Why You Should Avoid Sugar in Milk?

Why you should avoid sugar in milk?

The most precise answer to the above question would be, milk has enough natural sugar and adding more would expose us to serious health hazards.

Besides sugar, you should also avoid these 10 foods with milk.

Now, let’s have a look at some reasons why you should not add artificial sugar in milk.

About Sugar Presents in Milk

Sugar is an integral part of all kinds of milk, dairy or non-dairy.

These natural sugars constitute the carb content of milk and also add light sweetness to it. You must have noticed that milk tastes slightly sweet even when we drink it without adding sugar or any other sweetener.

The sugar in human breast milk and cow milk comes mainly from lactose or milk sugar.

In non-dairy milk variants such as soy milk, rice milk, coconut milk, etc. the sugar is present in much simpler forms. Examples include maltose, sucrose, fructose, glucose, or galactose.

Why Doctors Advise to Avoid Sugar in Milk?

It is impossible to deny that nothing feels more satiating than gulping up some sugary substance at the end of a stressful day. It can be a chocolate bar, a candy, and also a glassful of milk with two spoonsful of sugar.

Such actions will definitely make you feel good thanks to the rise in dopamine level it triggers. However, it will do little good to your current and future health.

Here are a few reasons why doctors ask us to avoid adding sugar to milk and reduce our daily sugar intake as much as possible.

Sugar Results in Fluctuation of Blood Glucose Levels

Fluctuation in blood glucose levels may lead to headaches, fatigue, and mood swings.

People with unstable blood sugar might also experience constant cravings and end up engaging in unhealthy binging.

Studies have shown that individuals practicing controlled sugar intake experience fewer cravings and remain more energized and emotionally balanced.

Sugar Triggers Weight Gain and Increases Chance of Getting Heart Disease and Diabetes

If you consume excess sugar as a part of your daily diet, you will be at greater risk of becoming a victim of diabetes, heart diseases, and obesity.

What’s more, some modern-day studies have even established link between high sugar intake and different types of cancer.

It can Impair your Immune Function

We drink milk to enhance our physical strength and boost our immunity. This ability of milk will be reduced significantly or eliminated completely if you drink it after adding some sugar.

Sugar is known to interfere with the functioning of our immune system.

Yeast bacteria, and other gut microbes feed on sugar. When we consume too much of glucose, these organisms grow in number and result in infections.

You might Develop Chromium Deficiency

The trace mineral chromium plays a crucial role in regulating our blood sugar levels.

It’s true that a large number of plant-derived foods, seafood, and meats contain chromium is high quantity. However, still many of us fail to sufficient amount of the mineral from our meals.

This happens primarily because of the refined starches we consume every day. This makes eliminating sugar (and other refined starches like flour, white rice, etc.) from our daily diet extremely important.

Sugar Speeds Up the Aging Process

Other than messing up our body composition, sugar may also spoil our skin condition by triggering skin aging.

If you take too much of sugar, your chances of getting wrinkles, saggy skin, age spots, etc. at an early age will increase significantly.

When sugar enters our bloodstream, it gets attached to the proteins.

This blend of sugar and protein in our bloodstream results in loss of skin elasticity. This eventually results in premature aging.

Sugar Leads to Tooth Decay

Sugar is the main reason why we experience decaying of our teeth.

When sugar get stuck in our teeth, it decays them more efficiently than all other food items. This can happen to people of all ages from infants to elderly individuals.

Other than reducing your sugar intake, you should also maintain good oral hygiene to prevent problems like toothache and abscess tooth.

Brush your teeth twice every day so that sugar or any other food particle cannot fuel bacteria and plaque.

Sugar Induced Gum Disease can Trigger Certain Heart Ailments

Several researches conducted in the past few years have shown that some chronic infections might be responsible for causing heart ailments. Examples include dental infections.

According to experts, the reason behind such connection is the natural inflammatory response of human body to infections.

The good news is that such events can easily be avoided by taking good care of your oral and overall health. Eliminating sugar from your diet would make the job easier for you.

Impairs Cognitive Health of Children

During a study conducted a few years back, public schools in New York City reduced sugar intake of their students both during breakfast and lunches.

This change increased academic ranking of those students by 15.7%. What makes this number really special is that the biggest improvement seen before that was of just 1.7%.

Here, it must be noted that the study also stopped adding flavoring agents, preservatives, and artificial colors in the meals served to students.

Makes Stress Management Difficult

These days, it has become almost impossible to remain stress-free. The key lies in how we manage the stress.

When we are stressed, our body quickly moves into a fight or flight mode and starts releasing hormones in large amounts.

What’s surprising is that our body tends to react in a similar fashion when our blood sugar levels drop.

When we consume something sweet, our stress hormones start compensating by increasing the blood sugar levels. This leads to irritability, unexplained anxiousness, shakiness, etc. and makes managing stress extremely difficult for us.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that there’s no need of adding sugar to milk. It’s neither needed for taste nor for increasing the nutritional value of the drink.

If you are still interested in making your glass of milk sweeter, we would advise you to add a teaspoon of honey, Jaggery or Rock Sugar to it.

References:

https://www.webmd.com/diabetes/features/how-sugar-affects-your-body

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/sugar-in-milk#The-health-effects-of-sugar-in-milk