1. Trikha Arun
www.24hscience.com Page 1
1
How much poison you are taking every day?
Abstract: Added sugar is the single largest culprit
responsible for all killer diseases of today. Heart
disease, diabetes, obesity and many other related
diseases are due to large amount of added sugar in our
foods. Processed food labels depict 35 different names
of sugar.People need to be educated and informed
about the toxic effects of sugar.
Added sugar is toxic
Yes I am serious. Definitely you are taking sugar, added
sugar, in coffee, tea, milk, sweets and other beverages.
Do you know how dangerous is added sugar? Sugar
from fruits (natural sugar) is much different from added
sugar. Added sugar is the common refined or the table
sugar or high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Chemically
sugar is sucrose which is made up of two molecules –
glucose and fructose. When we take natural sugar we

2. Trikha Arun
www.24hscience.com Page 2
2
are ingesting lot of water, fiber and nutrients. So sugar
taken by eating an apple is useful while the one from a
teaspoon of table sugar is poisonous. Added sugar is
the single worst ingredient in the modern diet. It
provides calories with no added nutrients and can
damage your metabolism in the long run. Obesity,
diabetes and many cardio vascular diseases are
connected with quality and quantity of sugar.
But how much is too much? Should we avoid
taking sugar at all? It is difficult to find exact numbers
because sources vary on this and there are many
studies in the available literature. According to one study
the average American is taking 76.7 grams per day,
which equals 19 teaspoons or 306 calories.Although this
intake has gone down by 23% between the years 2000
and 2008, mainly because people are more health
conscious but still current intake levels are still very
high and are responsible for major health issues.
What is the safe amount of sugar per day: Human
body is a very complex machine and due to so many
variables it is not possible to specify an exact number
for the sugar intake. But American Heart Association
recommends 9 teaspoons for men and 6 teaspoons for
women per day. Since one teaspoon can hold about 4.5

3. Trikha Arun
www.24hscience.com Page 3
3
grams of sugar these numbers come out to be 40.5 g for
men and 27 g for women. When we look at the number
of calories from these numbers these are good for a
lean, healthy and active person. Most of us will be
surprised to know that there is no need for added
sugar as they don’t serve any physiological purpose.
We get enough sugar from fruits and vegetables. The
less you eat, the healthier you will be. If you are
overweight you should never take added sugar and
avoid processed foods.
Sugar is addictive: Sugar works the same way in the
brain as the drugs of abuse(1). Sugar is noteworthy as
a substance that releases opioids and dopamine and
thus might be expected to have addictive
potential. Sugary junk foods stimulate the same areas in
the brain as drugs of abuse. Those people
who lose control over sugar consumption, have a
history of binge eating, failure at setting rules about your
consumption (like cheat meals / days) and repeated
failures eating in moderation are said to be addicted.
Addiction of any type is dangerous may be smoking,
drinking, gambling etc. Like smoking it is difficult to
completely quit sugar-eating but it is not
impossible. Those with sugar addiction should stay

4. Trikha Arun
www.24hscience.com Page 4
4
away from sugar completely. We should avoid taking
soft drinks, fruit juices, candies, sweets, baked goods,
and fruits in syrup, diet foods to minimize the added
sugar intake. We can use Splenda which is a zero
calorie sweetener. Sugar comes to market in 35 names
like Barley Malt Syrup, Beet Sugar, Brown Rice Syrup,
Brown Sugar Cane Crystals (or, even better, "cane juice
crystals")Cane Sugar, Coconut Sugar, or Coconut Palm
Sugar, Corn sweetener, Corn syrup, or corn syrup
solids, Dehydrated Cane Juice, Dextrin, Dextrose,
Evaporated Cane Juice, Fructose, Fruit juice
concentrate, Glucose, High-fructose corn syrup, Honey,
Invert sugar, Lactose, Malt dextrin, Malt syrup, Maltose,
Maple syrup, Molasses, Palm Sugar, Raw sugar, Rice
Syrup, Saccharine, Sorghum or sorghum syrup,
Sucrose Syrup, Treacle Turbinated Sugar, Xylose. But if
you are addicted to sugar the advice is The less, the
better! Added sugar is so unhealthy that it is probably
the single worst ingredient in the modern diet.
Here are the top 8 reasons to avoid sugar:
1.Added Sugar Supplies a Large Amount of
Fructose:The reason added sugar HFCS is bad for you,
is that it supplies a very large amount of fructose. Sugar
and HFCS both are made of one molecule each of

