Excessive sugar drives dementia and stroke

Excessive sugar drives dementia and stroke particularly when accompanying a highly-refined carb diet which also floods the portal blood stream with glucose.

When highly trained scientists speak frankly we should at least weigh what they are saying before we reject their findings out of hand. Will you and perhaps more importantly, could you for ever cut your sugar consumption to under 10 tsp per day?

At the 2024 conference on World Brain Day (July, 22) president Dr Frank Erbguth explained that lavish sugary meals and constant snacking on the side overloads the system with glucose; fueling the development of stroke and dementia.

The average German is consuming double the recommended amount of sugar; consequently 250,000 people are diagnosed with dementia each year.

High sugar levels damage the inner lining of capillary vessel walls in the brain; inflammation and deposits restrict the flow of blood.

In addition when sugar attaches to an aminoglycan in the brain it directly impairs cognition.

Anecdote

Ten years after the diagnosis of diabetes the risk of dementia is more than double according to Harvard Health^[1].

Largely avoiding sugar

Professor Peter Berlit from the German Society of Neurology recommends doing our level best to avoid all sugar. Just one teaspoon sends signals to the brain via the vagus nerve causing a strong craving for more.

He points out that very few of us can eat just one square of chocolate; soon the whole bar is consumed.

Each square is reinforced by the release of dopamine, the "feel-good hormone;" after even small amounts of sugar it leads to the desire for more.

Difficulties

I do have some difficulties with this research. But I do understand that medical scientists are trying to get a message across; sugars from all sources in large amounts are toxic.

So they want to keep it simple.

Fruit

They state that those 50 grams of sugars per day should include any fruit consumed. That would mean that eating an apple which contains 18 g of mainly fructose would be very unhealthy.

That's in stark contrast with a powerful met-analysis that an apple a day significantly decreases the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Honey

They also state that those 50 grams of sugars should include any honey consumed.

But they make no reference to the fact that natural honey has a low GI; and it actually lowers fasting blood glucose. But to be honest it's difficult to find unless you know a local beekeeper.

So they make a blanket statement blackening all sources of sugars. But I'm quite certain that if we were to button-hole these professors they would be quick to deny that meant refraining from eating apples. I wonder if they know about this research by another group of German scientists^[3] about some honey varieties in their homeland.

Refined carbs

Refined carbs also release large amounts of glucose into the blood stream; exacerbating the effect of any sugar consumed. Just one slice of chocolate cake for example contains 50 grams of sugar and starch.

Chronic over-consumption of refined carbs including sugar is the true cause of T2 diabetes; and the associated risk of dementia and stroke.

Whole meals

We also should be considering the effect of the whole meal. For example, if it contains large amounts of fibre, stomach emptying is delayed and blood glucose will not rise to the same extent if we treat ourselves with a bar of chocolate.

That slice of chocolate cake contains only 2g of fibre; very little. There is no satiety; your hypothalamus will demand a second slice and an hour later a third.

• Feeling of fullness after eating
  

It's no coincidence that we would normally enjoy dessert at the end of the meal. A high fibre dinner would ameliorate the affect of all that glucose, be it from carbs, sugar or fruit.

Taste

One of the great dilemmas is that refined carbs like flour and grits have almost no taste once the germ and bran have been extracted; so typically large amounts of sugar and salt are added.

Try making a chocolate cake with no sugar!

The nutrients that give starches their aroma and taste are found in the bran and germ; extract them and all that's left is empty highly-glycaemic carbs.

The fragrance from these volatile nutrients when grains are being milled is one of the delights very few people ever will experience.

Try smelling cake flour.

Exercise

Excessive sugar drives dementia and stroke. That's no doubt true but they make no mention in this report of how short brisk walks after sweet treats ameliorates the rise in blood glucose.

In other research^[4] recently published inactive diabetics who sit more than 8 hours per day have a 74% increased risk of all-cause mortality; but if they took just a daily 20 minute brisk walk, this was completely nullified.

Walking, high fibre foods and chewing

My own pet theory is that we subconsciously think that the time spent walking and chewing is wasted. The consequences are dire; chronically raised blood glucose.

• Chew your food thoroughly
  

Preparing and eating a fibre-rich diet takes planning and perhaps as much as an extra hour per day for one person in the family; add to that a 20 minute walk.

Either someone in the family makes time for good food and exercise or we should start planning for a lot more consulting doctors and pharmacists; and perhaps losing our marbles or having a stroke.

Sugar substitutes

Despite the FDA having approved many non-nutritive sweeteners such as saccharin and sucralose, the overwhelming evidence in the literature is that they are definitely not a healthy alternative to sugar.

They negatively affect the microbiome in the intestines, those friendly bugs that protect us against chronic inflammation. They increase mutations of E. Coli the bacterium associated with dementia.

They also contribute to antibiotic resistance.

One study has found that rather than improving blood sugar that saccharin and sucralose actually are associated with worsened glycemic control.

There are repeated studies showing that these non-nutritive sweeteners damage the epithelium in the intestine and contribute to leaky gut syndrome^[6].

There is no safe alternative to sugar; if we want to avoid these chronic painful inflammatory diseases we have to pull the sweet tooth.

Excessive sugar drives dementia and stroke; and many other inflammatory diseases.

Babies and toddlers

Researchers have found that 44% of products for babies and toddlers in the US do not comply with WHO sugar standards^[7]. Perhaps worse virtually all of the 651 products examined made claims prohibited by the "Nutrient and Promotion Profile Model."

14 modifiable risk factors

Of course there are many other risk factors involved in dementia. Scientists have found 14 lifestyle and dietary modifiable changes that we can make to drastically reduce the chances of losing our marbles.

• Cut dementia by nearly a half

Excessive sugar drives dementia and stroke

Excessive sugar drives dementia and stroke; less than 10 tsp per day.

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