Sugar can be associated with excess calories and weight gain but does anyone here have any other experience or evidence of sugar causing other health problems?
This is my tale with sugar:
I was 10 when I started my period. I sailed through my teenage years with no issues except for some slight cramping in the tummy and tiredness.
I was about 24 or 25 years old when my period became a little bit more problematic. I was in work and at the time I was in a factory. I was working at the bench. My tummy was sore with tummy cramps and I needed to go to toilet and a number 2 in the toilet relieved the cramping pain. I was on my period. Over the course of the day, I had several more episodes along with some nausea. By about 2 or 3pm that day, I had to excuse myself from work and ask to go home early because I wasn't feeling well.
My period and tummy cramp problems were on and off over the next few more years. By age 31 or 32 or so I began to experience more tummy cramping but this time around about ovulation time as well. As time went on, tummy cramps came around with ovulation time and then sometimes period times and then sometimes both times. There were some nights through the years where I was kept awake at night and I was up and down to the toilet with several episodes a night. Some months were better than others.
2020 came. The coronavirus virus emerged. Then news came out about obesity and the virus. I used that news and the lockdown to make some changes in my lifestyle. I cleaned up the diet and I exercised more. I enjoyed it.
Then something happened in the middle of July. I got some bad news. Not related to the virus or sickness. I also had some stress at work. I began to fall backwards with my clean eating. I delevoped intense cravings for trash/sugar foods like chocolate and biscuits especially jaffa cakes. I picked up a habit I never had before and some nights I would eat a row of jaffa cakes. I never had that habit before.
Then August I experienced some intense cramping in my tummy at both ovulation time and period time. It was then that I thought - I wonder if the cramps are related to the sugar intake. It was because from March onwards, I had some slight cramping but nothing major. Them months were a breeze with tummy cramps.
From that point in August, I decided, no lore sugar and I made a concise effort to avoid sugary snacks and trash. I cleaned up my diet more. Now, if I feel like chocolate I go for dark chocolate and that satisfys me.
I had 2 periods since then and I'm just after another they were all a breeze and a walk in the park. That also includes ovulation time. This is the first time in a long time where I've gone through 3 months relatively pain and cramp free during my periods. The most debilitating thing was the episodes of tummy cramps needing toilet and number 2, over and over and over again for 2 or 3 or 4 days at a time.
It's probably still too early to associate it all with sugar but I think there's something working in my favour for me.