If your goal is to eat healthier and you are a beginner to healthy eating, looking at how much sugar you consume daily is essential. Eating too much of this common ingredient can negatively and greatly impact your skin health, gut health and metabolism, often leading to weight gain and imbalanced gut microbiota (which causes bloating, gas, diarrhea and constipation).
With that said, we reached out to dietitians, nutritionists and other health experts for warning signs from your body that indicate you are eating too much sugar. Read on for tips, suggestions and insight from Trista Best, MPH, RD, LD, registered dietitian at Balance One Supplements, and Lisa Richards, registered nutritionist and creator of The Candida Diet.
1. You're Seeing More Breakouts, Pimples And Duller-Looking Skin
One major con of eating too much sugar, Best warns, is that it can accelerate skin aging. This can lead to premature wrinkling, sagging skin, etc."Relying on sugary, processed convenience foods as a main source of nutrition can be damaging to your health and cause you to age more rapidly," she says. These types of foods (like sugary pastries, granola bars, cereals, candy) are made with "refined carbohydrates," along with sugar, which can "speed up the aging process."
This can also mean more breakouts, dryer skin, and an overall duller appearance as opposed to a radiant, supple one. Sugary snacks and treats not only "increase aging, but also lead to poor gut health," Best says (which we'll get to next). "Both of these side effects are damaging to overall health." Best advises trying to "limit these foods in your diet and rely on them only when absolutely necessary." While you don't have to deprive yourself of an occasional sugary treat, Best says "integrating more whole foods and antioxidant-rich foods like fruit and vegetables" which will decrease oxidative damage internally and externally.
2. You're Experiencing Stomach Pain, Weight Gain And Indigestion
If you're frequently suffering from chronic bloating and/ or other signs of indigestion, it's not only important to see a doctor, Richards stresses, but also to reevaluate your diet and find what could be triggering this. Often, she notes, this reaction is due to too many sugary foods or refined carbohydrates, as they are devoid of fiber, an essential nutrient to aid healthy digestion.
"A diet full of sugary, processed, junk foods is one of the major causes of gut dysbiosis and fungal overgrowth, Richards explains. "These foods are high in sugars that feed a Candida overgrowth, and rich in pro-inflammatory ingredients that damage your gut and cause inflammation across your body," she continues. When you consume too much sugar, potential Candida overgrowth is "just one of the negative effects your body may experience." Richards says that "the longer you eat a diet high in sugar, the more your body comes resistant to insulin's effects of lowering your blood sugar." This, she emphasizes, will "inevitably lead to diabetes."
Gut health has been "linked to immunity, glucose control, heart health, and digestion," and making this a priority can help you reach all of your other health goals (such as weight loss, more energy, better sleep, healthy aging). Recent research, Richards concludes, has even discovered "links between gut health and mental health." Overall, as Richards points out, "it’s safe to say that an unhealthy gut can cause problems in every part of your body," and by replacing sugary foods and refined carbs with whole foods, you will notice a difference.
