Table of Contents
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3
Analysis……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4
High blood pressure…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4
Diabetes……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5
Obesity………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 6
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 7
References………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 8
Appendix……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 9
Cardiovascular Disease Statistics…………………………………………………………………………………………… 9
Introduction
One of the greatest and sweetest charm in most of the delicacies that are consumed worldwide by almost 99.9% of the world population is sugar. It is true that most people even consume sugar unawares. Sugar has a sweet-bitter reputation when it projects to the health states of the consumers. Nutritionists believe that one of the most addictive delicacy that many people succumb to unknowingly and very hard to rehabilitate is sugarcane. Assuming that you are in a better and stable health condition and then be presented with a sugarless coffee or tea, or even a tasteless (sugarless) cake, trust me your tongue won’t hold it for long, before you spiting off to the ground. Sugar naturally occurs in all the available foods that contain even at a little amount, the compound called carbohydrate. Carbohydrate includes, but not limited to fruits, dairy, vegetables, and grains. However, the scientific research found out that consuming the whole foods that carry or contain the “natural sugar” is okay. The foods with “natural sugar” are found to have an important role in the diet of the cancer patient(s) and any individual trying to prevent cancer majorly because they dispense essential nutrient(s) that always strive to keep the body in a healthy state and help prevent the emergence of the disease. Since the human body digests these consumed substances (foods) slowly, the sugar that they contain provides a consistent and a steady supply of energy to the body cells. A considerable intake of fruits, vegetables, grains also has been discovered to reduce significantly the risk of chronic-diseases, such as diabetes, heart diseases, and some type cancers. With all that said it would be fair to explicitly state that sugar is a silent killer. Therefore, this document is mainly focusing on the health problems associated with sugar consumption, the heart disease.
Analysis
Glucose, fructose, galactose are the building blocks of sugar. Sugar in its natural state is a healthy component of the human diet, the problem only comes when people start to consume excess amount of added sugar. Added sugars can be described as those that the food producers or manufactures add to the products to increase some sense of flavor or extend or improve shelf-life. Added sugar is the actual sucrose, as described by (Chen and Whitlock, 2012). The research reveals that when sucrose is consumed no matter in what quantities, during the metabolism, the sugar is converted to fat and stored in the body, to be specific in the linings of the heart. It further proves that there is an association between a high sugar diet and a greater risk of dying absolutely fast from the heart disease. Within the course of a 15 year study, individuals who supposedly got 17% to 21% of their calories from the consumption of the added sugar were found to have a 38% higher risk of succumbing to the cardiovascular disease compared to those individuals who consumed 8% of their calories as added sugar. How the consumption of sugar actually affects the health of the heart is not completely understood, but it occurs to have several incidences of indirect connections, as illustrated in the succeeding paragraphs.
High blood pressure
In most of the European countries the, the most renown or the top sources of added sugar are flavored yogurts, soft drinks, cookies, cereals, cakes, candy and fruit drinks. The research has shown that even in the our daily soups, sugars are present in considerable quantities as well. The linkage between the type of food we consume and the level of calories we consume is wanting. The astonishing fact is that even the scientists themselves haven’t found any outstanding solution to this menace to the present. (Walker, 2014) found out that when the body produces and releases too much of the insulin and leptin into the blood stream in response to a higher carb diet, it initiates the increase in the blood pressure. Hyper-insulinemia raises blood pressure, in part (relatively), by lowering or decreasing the level of sodium and water excretion in the kidney(s), and consequently vasocontristing blood vessels (Barnes, 2017). Hyper-insulinemia may also play an intermediate role in an atherogenesis and, by addendum, atherosclerosis, through the interaction of receptors on the blood-vessel wall. Hyper-insulinemia is also shown to alter and interfere with the lipid metabolism unfavorably a phenomenon which accelerates and highly promotes the oxidative-stress and inflammation. As the insulin levels tend to rise, insulin resistance gradually and eventually develops (Cleave, 2011). If the insulin sensors or receptors are weakened or blunted and the cells become resistant to insulin, the mineral, magnesium can no longer be able to be stored, hence it freely passes out of the body through excretion process. When the magnesium level is too low, blood vessels in the body will be unable to fully relax (ease), this constriction raises blood pressure. Inhibiting of Nitric Oxide is another consequence of excess sugar consumption. Fructose, distinctly, elevates uric-acid, which initiates an increase in blood pressure by preventing the release of the nitric oxide in blood vessels. The oxide is regarded as the most important vasodilator and helps the blood vessels to maintain their elasticity, the suppression of nitric oxide leads to the increases in blood pressure (Medcraveonline.com, 2018). The phrase “ heart disease” is a general term that refers to any disease that affects the heart. According to BONSDORFF (2009), high blood pressure can result to the two main forms of heart diseases; coronary artery and hypertensive heart diseases. Coronary occurs when the vessels that supply the blood to the heart muscle have a build-up of fatty-deposits, causing the hardening of the arteries. This consequently limits the flow of blood to the heart muscle. Over time, this condition will result to a heart attack.
