9 Signs That You're Eating Too Much Sugar

Sugar causes the body to produce insulin, the primary hormone used to regulate the amount of sugar in the blood. Too much sugar or insulin can cause symptoms that impact your daily life. Long-term overproduction of insulin by over-consumption of sugar can cause diabetes.

Three forms of sugar consumed by most people on a daily basis are sucrose, fructose, and glucose. Sucrose, or table sugar, is made of half glucose and half fructose. It’s less sweet than fructose by itself but sweeter than glucose.

Glucose makes up the building blocks of carbohydrates. Every cell in our body uses glucose for energy.

Fructose occurs in fruits, honey, grains, and vegetables. Most commonly we see it as high-fructose corn syrup. Only the liver can process fructose and it uses a lot of resources to do so.

There are nine ways our bodies tell us we are eating too much sugar:

1 - Weight gain

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Surprise, surprise, eating too much sugar causes weight gain, but why exactly? Well, when we eat too much sucrose or fructose our livers collect it, process it into fat and send it out to be stored in our fat cells. The result is weight gain.

Also sugary foods tend to be less filling. All those wonderful cakes and ice cream have very little to no protein. Protein is usually what signals the brain that we have had enough to eat. Foods containing high sugar and little protein cause us to overeat. You will not only overeat at that one meal, but since it is a low nutritional food our body then gets hungry more often making us snack or eat throughout the day.

2 - Dry Skin

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Eating sucrose or fructose sugars causes insulin levels to spike. This spike causes our system to produce enzymes that break down collagen, the main structural protein in skin, thus causing our skin to become dry and itchy.

Dry skin is bad effect sugar has on your skin, but also causes and worsens acne. Since sugar causes inflammation it makes those blemishes on your skin a bit more red and larger. Sugar also suppresses white blood cell count which allows those acne causing bacteria more time to grow.

3 - Dry Mouth

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Processing sugars takes a lot of water. So when there is too much sugar in our systems the body pulls water from other places like the mouth, skin, brain, or stomach.

A little fun fact is that foods containing high levels of caffeine can also cause dry mouth. So your cup of coffee in the morning with a double scoop of sugar can really dry your mouth. So maybe a cup of decaf in the morning may help out your dry mouth symptoms.

4 - Frequent Urination

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Processing sugar produces a myriad of toxic waste products. The best way to get rid of them is using urine. As waste is produced it’s flushed to the bladder and the brain gives the signal you have to pee, even if your bladder isn’t full.

This symptom can also be tied to diabetes. When you have diabetes, excess sugar builds up in your blood. Your kidneys then in turn work extra hard to filter out the excess sugar. When your kidneys can no longer keep up, the remaining sugar goes directly into the urine. Frequent urination coupled with extreme thirst might be a warning sign to go see your doctor.

5 - Constant Sugar Cravings

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Research has shown that sugar, especially processed sugar, is addictive. A spike in sugar levels causes a release of dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that controls the brain’s pain and pleasure centers. A sugar induced dopamine rush gives you a sense of pleasure and contentment, something your brain wants thus causing a craving.

Unfortunately, this starts an endless loop in which you crave sugar, eat more, then crave it again. Once you’re in the loop, it’s hard to recognize when to stop. Instead of reaching for the sugar, reach for a glass of water instead. If it’s not enough, at least grab fruit so that your sugar consumption is paired with a somewhat healthier choice.

6 - Constant Exhaustion

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An influx of sugar into the body causes a spike in insulin which also suppresses a brain chemical called orexin. Orexin is the chemical that keeps us feeling awake. After the energy surge from the sugar has passed, it takes the brain time to produce orexin again. That lag time causes us to feel tired and sleepy.

To make matters worse, eating more sugar during the day could cause you to wake up more often in the middle of the night, making you even more exhausted the next day. It might be too difficult to cut all sugar out of your diet, but to lessen this side effect, try keeping your consumption low and consistent. Avoid sugar binges, and when you do eat foods with sugar, consume it in smaller quantities than you normally do.

7 - Frequent Illness

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The body uses a lot of resources to process sugars, specifically fructose. Those resources include electrolytes, antioxidants, minerals, water and hormones. Depleting the body of these chemicals causes the immune system to dip making our bodies less able to fight off illness.

Eating too much sugar can also lead to more serious illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, strokes, high blood pressure and more. This makes it all the more important to take a closer look at your general diet so you can understand which foods contain unnecessary, added sugar.

8- Difficulty Concentrating

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In general, your brain needs a constant intake of blood sugar to work, but consuming high amounts of refined sugars, like those found in soda or breakfast cereal, could actually damage your brain cells. Eating too much refined sugar can also impede synaptic communication within your brain and cause neurons to misfire, eating up your brain’s processing energy.

Sugar can also limit the blood flow to your brain. The body processes and transports sugars throughout the body using blood. When there is an influx of sugar it needs to get more blood to the liver, the primary processing facility for sugar. To do this, it constricts blood flow from other parts of the body including the brain. This restriction makes it hard to think and concentrate.

9 - Irritability

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After the initial rush of sugar induced dopamine, all the systems impacted by an excess of sugar including dehydration, tiredness, cravings, and skin discomfort can pile up and cause a general sense of irritability.

Although the body relies on sugar for energy, too much and the wrong kind create a myriad of problems. A balanced diet with limited sugar intake can do wonders for overall wellness and happiness. When it comes to sugar, like most things in life, the best rule is everything in moderation.