Have your cravings for sugar increased recently and you find yourself tired most of the time? If these symptoms sound relatable to you, then probably you are having high blood sugar. High blood sugar or Hyperglycaemia refers to the condition when human blood contains more sugar than the normal level. This happens due to a decrease in blood insulin levels. Hyperglycaemia, if untreated, can lead to several serious health problems. Eating too much sugar is harmful to one’s health and this is why you should know the various signs of having excessive sugar in the blood level.
Signs That You are Taking Too Much Sugar
Listed below are some of the most common signs that prove you’re eating too much sugar:
1. Fatigue
There are uncountable high blood sugar symptoms. Low energy or fatigue is one of them. Since glucose is easily absorbed and digested by our bodies, we may feel fatigued if excess sugar is present in the blood. It also may be the result of the fact that body cells do not receive a proper amount of glucose.
Medications such as metformin help the sugar to get into the blood, move to the cells, and prevent them from building. Moreover, sugar is known to be a quick energy source. Hence, a person will feel hungry in no time with the body looking for energy again. The overall energy level of the body may be affected by the massive changes in insulin and blood sugar level.
2. Increased Blood Pressure
A hike in the blood pressure level is one of the many symptoms of too much sugar in your body. If by any chance you are a patient of hypertension, then excessive sugar in the blood level can be a massive contributor.
Experts from their research conclude that high blood pressure level is often triggered by the consumption of sweets and other sugar-related beverages. This will eventually result in a case of hypertension.
Although no direct relationship between the effects and causes has been established, it is much certain that excessive sugar can lead to damage to blood vessels. This makes it easier for cholesterol and fats to stick to the inner lining of the vessels. This is understood when the person feels his blood vessels to be hard. Eventually, the hardening increases the pressure in the blood.
3. Increased Hunger
Consumption of extra calories stuffed with added sugars can make you feel hungrier than usual. As facts speak, our taste buds are highly sensitive to sugar, though it does not help in feeding hunger. If you consume only sugar-comprising foods with no proteins, fats, and healthy fibres, then your body uses up the sugar fast and makes you feel hungry over a short period.
Thus, it increases the chance of having unsystematic and unbalanced food. Anomalies in hunger are caused by increased sugar intake which kills the good bacteria and supports the growth of bad bacteria. A phenomenon called dysbiosis (imbalanced level of bacteria in the body) occurs which harms the metabolism of the body.
An increase in thirst and hunger is one of the most common high blood sugar symptoms which leads to the destruction of fat hormones like Leptin. Hunger is ultimately inhibited, resulting in irregular body metabolism.
4. Irritability
If you are feeling very irritated, then stress may not always be the reason behind this. This may be related to an increase in blood sugar levels. It may sound weird how blood sugar can be related to our mood but many scientific studies have proven the fact that an increase in the sugar content of blood leads to irritability.
A Medical Hypothesis study shows that eating too much sugar worsens mood which further leads to depression. In worst case scenarios, this may lead to serious mental issues. When you consume any food with high sugar content, it immediately spikes the blood sugar level of your body. Once your body starts processing the food, a large amount of energy gets consumed, leading to an energy level crash.
This eventually leads to a sluggish feeling. Moreover, sugar intake reduces insulin levels in the blood and brain. So, if you feel irritated often after eating food, do check on what you are eating.
5. Cavity
You must have heard parents avoid giving many chocolates to their children. Dentists also advise avoiding eating too much sugar, saying it is unhealthy for teeth. Now, why do they say this and why is there so much restriction on sweets or chocolates?
The reason behind this is that sugars are not good for your dental health. The bacteria that are present in our mouth feed mostly on sugars. When we consume high-sugar foods, the chances of sugars sticking to our teeth are high and this attracts bacteria which further leads to a cavity.
Now, there are ways to avoid cavities even if you keep eating foods loaded with sugar. The simplest way suggested by the dentist is to rinse your mouth thoroughly after eating food and brushing your teeth two times a day.
Conclusion
The real truth is – not all sugars are harmful to our health. Most sugars serve as an essential source of energy. The main villain of the story is the added sugars. Added sugars are a bit different from the natural ones, these are added to the food to make it sweeter. Excessive intake of these added sugar leads to different known and unknown side effects.
After knowing all the side effects, people fail to resist their cravings for high-sugar foods, especially sweets. The only thing that can be done is to maintain a balanced diet and controlled consumption of sugar-loaded foods.