Diabetes
Another health threat that directly results to heart disease according to Cleave (2011) is diabetes; a health hazard that is tightly tied to the consumption of sugar. Diabetes is always differentiated and grouped into two types; type one (1) diabetes, which is resulting from the destruction of the insulin producing cells of the pancreas, normally through the auto-immune process. The core initiators and triggers for this process are still not yet discovered or documented by the health research reports, but the available literature documents that they may include dairy proteins, and viruses (Malhotra, 2016). Type two (2) diabetes explicitly starts with the insulin resistance. Which means that the body cells resist the effort of the insulin to escort glucose into the cells. The resistance seems to be caused by the accumulation of the microscopic fat particles within the muscle and the cells of the liver. This fat is resulting from the oxidation of the glucose in the blood. In an attempt to overcome the insulin resistance, the pancreas always tries to produce extra insulin, and when the pancreas can no longer manage to keep up, the blood sugar is bound to rise. A combination of the resistance of insulin and the failure in pancreatic cell leads to diabetes. Over some period of time, the high blood glucose from diabetes can tamper with and damage the blood vessels and the nerves that manage and control the heart and the vessels. Therefore the longer an individual suffers from diabetes, the higher the chances that he/she will develop heart disease.
Obesity
Aside from the calories it contains, sugar is a highly addictive substance. Some argue it is as addictive as drugs like heroin. When we eat sugar, it causes a neurotransmitter response that makes us feel good, and we experience a mild “high”. Once this feeling subsides, we end up craving it again. Studies are even showing that, like drugs such as heroin, we build up a tolerance to the sugar and end up needing more and more to produce that same high. Therefore, the calories add up and we end up gaining weight. Atherosclerosis is the process that gradually hardens the walls of the arteries, making them lose their elasticity and finally blocks them up or narrows them down to impair blood flow. The blockage is caused by fatty and fibre-like deposits. It is scientifically proven that high body-mass index is inexorably related to atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is so to tell the major underlying cause of cardio-vascular disease. When it infects the heart, it may result to coronary-artery disease and heart-attacks (Walker, 2014). Also, when this infects the brain it causes stroke and finally, when it affects the peripheral-blood vessels, it results to the peripheral artery disease.
Conclusion
From the ongoing discussion, it becomes pretty clear that consumption of sugar in an inconsiderable level is a straight road to an early grave. Heat disease is found to be closely tied to the consumption of sugar. Moreover, sugar is shown to be contained various foods humans consume, both unknowingly or knowingly. Additionally, it realized that sugar consumption is not directly linked to the heart disease, but causes some other disease that consequently results in the heart disease. Diseases such as high blood pressure, weight gain (obesity), and diabetes are cited to be the most common occurrences that directly lead to heart disease in the long run.
References
Barnes, R. (2017). SUGAR AND HEART-DISEASE. The Lancet, 303(7865), p.1054.
BONSDORFF, B. (2009). Less common causes of heart disease. Acta Medica Scandinavica, 100(3-5), pp.320-351.
Chen, Z. and Whitlock, G. (2012). Unveiling the causes of heart disease in China. Heart, 95(22), pp.1818-1819.
Cleave, T. (2011). SUGAR, HEART-DISEASE, AND DIABETES. The Lancet, 303(7856), p.515.
Malhotra, S. (2016). In search of causes of ischaemic heart disease. Heart, 35(1), pp.17-23.
Uddin, M. and Ahmed, M. (2017). The Secret Linkage Amid Sugar and Heart Disease: Is Sugar Truly Foe Rather than Just Friend?. Archives of Medicine, 09 (06).
Walker, A. (2014). SUGAR INTAKE AND CORONARY HEART-DISEASE. The Lancet, 294(7629), p.1071.
Medcraveonline.com. (2018). [Online] Available at: http://medcraveonline.com/JNHFE/JNHFE-04- 00148.pdf [Accessed 10 Apr. 2018].
Appendix
Cardiovascular Disease Statistics
Each year, heart disease is at the top of the list of the country’s most serious health problems. In fact, statistics show that cardiovascular disease is America’s leading health problem, and the leading cause of death. Consider the most recent statistics released by the American Heart Association:
- Approximately 84 million people in this country suffer from some form of cardiovascular disease, causing about 2,200 deaths a day, averaging one death every 40 seconds.
- Almost one out of every three deaths results from cardiovascular disease.
- The direct and indirect costs of cardiovascular disease and stroke are about $315 billion. This figure is increasing every year.
- An estimated 15 million U.S. adults have coronary heart disease.
- Approximately 78 million U.S. adults have high blood pressure, and an estimated 20 million have diabetes.
- It is estimated that an additional 8 million adults have undiagnosed diabetes and 87 million have pre-diabetes.
- Heart failure affects well over 5 million U.S. adults.
- Cardiovascular disease is the cause of more deaths than cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, and accidents combined.
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