Evil effect of sucrose

By Lee Yu-hyun

Nowadays I am often astonished to see young people eating beverages sweetened with black sugar. Although it could make a person feel good, black sugar can raise blood glucose levels abruptly. This could be a disaster for their bodies.

I know the harmful effects of sucrose as a dentist and I want to share my knowledge about the “evil” effects of sucrose to prevent diabetes mellitus (DM) which is continuously on the increase in Korea.

All sweets turn into glucose which demands the pancreas secrete insulin. If excessive glucose appears, insulin also should be increased to lower blood glucose levels. But if this homeostasis is above a certain limit, the surface receptors of the cell tend to lose their sensitivity to insulin. This leads to type-2 DM. So, the preventive method of DM is very simple. We have only to follow the old epigram that tells us that we should not eat sweets.

We eat a surfeit of snacks that are full of carbohydrates including bread, cookies, chocolate and sweet beverages. High glucose levels make Streptococcus mutans, the oral cariogenic bacteria, metabolize sucrose to synthesize acid strong enough to melt the hardest tissue in our body. Dentists have said that the most perfect and strong method for preventing caries is to avoid eating sweets.

As glucose enters the cytoplasm, the TCA cycle starts in mitochondria to produce ATP which will supply us with energy. But the cell starvation states where glucose cannot go across cell membranes by insulin resistance in type-2 DM, the switch from carbohydrate metabolism to fat happens. It leads to the acidic environment of cells that can be fatal. This phenomenon is so similar to the mechanism of caries which is induced by strong acid produced from anaerobic bacteria in our mouth.

Surprisingly, the deviated metabolism observed in the caries-producing bacteria and the starved cells in DM patients can take place in cancer cells. This is because cancer cells have a defect in the structure of mitochondria. Since the aim of cancer cells is not in the proper function of cells but in proliferation, their competition with normal cells for grabbing glucose is cruel. Sucrose is the greatest food material to cancer cells for their immortality.

From the time when there was no adequate knowledge about the biochemistry of cells, many dentists have taught that regular meals without snacks, strict avoidance of sweets, and regular tooth brushing are most important to prevention of caries. Furthermore, today this philosophy can be applied to the prevention of DM and cancer from a metabolic approach.

Yesterday I ate roasted three-layered pork which is full of fat without sweet seasoning with my dental colleagues. There is no confectionery even in our cafe.

Lee Yu-hyun (barunee@hanafos.com

) is a dentist and orthodontist since 1999. She is the head of Seoul Barunee Dental Clinic.