Health Risks of Consuming Excessive Confectionery Products

If you are a real sweet tooth, then you’re going to regret this. However, if you keep reading you may find some really important information to save yourself from some potential bad health conditions. May be it’s time to save your health from the confectionery items, cut the amount of sweet dishes from your diet. That doesn’t sound sweet, right?

Confections are divided into two broad categories: in one category sugar is the principal ingredient and the other category is based on chocolate. It has been said by health and nutrition specialists many times that while an occasional sweet treat won’t hurt you, regular consumption of the same might cause serious health problem. Some of the health problems are mentioned below:

Tooth Decay

Yes, your mom was always right. Consumption of sweet causes cavity in tooth. Our mouths home billions of bacteria which include Streptococcus mutants, the bacteria that causes cavity. Once we eat the sweet or any confectionery item, the bacteria sticks to our teeth, and release lactic acid after digesting the sugar. Exposure to lactic acid begins to soften the tooth enamel, causing a cavity.

Sweets must be consumed as a single meal and shallow it a fast as possible. This is because grazing on sweets for several hours may expose the teeth to lactic acid for longer time, leading to more damage.

Increase in Blood Sugar Level

Most of the confectioneries contain digested carbohydrate such as refined flour and sugar. Sweets are easily digestible in nature. This nature allows your body to rapidly absorb the sugar after you eat which may result in a spike in your blood sugar levels, followed by a subsequent rapid decrease, or blood sugar crash.

Avoiding sweets and substituting them with foods that are rich in fiber is the best way to curb the increase of blood sugar. Fiber-rich foods digest slowly resulting in sustained release of sugar into the bloodstream. The Franklin Institute recommends pairing the sweet treat with foods that contain protein, which will help in preventing increase in blood sugar.

Obesity

Most of the confectionery products are heavy on calories. A small treat provides a large amount of energy to your body. Hence, consumption of sweet results in producing more calories than you burn per day, ultimately leading to obesity and weight gain. Princeton University states that many sweets contain the high-fructose corn syrup, which are also responsible for metabolic changes increasing the risk of obesity.

In order to avoid such health conditions, one must practice portion control while consuming sweets and snacking on random confectionery items. For example, we can check the nutrition label on the box of the sweet and measure one serving into a bowl so that several servings can be avoided in one sitting.

Type 2 diabetes

Too much intake of confectionery items, sweets, candies, or chocolates lead to imbalance of sugar in the bloodstream damaging the ability of liver to process sugar and increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes.

Allergies

It has been said by health and nutrition specialists many times that while an occasional sweet treat won’t hurt you, regular consumption of the same might cause serious health problem. It may also develop serious allergic and asthmatic problems. These artificial ingredients include various additives, artificial food colors, lead, non-nutritional material, and many others.

COVID-19 Impact Analysis of the Confectionery Market

The exotic flavors of the confectionery products have influenced the growth of the global confectionery market in recent years. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the growth of the market lately. The supply chain disruption because of the lockdowns is the main reason for this growth. During the initial lockdown, the prices of raw material such as cocoa decreased and price of transportation increased. Because of such factors, the industry had to witness a decline during the year 2020.

However, some of the significant players of the market has taken certain initiatives such as online services to overcome the critical market condition.

About the Author(s)

Princy A. J

Princy holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the prestigious Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. University at Chennai, India. After a successful academic record, she pursued her passion for writing. A thorough professional and enthusiastic writer, she enjoys writing on various categories and advancements in the global industries. She plays an instrumental role in writing about current updates, news, blogs, and trends.