Most of us eat too much sweet stuff. And while our collective sugar consumption has been declining, the average American still consumes around 100 pounds a year — the equivalent of more than 300 percent of the recommended daily amount of added sugar. Over time, all that sugar can increase the risk of obesity, hypertension, high cholesterol, and insulin resistance. Sugar can affect various parts of your body in different ways.
— Brain —
Glucose is essential for cognitive function, but too much can lead to dysregulated blood sugar, making you irritable, fatigued, and anxious. Excess sugars may also trigger inflammation that can disrupt mood-regulating neurotransmitters. And sugar trains your brain to crave it by lighting up the brain’s reward center and triggering the release of dopamine, reinforcing those neuropathways. In the long run, higher blood-sugar levels can lead to brain shrinkage, specifically in areas connected to cognition and memory.
— Mouth—
Your body’s first defense against sweets is your oral microbiome — the billions of microbes that begin breaking down sucrose into glucose and fructose. Sugar can erode tooth enamel and raise cavity risk, and it can also upset this microbial balance and lead to oral dysbiosis, which can harm your overall health.
— Heart —
Fats that the liver makes from sugars can be released into the blood, increasing levels of triglycerides and “bad” LDL cholesterol. This can clog your arteries, heighten blood pressure, and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. These circulating fats may also lead to visceral fat accruing around abdominal organs, creating chronic inflammation that can lead to heart disease.
— Liver —
If your liver is overwhelmed by sugar — particularly fructose — it starts to convert it into visceral fat. This can lead to fatty liver disease, also known as Metabolic Syndrome Associated Steatoic Liver Disease (MASLD), which affects about a third of American adults.
— Gut —
The breakdown of glucose and fructose continues in your digestive system. Fructose is difficult to absorb, and this malabsorption can lead to gas, bloating, and irritable bowel syndrome. Sugars can feed yeast and fuel a candida overgrowth in the gut. Too much sugar can also disrupt your gut’s microbiome and damage your intestinal lining, leading to leaky gut syndrome.
— Pancreas —
This organ produces insulin, which helps your body process glucose to fuel your cells. Too much sugar can hamper this operation and lead to insulin resistance. Your pancreas compensates for excess glucose by making more insulin, but eventually it can’t effectively regulate blood-sugar levels. This imbalance can lead to prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.
— Joints —
As your body metabolizes fructose, it creates uric acid. Too much uric acid can lead to the formation of crystals in the kidneys that may become kidney stones. Crystals may also accumulate in your joints, leading to the painful inflammatory arthritis known as gout. Finally, these crystals can also collect in the arteries and harm your heart.
What’s the Sweet Spot for Sugar?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends that no more than 10 percent of your daily calories come from added sugars. If you consume 2,000 calories per day, this works out to a max of 50 grams of added sugars. Other sources recommend far less: The American Heart Association recommends 6 percent — about 30 grams of your 2,000 calories. And for optimum health, some experts believe it should be half that, or about 15 grams per day from all sources.
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