Sugar: It’s Killing Your Body’s Ability To Recover
By Johnny Bouchard (Ms, CFL3, LMT)
Yes! I know candy on your co-workers desk is tempting, and those free doughnuts in the break room are so good you can’t say no. You’ve been telling yourself that you are going to stop eating sugar forever, and this week, I have good news: I am going to give you the mental ammo you need to quit eating these sweet little killers forever (said all slow like the kid on the Sandlot).
The truth is that scientists and health experts consider refined sugar to be a slowing-acting poison that kills us and limits our recovery in these seven ways.
1. Sugar Kills Our Recovery By F*cking Our Bodies Energy Creation & Storage Abilities
Refined sugar consumption rapidly increases blood glucose levels, prompting the pancreas to release insulin. Having excess insulin in the bloodstream causes us to become insulin-resistant, which leads to type 2 diabetes. (Johnson et al., 2009). To that point, a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that individuals consuming 25% or more of daily calories from added sugar were twice as likely to develop Type 2 diabetes compared to those consuming less than 10% (Yang et al., 2014). Americans, on average, get 58% of their calories from ultra-processed foods that contain refined sugar.
Additionally, fructose, a key component of processed sugar, is metabolized in the liver. When consumed in excess, it is converted into fat, contributing to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) (Vos et al., 2008). Research in The Journal of Hepatology found that fructose consumption was a leading cause of NAFLD, even in individuals without obesity (Softic et al., 2020).
If your energy systems don’t work correctly, YOU CAN’T HEAL! The liver & insulin sensitivity plays a crucial role in injury recovery due to its involvement in metabolism, detoxification, immune response, and tissue repair.
2. Chronic Refined Sugar Consumption Causes Cardiovascular Disease
A 15-year cohort study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that individuals consuming more than 25% of daily calories from sugar had a 38% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease (Yang et al., 2014).
Excess sugar intake raises triglycerides, lowers HDL (“good” cholesterol), and contributes to arterial plaque formation, increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes (DiNicolantonio et al., 2016) and, at a minimum, clogging up your vascular system. The heart plays a key role in injury recovery by efficiently ensuring that oxygen, nutrients, immune cells, and repair factors reach damaged tissues. If you eat a ton of sugar that impairs your heart, you will not heal.
3. Consuming Refined Sugar Makes Us Fat & Keeps Us Fat
Sugar disrupts leptin (the hormone that makes us feel full) and ghrelin (the hormone that makes us feel hungry) regulation, leading to overeating and weight gain (Müller et al., 2015). The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that liquid sugar calories (from sodas and fruit juices) lead to more significant weight gain than solid sugar calories because they fail to trigger the same satiety response (Malik et al., 2010).
Being overweight can significantly affects injury recovery by influencing circulation, inflammation, metabolism, and overall healing capacity. It impairs mobility and immune response and strains your joints and soft tissues. Excess sugar consumption will make you overweight and impair recovery.
4. Chronic Refined Sugar Consumption Causes Brain Disease (like Alzheimer’s)
Type 3 Diabetes is the name given to Alzheimer’s these days because of its connection to insulin resistance in the brain (de la Monte & Wands, 2008), which is often caused by chronic refined sugar consumption. The brain is the central regulator of all our functions; if it’s impaired from excessive sugar consumption, we will not recover.
5. Refined Sugar Kills Our Immune System & Slows Healing
Excess refined sugar consumption suppresses the immune system by reducing white blood cell activity several hours after consumption (Sanchez et al., 1973). High glucose levels even impair neutrophil function, making us more susceptible to infections (Kjer-Nielsen et al., 2012). This one is obvious, but the immune response is muted. You will not heal from injuries, and the effects of working out may be null.
6. Refined Sugar Causes Inflammation, Which Leads To Arthritis & Slow Tissue Repair
High sugar intake leads to chronic low-grade inflammation (Lustig et al., 2012), activating pro-inflammatory cytokines and increasing the risk of arthritis and autoimmune diseases. Chronic inflammation also causes impaired collagen production, leading to weaker tissue repair (Hotamisligil, 2006)
Again, if you eat lots of sugar, no amount of medical laser, sauna, cold plunge, or dry needling will help you get rid of the chronic inflammation that causes arthritis and slow healing. The only solution is to get off the sweet killers.