5. Trikha Arun
www.24hscience.com Page 5
5
glucose and fructose. Glucose is essential and can be
metabolized by pretty much every cell in the body and
provides energy. Fructose, however, is not
essential and only liver can metabolize it. If there is a
large amount of fructose in the liver and it is already full
of glycogen, most of the fructose gets turned into fat.
This process is probably one of the leading causes of
the epidemics of many chronic, Western diseases. This
does NOT apply to fruit, which are a real food with
vitamins, minerals, fiber, lots of water and are very
difficult to overeat on. So if liver goes wrong anything
can happen, be careful!
2. Taking lot of added sugar leads to a disease
called Non alcoholic fatty liver disease. Too much of
fructose deposition in the liver leads to this type of
disease and many other related to it.
3.Cholesterol and triglycerides are unregulated by
added sugar: Most of the fat generated in the liver gets
shipped out as Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) which is
commonly called bad cholesterol. People who drink
fructose-sweetened drink have increased in blood
triglycerides, oxidized LDL (very, very bad),high fasting
glucose and insulin, decreased insulin sensitivity and
increased fat in the abdominal cavity (visceral fat). This

6. Trikha Arun
www.24hscience.com Page 6
6
leads to obesity, heart disease, diabetes and a (short)
lifetime of poor health. All these are serious health
risk factors.
4.Insulin resistance is due to sugar: Pancreas
secretes insulin which directs glucose from the
bloodstream into cells. But when we consume a lot
sugar, the cells tend to become resistant to the effects
of insulin. When this happens, the pancreas start
secreting even more insulin to remove the glucose from
the bloodstream, because elevated blood glucose is
poisonous. But insulin also has another important
function: it tells fat cells to pick up fat from the
bloodstream which become fattier leading to
obesity. This is how insulin obesity. When the body
becomes even more resistant to insulin, the beta cells in
the pancreas eventually become damaged and lose the
ability to produce sufficient insulin. This is how you get
type II diabetes. Excess fructose is a known cause of
insulin resistance and elevated insulin in the blood (2).
5.Sugar gives you affluent diseases: Excess sugar
consumption has been associated with many Western
diseases. These diseases are in contrast to diseases of
the poor. It is estimated that even developing countries
are getting more and more Western diseases due to

7. Trikha Arun
www.24hscience.com Page 7
7
poor health awareness. Sugar is the single largest
contributing factor to the poor health of affluent
nations. Processed foods, refined flour and irregular
work schedule make sick. Sugar has been associated
with: Obesity. Sugar causes weight gain through insulin
and leptin (hunger hormone) resistance.
Diabetes. Sugar is probably a leading cause of
diabetes. Heart disease.
Sugar raises the bad cholesterol and triglycerides that
can ultimately lead to heart disease.
6.Sugar in your brain makes you unsatisfied: Satiety
is a feeling of fullness or satisfaction. Sugar does not
give us a sense of satisfaction in regard to
eating. Hypothalamus is the part of our brain
which regulates our food intake. In a study published in
Journal of American Medical Association(3) two groups
of people were given either a glucose-sweetened drink
or a fructose-sweetened drink. The glucose drinkers
had decreased blood flow in the hypothalamus and felt
satiated, while the fructose drinkers had increased blood
flow in this area of the brain. The fructose drinkers felt

8. Trikha Arun
www.24hscience.com Page 8
8
less satisfied and were still hungry. This finding is
supported by measuring hunger hormone (ghrelin).The
more ghrelin, the hungrier you are (4).
7.Are you sugar-addict: When we eat sugar, dopamine
is released in the brain, giving us a feeling of
pleasure(5). This is actually how drugs of abuse like
cocaine function. Our brain is hardwired to seek out
activities that release dopamine. Activities that release
an enormous amount of it are especially desirable. In
certain individuals with a certain predisposition to
addiction, this causes reward-seeking behavior typical of
addiction to abusive drugs. Many people consume
sugar and other junk foods in a way that is typical for
addictive, abusive compounds.
8.Sugar causes Leptin (hunger) resistance:Leptin is
a hormone that is secreted by our fat cells. The fatter we
have, the more leptin is secreted. This is supposed to
function as a signal to tell the brain that we are full and
need to stop eating. Over weights actually have high
levels of leptin, but the problem is that the leptin isn’t
working. This is called leptin resistance and is a major
reason why people eat more calories than they burn and
become obese. Fructose is a known cause of leptin
resistance, both because insulin blocks leptin signaling

9. Trikha Arun
www.24hscience.com Page 9
9
in the brain and because fructose raises blood
triglycerides which also block the effects of leptin. This
makes our brain think that the fat cells are empty and
you keep eating. Such people have very weak will
power. Sugar has to go to reverse these effects.
[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC223590
7/
[2] http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/49/6/1155.short
[3] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23280226
[4] http://press.endocrine.org/doi/abs/10.1210/jc.2003-
031855
[5] http://www.quantumbalancing.com/news/sugar_blues
.htm