One thing is certain: many scientists are alarmed to see sugar considered a "little pleasure" without consequences, while data on its toxicity are accumulating!
In a May 2015 report, the WHO recalled that obesity has doubled in 35 years worldwide, now affecting 11% of adult men and 15% of women. In the same period, diabetes has almost doubled: it affects 8.5% of the world's population, including 3.5 million French people. And cardiovascular diseases are also increasing at an astonishing rate in low- and middle-income countries.
Finally, hepatic disorders border on 30% prevalence in places. So many scourges linked to food and, in an underlying way, to the sugars that are added to foods and drinks, especially sodas.
More than just a matter of calories:
Will we then see one day packets of candy warning that "sweetening kills"? The idea, in any case, that our diet should contain less added sugar is not debatable. Notice to industrialists… On the other hand, a question arouses controversy: is sugar a caloric food like any other or an intrinsically toxic product, capable of harming the health even of those who are not in caloric excess? Here, two theories clash.
The majority view, called “caloricentric”, asserts that current health problems come from the fact that we store more calories than we expend. Therefore, sugar appears culpable only as a source of calories. And there is a remedy: physical exercise. Against the excess of sugar, it would be enough to move more!
The first serious attack on the caloricentric theory took place six years ago.
In an article published in Nature , pediatrician and endocrinologist Robert Lustig reserved special status for added sugar and called for it to be regulated as severely as alcohol or tobacco. “From the point of view of the body, a calorie is not a calorie, argues Robert Lustig. Those present in almonds, for example, are trapped in so many fibers that the body invests 20% of the energy they contain to release them. But there are foods that are absorbed almost instantly and effortlessly, like refined sugars, and others much more slowly. »
Human beings are not adapted to such doses of sugar:
The big question for these researchers is the disruption of hormonal metabolism, particularly insulin. “Eating sugar elevates the production of insulin, which acts as a fertilizer for adipocytes, the cells of fatty tissue, explains David Ludwig, professor at Harvard, who points out that the insulin level of Americans has increased threefold these last years. last decades. At the same time, insulin resistance appears, one of the effects of which is a permanent feeling of hunger. »
But how could something as mundane as sugar be toxic? Because, during 99% of human evolution, it was only available in fruits. The amount of sugar that the human body has "learned" to deal with is therefore very low. However, for half a century, the industry has been producing colossal volumes of it...
Another controversy this time concerns addiction. Because according to a study conducted on rats, sugar is more addictive than… cocaine! However, the introduction of sugar in the list of addictive substances seems premature. But the WHO nevertheless recommends reducing the intake of added sugars to less than 50 g per day. A threshold that in France, more than half of children exceed...
A potentially toxic caloric food:
Precious for the body as a source of energy, sugar can become toxic when it is in excess in the blood, to the point of damaging nerves and vessels. The body therefore has mechanisms to detect, degrade and store it. But numerous studies indicate that these mechanisms can be overwhelmed by excessive sugar influxes. Disturbances then arise in different organs.
Sugar would cause an addiction:
According to some researchers, glucose quickly reaches the brain after ingestion and activates specific receptors in the hypothalamus linked to addiction. Furthermore, by disrupting the metabolism of at least two hormones (leptin, which induces satiety, and ghrelin, which triggers hunger), sugar alters the brain's ability to manage, via appetite, the absorption of energy.
Sugar increases the risk of cardiovascular disease:
Sugar weakens the heart and vessels, in particular by raising the level of triglycerides (fats) in the blood. Many articles conclude that there is a higher risk of stroke among sugar consumers. And in particular a large study conducted at Harvard, which estimated that the probability of a heart attack is increased by 15% in people who drink a soda a day.
Sugar causes liver disease:
The liver is involved in sugar metabolism. In particular, it captures circulating fructose and transforms it into fat, sometimes to the point of becoming encumbered with it – a condition called hepatic steatosis, or “fatty liver disease”. Much more common in recent years (up to 30% prevalence), it can degenerate into cirrhosis.
Sugar causes inflammation of the pancreas:
The pancreas is an essential organ whose role includes the production of insulin, the hormone that triggers the storage of blood sugar. Insulin resistance, common among heavy consumers of sugar, forces it to go into overproduction… up to inflammation (pancreatitis, which in some cases can become cancerous).
Sugar creates insulin resistance:
Adipocytes, or fat cells, store by growing (and, to a lesser extent, multiplying) the excess fat generated by the influx of sugar. Overworked, they become inflammatory, which leads to insulin resistance.
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