5 signs you’re eating too much sugar

It can be hard to imagine a life without sugar – it’s in a lot of the foods we eat. But how much sugar is too much? The American Heart Association recommends that women eat no more than six tablespoons a day; men should eat no more than nine. This is equivalent to 25-36 grams or about 100-150 calories a day of sugar. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends eating a maximum of 50 grams, but preferably no more than 25 grams of sugar per day.

Does that sound like a lot or a little? Well, when you consider that a can of regular Coke has 39 grams of sugar, and even “healthy” foods, like a granola bar (8 grams) or container of blueberry greek yoghurt (14 grams), are packed with hidden sugar, it certainly puts things in perspective. Most of us consume at least twice the amount we should.

Most of the sugar we consume isn’t even intentional. It is hidden in sweets, cakes and juice, as well as a lot of processed foods. And, it is not always easily recognisable on ingredient lists.

Sugar often appears in ingredients lists under many different names. This makes it difficult to recognise the actual sugar content of a product. Some common terms under which sugar can appear in foods include:

• Sucrose: the chemical term for table sugar.
• Glucose, glucose syrup, or dextrose: often found in processed foods.
• Fructose: fruit sugar, often found in fruit or corn syrup.
• Corn syrup (high-fructose corn syrup): highly processed sugar syrup used in many soft drinks.
• Maltose: malt sugar, often found in bread and beer.
• Dextrose: another form of glucose.
• Lactose: milk sugar found in dairy products.
• Invert sugar: a sugar that results from the breakdown of sucrose and is found in many confectionery products.
• Honey: often perceived as “natural” — but is a form of sugar.
• Agave syrup, maple syrup or rice syrup: alternative sweeteners that also contain sugar.

To summarise: anything ending in “-ose”, as well as “syrups” and “sweeteners” is almost always sugar.

With all this big food company sneakiness, it can be tough to recognise that your sugar consumption is getting out of hand. We put this question to Dr Lela Ahlemann, a specialist in dermatology, phlebology, proctology and nutritional medicine. Here are the possible warning signs you are eating too much sugar.

It’s no secret that sugar is calorie dense, but there is another reason why eating it can make us quickly gain weight: “If you eat too much sugar, you are constantly hungry,” says Ahlemann. “The reason for this is that sugar drives up blood glucose levels in the short term, but isn’t satiating, due to a lack of fibre. When you’re always hungry, you end up eating more than you need, which then ultimately leads to weight gain.”

“When we eat sugar, not only do our insulin levels rise, but so does a hormone called insulin-like growth factor 1, or IGF-1 for short,” says Ahlemann. “Together with insulin, IGF-1 stimulates the sebaceous glands and excessive keratinisation in the area of the sebaceous glands, which is why they become clogged, leading to acne and inflammation.”

“When we eat sugar, glucose levels rise quickly, which leads to a release of insulin, however this spike is often so strong that the blood sugar does not drop back to a normal level, but instead plunges below baseline. This is called hypoglycaemia, which then leads to cravings. In some people, it also leads to mood swings and crankiness,” says Ahlemann.

“Normally, sugar is absorbed by the body via the small intestine. However, if the amount of simple sugars, like glucose and fructose, we consume exceeds the capacity of our small intestine, it ends up in the large intestine,” explains Ahlemann. It then becomes food for the bacteria that live there: “Selective feeding leads to a proliferation of these bacteria. The problem is that, unfortunately, they carry endotoxins on their bacterial surface, which can then leave the gut and enter the bloodstream, leading to silent inflammation, which accelerates ageing and weakens the immune system.”

“It is scientifically proven that the high sugar intake leads to the formation of so-called AGEs or advanced glycation end products,” Ahlemann explains. They essentially melt our collagen fibres: “When there are too many AGEs, our collagen fibres become stiff, brittle and degenerate. The body is also less able to repair itself, meaning that the quality of our collagen deteriorates further.”