Added sugar isn’t instantly destructive to growth, but it absolutely can be harmful to your body over time, especially if you consume a lot of it daily. During puberty, your body is building muscle, bone, hormones, and skin tissue at a very fast rate. Sugar doesn’t stop you from growing taller, but high amounts can interfere with how healthy that growth is. It affects insulin levels, inflammation, fat storage, and skin quality. That is why most major health organizations like the American Heart Association and the World Health Organization recommend limiting added sugar, especially for teens.
When you eat foods high in added sugar especially things like soda, candy, pastries, or sweetened drinks your body absorbs that sugar very quickly. This causes a rapid spike in blood glucose, and your pancreas releases insulin to move that sugar into cells. If this happens occasionally, your body handles it just fine. But when it happens repeatedly every day, several longterm effects can devlop.
One of the biggest changes is insulin resistance. Over time, your cells become less responsive to insulin because they’re constantly exposed to high levels of sugar. That means your body has to produce more insulin to do the same job. This is the early pathway toward conditions like Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Research summarized by organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Diabetes Association shows that frequent intake of sugarsweetened beverages is strongly associated with higher risk of insulin resistance and diabetes over time.
Another effect happens in the liver. Large amounts of fructose (a component of many added sugars, especially high fructose corn syrup) are processed primarily in the liver. When intake is high, the liver converts excess fructose into fat. This can contribute to fatty liver, even in young people, and can increase triglycerides in the blood. That’s one reason diets very high in added sugars are linked to increased abdominal fat and long term metabolic problems.
There’s also a wholebody effect called chronic inflammation. Diets high in refined sugar and ultra processed foods tend to increase inflammatory signals in the body. That inflammation can affect skin (more acne), energy levels (more crashes), and recovery from exercise.
In my opinion, it is literally poison. Why are you eating candy/soda/dessert when you can be eating what God made for you? Fruit? Any fruit is the real sugars the body needs - and its unacceptable these companies are feeding this slop to children.
It kills development, ever since I switched to animal based around 6 months ago I have been way more energized, skin has been cleaner, debloated, way more active, and so much more. I use to eat processed slop for a year, it killed me. I gained maybe like 10 pounds, but I am really young so for adults it’s like gaining 35 pounds. I then stuck to cooking my own meals every night, mostly steak, salmon, ground beef, or any cut of steak/fish, and I saw almost instant results after 2 weeks. I have been on it for 6 months and I am deadass a new person.
My rule is, if something ever has more then 3-5 ingredients in it that you don’t know, NEVER eat it.
I always just eat stuff with 1-3 ingridents lmao. Have not touched added sugars in 6 months as a 14 year old. My entire school cafeteria is pizza, cookies, added sugar drinks, corn dogs, and processed meat. I have the same lunch everyday and it is the best they can provide for me. A grilled chicken sandwich.
IT is normalized. You need to understand that these foods are genuinely horrible for you.
