Little did you know that you’re addicted to sugar. In fact, the average American can consume about 32 teaspoons of sugar per day, that’s triple the recommended amount of daily sugar intake, which is alarming. You consume it everyday on a regular basis whether it is by putting a packet of sugar in your morning coffee or eat a sugary snack. It’s everywhere and you can’t get rid of it, unless you’re making the food yourself. But, what exactly does sugar do to your body?
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Nobody is immune to this addiction, even celebrities are plagued by sugar overuse. “I used to drink ten cups a day with two sugars in each, so I was on 20 sugars a day,” Adele says. “Now I don’t drink it and I have more energy than ever.” An adult male can metabolize 37.5 grams, or 9 teaspoons of sugar a day; A woman can process 25 grams, or 6 teaspoons, a day. 
You need sugar to function, but the human body was not made to consume excessive amounts of sugar. With so much of it going into your system, there’s proof that sugar does more harm than good to the body. Here are some of the things sugar does to your body:
- Damages your liver. The effects of too much sugar or fructose can be likened to the effects of alcohol. All the fructose you eat gets shuttled to your liver. This severely taxes and overloads the organ, leading to potential liver damage.
- Causes weight-gain. It tricks your body into gaining weight and affects your insulin and leptin signaling. Fructose fools your metabolism by turning off your body’s appetite-control system. It fails to stimulate insulin, so you can’t suppress ghrelin, or “the hunger hormone,” which then fails to stimulate leptin or “the satiety hormone.” This causes you to eat more and develop insulin resistance.
- Increases your risk for diabetes and heart disease. Studies have shown that high-glycemic foods, including eating a lot of sugary foods puts you at risk for becoming obese, developing diabetes, and heart disease.
- Causes metabolic dysfunction. Eating too much sugar causes a barrage of symptoms known as classic metabolic syndrome. These include weight gain, abdominal obesity, decreased HDL and increased LDL, elevated blood sugar, elevated triglycerides, and high blood pressure.
- Increases uric acid levels. High uric acid levels are a risk factor for heart and kidney disease. In fact, the connection between fructose, metabolic syndrome, and your uric acid is now so clear that your uric acid level can now be used as a marker for fructose toxicity.
What can you do?
- Eliminate sugary beverages
- Quit sugary junk foods
- Reduce simple carbs
- Keep an eye on condiment labels
- Drink more water
- Eat more healthy fats
- Cook at home and eat out less
- Keep it up
When you begin eating less sugar your body will notice. Here are some things that will happen when you stop eating less sugar.
- Your heart will thank you
- Acne will be less likely, since sugar is an inflammatory
- Chances of diabetes will begin to decrease
- Less crankiness due to sugar dependence
- Sleep will happen at a normal time
- Weight-loss
- Look younger, since sugar accelerates aging
Dependence on sugar is real. It’s an addiction that we all shamefully have and aren’t willing to acknowledge. The sooner this addiction is dealt with, the sooner you will start seeing the changes.