Ice cream, tiramisu, Black Forest cake: these sweets disappear on your tongue in a matter of seconds, but then you have them on your hips for years. It is well known that sugar makes you fat. But now more and more people are saying that sugar can also impair your thinking and even cause Alzheimer’s. Is that true?
Author: Irène Dietschi
19.09.2024, 09:03
Sugar is actually the fuel that our brain needs – we cannot think without it. But we know from experience with diabetes that too much sugar is harmful to the brain in the long term: in this disease, blood sugar regulation does not work or is inadequate.
The basics of sugar metabolism
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Sugar is a carbohydrate and is the body’s most important source of energy. Carbohydrates can be differentiated according to the length of the molecular chain: Simple sugars such as fructose and glucose are immediately absorbed into the blood. Crystal sugar is a disaccharide and also enters the blood relatively quickly. With complex sugars, the body takes longer to break down the carbohydrates. Complex sugars are found in starchy foods such as potatoes, rice or bread.
Through digestion – or more precisely, the small intestine – the broken down sugar enters the blood as so-called glucose (simple sugar). The glucose concentration in the blood is referred to as the “blood sugar level”. The hormone insulin, produced in the pancreas, ensures that the sugar (glucose) is transported from the blood into the cells, where the body needs it as fuel. Excess glucose can be stored in the form of glycogen in the muscles and liver and retrieved when needed.
In diabetes, this regulation of blood sugar levels is disturbed because the body does not produce insulin (type I) or the insulin produced is not properly utilized by the body (type II). In both cases, the result is a blood sugar level that is too high. Diabetes medications such as metformin ensure that blood sugar levels are lowered.
“Chronically high blood sugar levels are a risk,” explains Reto Kressig, Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Basel. Poorly treated diabetics quickly develop vascular problems with heart attacks and strokes, “and they generally have an increased risk of dementia.”
The data situation is thin
Sugar is hidden in many foods – jam, soft drinks, ready meals, yoghurt, muesli and much more. White bread and grapes also cause blood sugar levels to skyrocket.
The WHO sugar recommendation
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According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a person’s daily sugar consumption should not exceed 50 grams. According to the WHO, even just 25 grams would be better. In western countries without a sugar tax, the effective figure is more like 100 grams per day per person.
But is sugar really poisonous for the brain? Also for non-diabetics, as is discussed in some nutrition bubbles?
Recently, an overview analysis This shows that the impact of sugar on the brain has hardly been systematically investigated so far. “The data is surprisingly thin,” says Adrian Rufener, lecturer at the Bern University of Applied Sciences and president of the Swiss Association of Nutrition Consultants.
There is some evidence that too much sugar can have a lasting effect on the brain. Two observational studies on unborn babies and small children have found a connection between excessive sugar consumption (in the case of unborn babies, by their mothers) and later intellectual impairment. “However, these are correlations – not causal relationships,” says Adrian Rufener. This means that whether sugar actually has the Caused It has not been proven that it is responsible for intellectual disability and thus makes people “stupid”.
Low-sugar diet protects the brain
Conversely, however, it is becoming increasingly clear that low sugar Nutrition has cognitive benefits. “It requires discipline, but it can be worthwhile for the brain,” says geriatrician Reto Kressig.
The Mediterranean diet, which contains lots of vegetables and proteins but very few sweets, has proven to be particularly beneficial.
There is a specially derived “formula” of foods for cognitive fitness, says Kressig.The ten-year observational study MIND has shown that if you follow this diet consistently, the risk of Alzheimer’s is reduced by half.
Miracle pill Metformin?
For some, however, this diet and giving up sweets is too much trouble: they prefer to take a pill. The diabetes drug Metformin, originally developed in the 1930s, not only reliably lowers blood sugar. Studies have shown that it also reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Now this effect is also being investigated in non-diabetics, in a large-scale study called TAMEHowever, many people simply get the drug prescribed off-label – to do something good for themselves, and without waiting for the results of TAME. A practice that geriatrician Reto Kressig does not recommend.