The Impact of Sugar on Hormone Levels

In this house, we don’t demonize sugar. We just don’t - it’s counterintuitive to pursuing health-promoting behaviours and all it leaves us with is shame. Yuck.

We can definitely acknowledge that it’s hard to avoid lots of added sugars (which, long-term, can pose some health risks) - specialty coffee drinks, lunchbox snacks and even more can be big sources depending on your day. While we need sugar to survive (the brain’s preferred source of fuel is glucose), we can also consider how high sugar intake influences our hormones and our feelings of wellness.

Insulin is a growth hormone, pulling sugar from the bloodstream to the tissues to make energy! Frequent spikes in blood sugar, long-term high sugar intake and a variety of other factors such as genetics may lead to insulin resistance over time. This is where cells don’t respond to insulin as well, and is common in PCOS and pre-diabetes. It's important to know that sugar does not cause pre-diabetes, diabetes or PCOS - genetics have been identified as the primary contributor, alongside other influences including the environment a person lives in, their access to health care, and even weight stigma.

High sugar intake long-term may also influence the hormones involved with hunger and fullness, and the production of sex hormones - which can lead to eating amounts of food that aren’t comfortable and wacky changes in periods, mood and energy levels. Sugar doesn't necessarily cause hormone imbalances (because hormones aren't supposed to "balance", they are meant to fluctuate), but it might displace other compounds involved in hormone production, use and clearance.

Reducing sugar doesn’t mean giving up foods that contain sugar - that’s silly and overly restrictive. And sugar is sugar no matter where it comes from - added and natural are digested the same (the human body has a complement of enzymes designed to break carbohydrates down to glucose as soon as we put these foods in our mouth!). To start, we can plan to pair higher sugar foods with other macronutrients and fibre to stabilize blood sugar, and we might experiment with reducing added sugars to replace with nutrient-dense food and fluid options.

When it’s accessible, prioritizing whole foods can be a great foundation - even if you’re using pre-made or pre-mixed versions like rotisserie chickens and pre-made salads (because these are considered both whole and processed!). Purchasing whole foods is a privilege that many don’t have, so focusing on the options that can be more affordable and easier to access is important.

Fluids like pop, juice and sweetened coffee drinks provide large doses of sugar (and when consumed on an empty stomach, aren’t satisfying for very long for many people). Consider lower sugar versions, labels with “no added sugar” and naturally low sugar drinks like herbal teas and unsweetened sparkling water.

Skipping meals is a bad idea in general, but is a really fast way to amp up sugar cravings and leave you feeling drained. Focus on a regular eating pattern with lots of variety, even including some sweet foods to make meals and snacks satisfying - you have permission to eat these foods! And don’t forget that stress and sleep are important elements to support regular eating. Avoiding meal breaks to try and be more productive backfires, and staying up late to get more done leads to feeling super icky later. You deserve rest and decompression!

Being afraid of sugar doesn’t get anybody anywhere, and in this day and age, we have bigger issues like food access, reproductive rights and poor environmental conditions. If reducing sugar is in your self-care toolbox, consider a more peaceful approach and how you can “add in” nutrients without “cutting out” anything else.