A cold sweet ice cream sundae or a bar of chocolate can give you a much-needed boost for a boring chore or a difficult test. and sometimes it’s the only thing that makes you feel better after a stressful day. But what happens after a few hours? When all that sugar rush has died down?
Sudden cravings of sweet sugary indulgence are inevitable and happen to the best of us but that doesn’t mean you should always give in. Whether you’re a health freak or not, everyone knows that too much sugar is bad for you. That doesn’t stop us from experiencing a sugar rush every now and then. A sugar rush is a brief burst of energy experienced after the consumption of a lot of sugar. These only last about 30-40 minutes and they actually do more harm than good.
After the buzz, the body will produce high doses of insulin to combat the sugar high. Once your sugar level has lowered, it’ll make you feel hungry even after you’ve eaten. The contradictory part of this sugar rush is that even though it provides you with energy, digesting sugar also requires more energy, hence leaving you lethargic and fatigued. Other symptoms include irritability, anxiety, headaches, jitters, and dizziness.
A sugar crash can cause a person to be distracted and lack any motivation to be productive. And it only gets worse for those who have diabetes.
The constant lethargy, undying thirst, and hunger can be signs of too much sugar. Besides, sugar doesn’t have the nutrients you need so more consumption of it could leave you with malnutrition. Other than that, excess sugar means more calories which can lead to weight gain in the form of fat. It’s common knowledge that sugary foods have a lot of calories but they also don’t have any nutrients, so it takes more of it to feel full.
This whole cycle of sugar, weight gain, and glucose levels seem to get worse only. When you’re obese, your cell becomes resistant to the normal effects of insulin and struggles to absorb glucose to use as energy. This makes your pancreas go berserk and it starts to produce more insulin. But despite the efforts of the pancreas, the cells do not respond. Leaving you with high glucose levels and high insulin that doesn’t work. This is how type 2 diabetes is developed.
Lastly, there are simple ways to fix the after-effects of a sugar rush. The body needs proteins to balance out the glucose levels so eating proteins instead of carbohydrates are necessary. And avoiding sugary foods should be on the top of your list. You should have a balanced diet so that you don’t lack any nutrients, especially if you’re a teenager. All in all, a sugar rush will not help you be more productive, it will only make your day worse.
Sugar is a lot like a drug, in the sense that it creates a surge of feel-good chemicals like dopamine and serotonin. And just like a drug, you will start to crave more and more of the same substance that makes you feel good. this just gives you another reason to be more mindful of what you eat, after all, you only have one body!
Until Next Time,
Team Doctor ASKY!