answer, let’s see what they discovered… 

It only takes two cans of soda 

This study featured 94 healthy young men. Every day for seven weeks, they drank a sugar-sweetened beverage—while a separate control group did not. 

The drinks contained one of three types of sugar: fructose, glucose, or sucrose (which is table sugar—a combo of fructose and glucose). Because in addition to investigating the effects on subjects’ bodies, the researchers also wanted to see if different types of sugar are better (or worse) for you.  

To analyze sugar’s effects on metabolism, researchers used substances that can be traced as they move throughout the body (called “tracers”). And let’s just say that their findings aren’t exactly shocking.   

Turns out, even moderate amounts of sugar boost fat generation and alter metabolism. More specifically, they saw these effects with just 80 grams, or the equivalent of 27 ounces of sugary soda. That’s only slightly more than two regular cans of Coke. 

If that wasn’t bad enough, this overactive fat production continued even after subjects stopped consuming sugar. Calorie intake didn’t matter, either—participants weren’t consuming any more than they were before the study.  

But that’s not all the researchers found... 

Fuel for fatty liver  

Among subjects who drank fructose, fat generation in the liver was twice as high as it was in either the glucose group or the control group. And it stayed high, even a full 12 hours after the sugar was last consumed. 

Meanwhile, sucrose—the most commonly consumed type of sugar—boosted fat generation in the liver by a slightly higher amount than fructose did.    

I call this liver fat synthesis “stowaway sugar.” Because eating fat doesn’t cause your liver to store fat—eating sugar does. After all, your body has to do something with all of that excess energy you’re feeding it. So it does what it does best: It saves that energy for a rainy day… which for most people, never comes. 

All of this fat stored in the liver leads straight to one of the fastest-growing epidemics in the United States: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). And aside from adding stress to one of the most important organs in your body, it’s also a first step toward the development of type 2 diabetes.   

And when left untreated, NAFLD can even cause scarring of the liver (fibrosis)… and eventually, full-blown cirrhosis—which is largely irreversible. 

That’s why I’ll keep saying this until the message finally sinks in: Sugar kills—in all its forms. So, join me in kicking it to the curb… once and for all.  

P.S. The twin epidemics of diabetes and obesity have been crushing the public health for decades now. And in recent years, fatty liver has emerged to complete this lethal trifecta. In large thanks to sugar (and other overly processed foods). So, how can you get a jump on fatty liver? Check out the December 2020 issue of my monthly newsletter, Logical Health Alternatives (“Four simple ways to fight fatty liver disease and slash your risk of early death”). Not yet a subscriber? Click here to become one today! 

Source: 

“Consumption of added sugar doubles fat production.” Science Daily, 03/16/2021. sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210316100709.htm