7. Excess Refined Sugar Causes Disease, Like Cancer, To Grow Like Weeds
Cancer cells thrive on glucose, and high sugar consumption has been linked to increased cancer risk (Vander Heiden et al., 2009). Excessive sugar consumption has also been proven to fuel tumor growth in colorectal cancer patients (Dai et al., 2020). Sugar not only slows our bodies’ ability to heal but also fuels disease. If our system is bogged down trying to fight a disease, there is no chance we’ll recover from an injury or training.
Conclusion: Sugar Kills Your Bodies Ability To Repair & Recover
Candy, cookies, cakes, soda, breakfast cereals, ice cream, sports drinks, cane sugar, and canned fruits are not FOOD. Although they are not acutely toxic like arsenic, they are slow-acting metabolic poisons. These foods do not fuel energy creation or healing; they kill you by decreasing your insulin sensitivity and overloading your liver, increasing systemic inflammation, ruining your vascular function, impairing your brain, and making you diseased so you cannot heal. Refined sugar also increases the risk of conditions like arthritis and autoimmune diseases.
That candy on your co-workers desk or the doughnuts in the break room will not make you stronger, faster, healthier, more intelligent, or better. It will kill you like a python, very slowly and painfully.
So next time someone offers you that bullshit, don’t let yourself feel guilty when you say NO.
Stand up and be resilient because you are the only person who owns your health; the government, your doctor, your spouse, and your kids are not going to save you. Only you can do that.
That said, sometimes, we need a sherpa to help us navigate this difficult path. If you are struggling to get off sugar and let your body heal, you need our dietician, Shaw Pitcher. He is relentless in his pursuit of driving his clients to better health. If you need Shawn, book a free consultation HERE.
Data Sources
- Avena, N. M., Rada, P., & Hoebel, B. G. (2008). Evidence for sugar addiction: Behavioral and neurochemical effects of intermittent, excessive sugar intake. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 32(1), 20-39.
- Dai, W., Wang, F., Lu, J., et al. (2020). High sugar consumption fuels colorectal cancer growth. Nature Communications, 11, 3247.
- de la Monte, S. M., & Wands, J. R. (2008). Alzheimer’s disease is type 3 diabetes–evidence reviewed. Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology, 2(6), 1101-1113.
- DiNicolantonio, J. J., Lucan, S. C., & O’Keefe, J. H. (2016). The evidence for saturated fat and sugar related to coronary heart disease. Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, 58(5), 464-472.
- Hotamisligil, G. S. (2006). Inflammation and metabolic disorders. Nature, 444(7121), 860-867.
- Johnson, R. J., Segal, M. S., Sautin, Y., et al. (2009). Potential role of sugar (fructose) in the epidemic of hypertension, obesity, and the metabolic syndrome. Hypertension, 53(4), 591-598.
- Malik, V. S., Schulze, M. B., & Hu, F. B. (2010). Intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and weight gain: A systematic review. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 92(4), 827-834.
- Morris, M. C., Tangney, C. C., Wang, Y., et al. (2017). MIND diet slows cognitive decline with aging. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 9, 149.
- Sanchez, A., Reeser, J. L., Lau, H. S., et al. (1973). Role of sugars in human neutrophilic phagocytosis. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 26(11), 1180-1184.
- Softic, S., Meyer, J. G., Wang, G. X., et al. (2020). Dietary sugars alter hepatic lipids and fuel metabolism independent of obesity. Journal of Hepatology, 73(3), 951-960.
- Vander Heiden, M. G., Cantley, L. C., & Thompson, C. B. (2009). Understanding the Warburg effect: The metabolic requirements of cell proliferation. Science, 324(5930), 1029-1033.
- Yang, Q., Zhang, Z., Gregg, E. W., et al. (2014). Added sugar intake and cardiovascular diseases mortality among US adults. JAMA Internal Medicine, 174(4), 516-524.
