Eating Less Sugar and More Fruit is Good for Health

Some people turn to sweets to relieve stress when they feel tired or depressed, so sugary drinks, desserts, and cookies have become daily staples for many people, but they harm health. These include diabetes, obesity, tooth decay, anxiety, and poorer sleep. It’s time to start implementing a sugar-reduced lifestyle.

TAIPEI, TAIWAN (Merxwire) – When someone feels melancholy today, they may eat sweet food to comfort themselves. This is a way for many people to relieve stress. Some people will eat sweets when they are depressed or tired, and some people will eat sweets to vent their emotions when they cannot sleep. As a result, sugary drinks, desserts, and cookies have become a daily staple for many people. These sweet foods have many negative health effects, including weight gain, tooth decay, urinary tract infection problems, increased headaches and anxiety, and worse sleep.

Eating sugar is so easy for modern people. In ancient times, humans could only eat sugar from small amounts of fruits when the fruits were ripe, but now sugary foods can be eaten anytime. Sugar can be found in various drinks, breads, desserts, and cereals. However, these sweet tastes are no longer as pure as the ancient times but have evolved into added sugars containing various sweeteners. They are extracted and refined before being added to the diet to add sweetness and flavor.

However, more and more studies have confirmed that excessive sugar intake has caused a health crisis, causing overweight problems starting in elementary school, and aggravating or causing many modern civilization diseases, including high blood sugar and blood lipids, anxiety, and insomnia. Therefore, experts recommend a diet that reduces sugar as much as possible and also requires hospitals and schools to reduce the number of vending machines selling sugary snacks. However, since many breads, biscuits, and flavored juices contain sugar, it is difficult to resist the temptation of sweetness.

The British National Health Service (NHS) believes that adults should not consume more than 30 grams of free sugars per day, excluding natural sugars found in fruits. Unfortunately, the average daily intake of free sugar per adult is about 60 grams, which is far more than this standard. You may think that you don’t eat much sugar, so you shouldn’t exceed the standard, but in fact, a cup of flavored juice or a smoothie may contain nearly 30 grams or more of sugar, and even pasta sauce also contains sugar.

What has attracted more attention recently is the increasing use of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) every year. From 1970 to 1990, the use of HFCS in the United States increased tenfold, more than any other food additive. This kind of syrup is commonly added to drinks, which has also contributed to the increasing problem of overweight in the USA. Unlike other foods, it does not make us feel full due to the calories we intake. Instead, it may cause us to feel hungry and eat more food.

Not only high-fructose corn syrup, but the overuse of fructose and sugar can still cause various health problems. Studies have found that excessive sugar intake can aggravate heart disease and cardiovascular problems, cause memory loss, increase triglycerides in the body, cause artery blockage, and increase the risk of diabetes. Studies have also confirmed that people who intake more than 25% of their daily calories from sugar are twice as likely to die from heart disease as those who consume less than 10% of their calories from sugary food. And women who drink one sugary drink a day have twice the risk of diabetes compared with women who don’t drink sugary drinks.

While sugar may not be the only factor affecting excess weight and brain health, at least we already know that eating too much sugar has many negative health effects. We can start trying to reduce our daily free sugar intake and replace the sugar our bodies need with natural fruits to make us healthier. Research shows that replacing free sugar with natural sugar can help improve mood, reduce depression, increase brain capacity, and improve memory. A large study of 120,000 people in the United States also found that the fewer sugary drinks you drink, the longer your average life expectancy.

Fruits contain a variety of essential vitamins and flavanols that help the growth of beneficial bacteria in the intestines, change the microbiome, and increase the number of good bacteria. If you eat it with the washed peel, it contains the richest vitamins and fiber, which can fully provide the nutrients needed by good bacteria. Scientists have discovered that the types of microorganisms contained in the intestines and stomach can also affect our brain’s food choices. Therefore, eating the right sugar not only maintains physical and mental health, but also improves intestinal health and reduces the desire to eat sweets, which can be said to have many benefits.

Starting today change your dessert to fruit, respond to the sugar-less life, and change your eating habits. Let your teeth and waistline become healthy together. Not only will you become healthy, but you will also be able to maintain your weight and become beautiful.