Glowing skin, better memory and a serene night’s sleep… we reveal the health benefits of cutting back on sugar

IF you’ve got a sweet tooth, it’s not always easy to cut back on your sugar intake.

But the health benefits may bolster your resistance to the sweet stuff.

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Here, JON AXWORTHY reveals five reasons to give sugar the shove.

1. YOU’LL HAVE HEALTHIER SKIN: You will start to notice a difference in the mirror in the morning, according to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, because spots are caused by the immune system attempting to kill bacteria in clogged pores, which then inflames them.

And a Swiss study found that one high-sugar drink a day for three weeks, saw inflammation levels double.

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2. YOU’LL START TO SLEEP BETTER: Added sugar in the diet will lead to a spike in blood-sugar levels. When coming down from a sugar high we feel sluggish – and often reach for more sugar. This cycle interrupts our sleep patterns, the University of California has found.

So if your day is not full of sugar spikes and crashes, sleep is much improved.

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3. YOUR MEMORY WILL IMPROVE: Kicking off your day with too much sugar can impair your ability to learn.

An animal study at UCLA found a diet high in sugar causes insulin resistance which damages the brain’s synapses – the connections between cells which allow them to communicate with one another and store data.

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4. YOU’RE LESS LIKELY TO GET DIABETES: An American study analysing the effects on health of sugar consumption in 175 countries found that eating an extra 150 calories per day had different effects on health, depending on where those calories came from.

When people ate the extra calories in the form of added sugar they became 11 times more likely to be diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in their lifetime.

But no increase in risk of the disease was found in extra fat or protein calories.

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5. YOUR HEART WILL BE HEALTHIER: The UK’s official nutrition advice is that only five per cent of your daily calorie intake should consist of added sugar. A study in the journal Open Heart revealed that people who ate ten to 25 per cent of their calories from added sugars have a 30 per cent increased risk of dying from heart disease.

The team found a link between fructose in sugar and fat storage around the organs, which led to a greater risk of heart failure.