Sugar, a substance so sweet. Be it breakfast or dinner, sugar remains one of the most consumed items on the table. From powdered sugar, bread, chocolate bars, rice, ice cream, etc, sugar is thought to be a major cause of diabetes. But is that really true?
When we eat food, the body breaks it down into tiny particles called glucose (energy). This goes into the bloodstream. When glucose levels are high in the blood, the brain signals your pancreas to release a hormone called insulin. Insulin acts like a key and opens up gates in your gut to allow this glucose to enter your cells with their essential functions.
Diabetes, a killer disease, is a long term condition in which the body cannot utilize glucose as efficiently as it should. When one has diabetes, it's either you are not producing enough insulin or the gates are non sensitive to insulin (i.e. insulin can't open them). This summarizes the two common types of diabetes one could have; Type 1 and Type 2. The former is autoimmune as in your body attacks your cells producing insulin, and the latter could be inherited or provoked by obesity, unhealthy diet, and poor lifestyle. People living with diabetes mostly experience excessive hunger, and thirst, urinate often and lose weight.
Diabetes was then thought of as the disease of the rich then since the poor could not afford refined sugar, however, poor people are its major victims. In a recent study by the WHO, diabetes is the number one cause of lower limb amputations surpassing road traffic accidents. In simple terms, people lose their legs more from diabetes than accidents.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were about 56 million deaths worldwide. Out of this number, people died throughout the world; 620,000 due to human violence (war and crime) and 1.5 million died of diabetes. "Sugar is now more dangerous than gunpowder".
[Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow]
Does the sugar I put in my tea or porridge cause diabetes? Most of the sugar we eat is free sugar i.e. goes into your blood directly. But that doesn't equate to diabetes as diabetes as explained is a long term condition. However, one needs to be careful with the sugar they take on daily.
The National Health Service (NHS) recommends 7 sugar cubes per day for adults, 6 sugar cubes per day for children aged 7 to 10, and 5 sugar cubes per day for children aged 4 to 6. That's not a lot of sugar if you ask me.
What do you do to stay away from diabetes?
Although there are no clear preventative strategies for Type 1 DM, Type 2 could be prevented. Limit your sugar intake mein. It doesn't have to taste like honey for you to drink it 馃槀. Exercise and eat healthy. Don't feed on junk and don't eat late.
I hope you have this writeup educative.
Thank you 馃構
