Being a sweet tooth is not good for your health

Dec 20, 2006 15:47 GMT  ·  By

For sure, our bodies and metabolism did not evolve with the sweets. But in which ways sugars are harmful for our health?

First of all, they are hypercaloric alimentary bombs. We evolved consuming fruits, vegetables and meat. When we eat an ice cream, we introduce in our body the same amount of calories found in a few kilograms of fruits. But we never stop to just one ice-cream, as our body evolved to process the volume of a few kilograms of fruits or other natural aliments. And the concentrated amount of calories we bring in our body will greatly bypass the daily needs.

The extracalories will be deposited in the fat tissue and, this way, overweight installs, followed in time by obesity. And with them all the health problems: high blood pressure, heart, circulation, kidney, stomach, liver, pancreas and so on. And the most severe condition provoked by excessive sweets consumption is, of course, the chronic diabetes.

Being acid, the sweets lower acidity in our mouth, rendering the teeth vulnerable to bacteria attack and to the emergence and proliferation of the teeth cavities.

On the nutritional point of view, sweets provide sugar and ... nothing more: no proteins, no minerals, no vitamins.

Natural sweets, like fruits and honey, contain great deals of mineral (phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and others), vitamins (especially A and C), and sometimes even proteins, but refined sugars contain ... just sugar. Many sugars contain colorants, like tartracine (E-102) which provokes allergic reactions like chronic hives. Others, like yellow-orange E-110 and red E-123 are suspected of being carcinogenic. Other colorants attack the digestive track.

Many sweets contain artificial sweeteners, especially the "light" ones. Most synthetic sweeteners, like sorbitol, cannot be assimilated by the human organism and provoke diarrhea. The excessive use of chewing gum can have laxative effects. And the gum can not be assimilated in the guts. Some appetizers have a sticky texture which is very harmful for the dental enamel.