Sugar addiction: the disease of the 21st century

Soft drinks, industrial pastries, dairy desserts, ketchup, alcoholic beverages… These are all common foods in our western diet: highly caloric, highly palatable and rich in added sugars. To this list could be added, among many others, the cereals that we consume for breakfast, energy drinks, jams, etc.

The food industry makes use of this element so attractive to the human palate, sugar, to enhance the flavor of all these products, eventually causing a clear dependence on these foods processed.

Sugar: a shadow pandemic

The World Health Organization estimates a recommended amount of 25 grams of sugar per day, establishing a maximum limit in adults of 50 grams. However, consumption in Western societies far exceeds this limit, standing at 70 grams per day per person in Spain and 126.4 in the United States (Pablos, 2016).

These rates only include free sugars, that is, those added artificially during food processing. The natural sugars present, for example, in fruit, do not constitute a serious danger.

The effects of irresponsible sugar consumption

The counterproductive effects of this high intake of processed sugars are not limited to simple cavities, but go much further. While in developing countries the main cause of death is disease infectious diseases, in developed countries the vast majority of deaths are due to diseases not transmissible. Among these, the vast majority are aggravated by lifestyle and diet; among them are cardiovascular diseases (stroke, myocardial infarction, etc.) and metabolic diseases, that is, Mellitus diabetes, the obesity, atherosclerosis, hyperlipidaemia and hypertension. The intake of the foods mentioned above and, consequently, the accumulation of excess fat in the body, cause these diseases to worsen (Álvarez-Campillo, 2009).

Faced with this western epidemic of sugar addiction, countries such as the United Kingdom are proposing to tax the consumption of sugary soft drinks with taxes of up to 20%. Others like Hungary establish this rate based on the amount of sugar, fat and salt that the food contains. This measure caused many manufacturers to reduce these ingredients to avoid paying more taxes, resulting in positive changes in the diet of consumers (Galindo, 2016).

If it tastes so good, why does it feel so bad?

In his book The Obese Monkey (2010), José Enrique Campillo Álvarez answers this question from the point of view of Darwinian medicine. This medical approach, also called evolutionary medicine, studies diseases from the context of biological evolution. Assuming that the current "design" of the human being is the result of millions of years of evolution and genetic variation, the disease would occur when it does not adapt to the demands of the environment.

Our ancestors evolved in contexts in which food shortages were chronic, also requiring a large amount of physical exercise to get scarce food. This situation, which occurred over millions of years, caused that, through natural selection, those individuals who had the genetic adaptations necessary to make the most of periods of abundance and resist those of shortage. Among these adaptations, there are those that favor metabolic processes that help the accumulation of fat after eating. Also those that favor the maintenance of these lipid deposits when food is scarce.

The abundance of food, the first step towards denaturation

However, all this has changed since the development of agriculture and livestock farming approximately 15,000 years ago. In contrast to what happened with the scarcity that our ancestors suffered, with the development of these technologies there was an abundance that it had not been seen since our great-great-grandparents the Ardipithecus ramidus lived in lush jungles, full of fruit at their fingertips. This technological development has reached the point mentioned at the beginning of the article.

Today, without expending hardly any energy, we can eat large amounts of food despite the fact that in biology there is a universal law that establishes that every living being needs to "pay" a certain amount of energy through physical activity in order to take something with them. mouth. This is the ideal setting for sugar addiction to appear, because its availability has increased, but the same has not happened with our biological design.

According to Campillo, it seems that, despite the popular saying, we are not what we eat, but rather we are a product of what our ancestors ate. Following the latest scientific research, it is also suspected that the human body requires a a certain amount of physical exercise to achieve normal function and balance homeostatic.

For example, contrary to the general belief that athletes' hearts hypertrophy as As a consequence of the high physical exercise, it would be the organ of the rest of the population that has not acquired the ideal size. For this reason, having our body a design that does not adapt to the circumstances of the current environment, there is an internal shock that gives rise to the diseases of affluence.

What are the diseases of affluence?

Obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, and atherosclerosis often go hand in handTherefore, this group of diseases has been framed within the so-called Metabolic Syndrome linked to sugar addiction. This, in turn, often leads to cardiovascular disease.

A diet with a hypercaloric and unbalanced intake and a sedentary life could lead, for example, to a progressive accumulation of fat. After eating foods that contain sugars, they are metabolized and transformed into glucose, which would be distributed by the body. When there is an excess of glucose that is not used, it is transformed into fat in adipose tissue. This accumulation can become excessive in the belly area, this central obesity being an important risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases.

Type 2 diabetes, whose number of affected will grow to 300 million in 2025, is that which generally appears in adults. It is usually associated with obesity and a sedentary lifestyle. It causes a deficit in the assimilation of sugars in the body, which causes glucose to accumulate in the blood (hyperglycemia) and cannot be used as a source of energy. Insulin, secreted by the pancreas, is responsible for facilitating glucose entering the cells. People with type 2 diabetes develop insulin resistance, causing these problems. In recent times, its incidence in children and adolescents is increasing due to the abuse of sweets and pastries. The main consequence of untreated type 2 diabetes is heart attack and other heart problems.

The term hyperlipidemia refers to an excess of circulating fat in the bloodstream. Faced with the impossibility of its dissolution in the blood, fats travel through the arteries, favoring the appearance of cholesterol deposits on the walls of these. On the other hand, in atherosclerosis, excessive harmful fats form plaques in the arteries. Upon reaching a point of accumulation where the blood can no longer circulate, a heart attack would occur (if it occurs in the arteries of the heart) or a stroke (in an artery of the brain), resulting in the death of the tissue that is affected by not receiving blood.

Finally, hypertension would also affect adults and would be another trigger for cardiovascular diseases, in addition to accelerating atherosclerosis. Its visible symptoms may not appear until late in the disease, when the excessive pressure of the blood will overload the arteries so much that it causes one of them to rupture.

Prevent Metabolic Syndrome

The prospect of suffering from these ailments is not pleasant for any person and, despite this, the vast majority of the population does nothing about it to prevent it. Food education and awareness on these issues by health authorities could help curb, to a certain extent, this epidemic caused by the diseases of affluent societies. Since the human genome has not changed in the last thousands of years, the closer we bring our lifestyle to the biological design of our body, the more our health will thank us for it.

Regarding dietary guidelines, as a doctor Campillo recommends reducing the current daily amount of calories ingested, reducing the intake of fast carbohydrates (sweets), increase the consumption of foods that contain vegetable fiber and reduce that of those with saturated fats and trans fats, in addition to paying special attention to those foods that contain chemicals that can be toxic or pollutants. Regarding physical exercise, to balance the scale, a long-lasting, moderate-intensity activity is recommended. That is, for example, walking for an hour a day at a good pace or jogging for at least 40 minutes between three and four days a week. A good walking distance would be 6 kilometers a day, or 12,000 steps, if you have a step-counter.

In conclusion, despite the short-term temptation caused by the succulent foods that surround us, a looking to the future and a good information base should help us avoid certain excesses unnecessary.

Bibliographic references:

• Campillo, J. (2009). Darwinian medicine of the diseases of affluence. Available in: http://buleria.unileon.es/xmlui/handle/10612/2440

• Campillo, J. (2010). The obese monkey. Barcelona: Criticism.

• Galindo, C. (2016). Can Taxes On Sugary Soda Save Lives?. [online] EL PAÍS.

• Pablos, G. (2016). Liters of sugar... they run through your veins. [online] ELMUNDO.