How Sweets Impact Your Health: The Surprising Truth

Numerous individuals link consuming sugary foods to gaining weight, becoming obese, experiencing kidney problems, and related health concerns. Is this accurate? (Linh, 28, Hanoi)

Answer:

Not only do sweets contribute to weight gain and diabetes, but they also pose a serious danger to kidney function. Consuming excessive amounts of sugar can lead to metabolic conditions and obesity—major contributors to type 2 diabetes. Diabetes along with these metabolic problems frequently cause harm to blood vessels, such as those delivering blood to the kidneys, thereby greatly raising the likelihood of developing chronic kidney disease.

Easy-to-make cakes topped with raspberries. Illustrated image from Pexels

Drinking significant quantities of glucose enhances the uptake of sodium within the small intestine, resulting in an accumulation of salt inside the body. This causes the kidneys to exert more effort in removing the additional salt, which eventually may lead to kidney stress .

Moreover, sugar hinders the creation of nitric oxide (NO), a substance responsible for helping blood vessels expand and relax. Consuming excessive amounts of sugar can result in narrowed blood vessels, increasing blood pressure and contributing to kidney disorders. This condition might speed up the worsening of long-term kidney damage. In particular, fructose has been shown to elevate calcium and oxalate concentrations in urine, encouraging the development of calcium oxalate particles, which could cause kidney stones. Should these stones go unnoticed, they have the potential to block the urinary system and significantly affect kidney performance.

To protect kidney health It is recommended to restrict consumption of sweet items such as soft drinks, boba milk tea, pre-packaged fruit juices, candies, chocolates, biscuits, and other sugary treats. Moreover, dried fruits, canned fruits, and ready-made sauces should be eaten carefully because they may contain significant amounts of sugar.

Alternatively, choose fruits with lower sugar content, including limes, passionfruit, oranges, grapefruits, apples, and papayas. For additional benefits to kidney function, decrease your daily sugar consumption, keep a balanced body weight, manage glucose levels and hypertension, engage in consistent physical activity, refrain from tobacco use, and restrict alcoholic drinks.

Dr. Doan Du Manh

Vice Director of the Cardiovascular and Stroke Center at Phuong Dong General Hospital