How is sugar bad for you? What does it do to your body?

Answer 1

It has to to with the metabolization or in the case of diabetics, the inability to metabolize the sugar due to insulin deficiencies in the pancreas. More information can be found on the American Diabetes Association homepage.

Answer 2

It isn't, normally. We use it for fuel and we have elaborate mechanisms to store some (up to maybe a kilogram or so in the liver and much more in muscle cells) and to control the glucose level in the blood and so on. The problem with sugar is both old (some people get diabetes in which their mechanisms are broken more or less) and new (this is the first time in human history when so many calories have come from sugar -- it's not clear exactly why that's not good, but it seems increasingly clear that it's not).

background
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Let's say you're diabetic and don't keep your blood glucose at or near 'normal'. You'll have glucose levels 50% higher than normal up to the renal threshold (generally about 100% higher than normal).

glucose caused tissue damage
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That much glucose means there will be more reactions between glucose and various things here and there all around the body. some of those things are proteins, and proteins with a glucos or two stuck to it won't do what it's supposed to do. With various effect we really don't understand in any detail for more than one or two proteins. There are thousands of them. There are characteristic changes in the basement membranes of capillaries (the smallest blood vessels) in diabetics, and it's thought that this glucose attaching business is the cause. With more glucose around, there'll be more of this. Glucose is a very reactive molecule as it has to be, since is stores all that energy cells can use. Kind like rocket fuel, sort of. It doesn't matter where the glucose comes from in this case. Cake, pie, candy bars, Gatorade, ... But probably the worst source is flavored sugar water, like soda drinks. No other nutrient there.

lots of sugar consumption
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Which brings up the other main issue with sugar, which applies to non-diabetics as well. We're now eating hundreds of pounds of sugar each year which is, mostly, hundreds of pounds more than entire populations have ever done. Nobody knew about sugar cane or sugar beets until the Caribbean was discovered (sugar cane) or sugar beet processing was developed (late 1800s, early 1900s, IIRC). We seem to have a serious sweet tooth, possibly due to an ancestry which included folks who claimed around in trees and ate fruit. Sweet fruit is probably not rotten, nor poisonous. so It's important or was.

All this sugar means that lots of our food produces a large and fast blood glucose spike after (or even as) we eat something. There is lots of somewhat supported speculation that this causes various problems, specifically including diabetes. We have an epidemic of diabetes the world round now, and it's a real big problem. But other issues may be involved as well, from immune system inflammatory responses (perhaps auto-immune diseases) to developmental problems (brain issues? or skeletal issues?). And there is obesity. Sugar calories are pretty concentrated and don't give clues about being full, usually, and so they probably contribute to the obesity epidemic. And that increases cancer rates and joint problems and ...

problems in figuring it all out
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These things are hard to study, being subtle and taking years to appear, and especially in people who are absolutely lousy experimental animals. They go out and eat stuff they aren't supposed to and do things they aren't supposed to and generally screw up the statistics.

what to do
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Since we really don't need sugary anything, and since the manufacturers of factory food exploit our sweet tooths to sell us stuff, we'd be well advised to simply avoid them. It'll help us (probably, and in part by keeping weight off, something lots of folks dream of) and put a monkey wrench in the manipulative companies trying to make a buck selling us junk food, it kills two birds with one stone. Just how to outwit your sweet tooth is the hard part. Getting diabetes and being forced to do something is a really hard way to do it.

Maybe someone will come out with a sugar patch, like the nicotine ones?

Answer 3

Eric, to be honest...researchers and scientists don't know the answer to that. What they do know is that consistent elevated glucose levels damage body systems and organs they just don't know the exact reason why. Different groups, agencies and organizations when asked that question will give you varying degrees of answers . The latest I read is that they now suspect a virus of attacking the Islet cells in the pancreas but up to now it's any body's guess.

Answer 4

Sugar isn't exactly bad for you. Now, if you have diabetes, it is bad, depending which type of diabetes you have. If you have too much sugar in your blood stream, you'll need injections of insulin to regulate and balance it out. Everyone needs sugar, or like the other type of diabetes, you have little sugar in your bloodstream.

Answer 5

Sugar is not bad. the brain cells without sugar fail to work properely.Being bad or good depends entirely on the condition of your body.If your blood sugar is low(hipo) so the sugar is vital for you if high you should reduce it by exercise diet and if diabetes insulin.

Answer 6

Too much of sugar is not a good thing. Read it somewhere it is one of the cancers causing agent correct me if I am wrong.