Sugars Role in Diabetes You Must Know About
In today’s world of emerging strange and dreadful diseases, diabetes is an old and quite familiar name you must have heard. Diabetes is a metabolic disorder resulting from elevated blood sugar levels in the body. That makes people wonder that taking a sugary diet is the leading cause of getting it. But sugar’s role in diabetes is not that simple as it seems!
What Causes Diabetes?
Before you get confused about what exactly diabetes is to understand its cause, let me make things simple for you. You might have heard about the word insulin being associated with diabetes all the time. It is a hormone produced by the pancreas that functions to transfer blood sugar into the cells.
Diabetes results when your body stops producing enough insulin to regulate blood sugar levels. It can be a consequence of insulin resistance or both. Certain autoimmune diseases can also become a cause of diabetes as insulin-producing cells are destroyed.
Role of Sugar
You might think about how sugar intake plays a role in getting diabetes or how it affects you if you already have it. So, without wasting more time, let’s get straight into it:
Sugar: The Body’s fuel
Like any machinery, our body also needs a continuous supply of fuel to keep itself working. Glucose is the simplest sugar that serves as a source of energy for the human body. For normal body functioning, we must take a fair amount of sugar in our diets. But our body can also produce it when we are following a low-sugar diet.
If your diet does not contain the required amount of sugars, your energy level will drop for sure. This will make it difficult for you to perform daily life activities, and your mental capabilities are also affected.
Don’t panic! Having an adequate amount of sugars in the diet will not cause diabetes at all. In fact, excessive sugar intake is not the only cause of diabetes as there are several other factors involved like obesity, genetics, overall health conditions, etc.
Can Sugar Cause Diabetes?
At present, diabetes is among the leading causes of death around the globe. According to a survey by WHO, in 2019, diabetes became a cause of death for about 1.5 million people worldwide. Moreover, about 463 million people from all around the world are suffering from it. The number is expected to increase further in the future.
This life-taking disease has so many causes depending upon its types that are as follows:
Diabetes type-1:
It is an autoimmune disorder in which your immune system destroys the cells of the pancreas. This results in the reduced ability of the pancreas to produce insulin. Thus type-1 diabetes has nothing to do with sugar intake, lifestyle, or other such causes, etc. Also, it is a rare form of this disease.
Diabetes type-2:
This type of diabetes is caused when the pancreas stops producing enough insulin that is required normally. It can also result from insulin resistance when your body cells stop responding to insulin. Hence it is related to sugar intake to some extent. Yet, we can’t say a sugary diet is the leading and direct cause of type-2 diabetes.
According to a study conducted in the United States in 2019, 37.7% of people refuse to add sugar to their diet as it is unhealthy. Keep in mind there is not direct sugar’s role in diabetes. If you already have diabetes, consuming an excessive amount of sugars can increase your body weight. Thus, obesity further increases the chance of getting diabetes or even worse it.
Relationship Between Sugar & Insulin Resistance
As we have already discussed, eating sugar does not directly cause type-2 diabetes. Research also supports the fact that there is no apparent relation between sugar intake and the risk of getting diabetes.
In fact, consuming so much sugar as soft drinks and beverages makes you obese. This ultimately increases the risk of diabetes and worsens it by making your body insensitive to insulin. Thus, sugar consumption though indirectly becomes a source of insulin resistance for the human body.
How Much Sugar To Eat In A Day As Diabetic or Non-diabetic?
Considering the above facts and figures, it is clear that eating sugar is not entirely harmful to your health. It is the body’s primary fuel required to perform all the functions energetically and adequately. But you should follow a balanced diet with all the essential nutrients, including sugar, to avoid any risk.
A study conducted in Canada depicts that there will be an increase in the number of diabetics from 624,856 to 923,229 from the year 2016 to 2041. It is merely because of the consumption of sugary drinks and beverages. Thus, whether you are a diabetic or non-diabetic, you must avoid taking extra sugar in your diet. Also, you must be familiar with what not to eat when you have sugar diabetes.
According to American Heart Association (AHA) recommended sugar limit is as follows:
- For men: 36 grams of sugar that present 150 calories is enough for a day.
- For women: Having 25 grams or 100 calories from sugar per day is healthy.
Bottom Line
Nothing in this world can be regarded as useless. Everything has its pros and cons. It depends on us how we use it to get the maximum benefits. Likewise, sugar or sugary food is not harmful until and unless we use it in a balance. We can’t blame just sugars for getting diabetes if our lifestyle and diet are not healthy.
