94 April 2015 www.womanthismonth.com LIFESTYLE | wellbeing The Bitter Sweet Truth It’s in your energy bar and your kids’ candy floss. And of late, has earned itself a bad reputation. Behnaz Sanjana turns the spotlight on the devil called sugar, making it, well, not so sweet. As you rip open that sweet treat, your heart beats a tad faster. Your eyes become larger and your breath shallower. You anticipate pure pleasure and, when it hits your taste buds, you feel a rush of sweet satisfaction. The story, however, is hardly delightful once that bar of chocolate or doughnut reaches your insides. Read on to know how and why. THE REAL DEAL Dr Bassam Hana, consultant in endocrinology diabetes and metabolic disorders at the Gulf Diabetes Specialist Centre, says the human body needs sugar to convert into energy. Glucose is the sugar circulating in our bloodstream, and is either derived from food or produced by the liver during the night or after meals. The sugar that we add to food is sucrose. “It is refined from natural sources (like beetroot or sugarcane) and comprises two simple sugars: glucose and fructose. This is what we buy off the shelves in the form of white or brown sugar. Contrary to popular belief, there is no difference between the two, except the colour!”, he says. The digestive tract transforms all the sweet stuff you munch on into simple sugar, which is transported into the bloodstream to reach the organs that need it to produce energy (brain, muscles, etc) and the surplus is stocked in the liver to use when needed. All sugar that we don't need to produce energy will be transformed to fat, eventually leading to obesity. Of course, this also depends on the insulin in your body. Researchers say that after you’ve wolfed down a sugar-laden treat, your brain resembles the mind of a drug addict. The sudden spike in dopamine levels reinforces the need for more, causing even more sweet damage. We often find ourselves reaching for that cupcake by mid-morning. “That is due to hypoglycaemia, aka low blood sugar levels,” says Dr Hana. If you find yourself needing a sugar fix way too often, you could blame it on genetics. This is true especially in the relatives of diabetic patients. It is also common with nervous individuals, smokers and caffeine guzzlers. Or even due to overstimulation of insulin secretion if you’ve gorged on a sugary breakfast. Dr Hana suggests having a wholesome
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