Why Sugar is Not All That Sweet

Few of us get through the day without adding some sort of sugar to our diet. Like it or not, we are drawn to its sweetness like bees to honey. But is sugar really all that sweet?

The answer is no. Well if it is, it’s only sweet in the taste sense of the word, after that, it gets pretty nasty! Sugar can affect the body in powerful ways, some that you might not even be able to imagine.

Firstly, sugar can contribute significantly to a multitude of diseases and conditions. We’re talking about cardiovascular disease, fatty liver, obesity, type II diabetes and even cancer.

So how exactly do these tiny white granules that we call sugar pack such a great punch? When we eat too much sugar (mainly in the form of refined sugars) this causes our blood sugar to spike dramatically. As a result, insulin gets released into the blood stream to try and deal with this excess sugar. Unfortunately, insulin also stimulates fat storage (because it promotes the storage of glucose as fat, instead of the burning of fat), which equals weight gain. This excess fat can then turn into triglycerides. Triglycerides are known to promote increased levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol, which, you guessed it; leads to heart disease, diabetes and a long list of other conditions.

Apart from being a known contributor to the above health conditions, sugar also has a powerful affect on our brain and our mood. We talked above how when we eat a lot of sugar at once, our blood sugar spikes significantly. Well, after a couple of hours it will then crash. You can imagine that if our blood sugar is constantly going up and down, our body is going to have a hard time managing this, and it is particularly disruptive, even stressful, for the brain. Did you know that our brains run predominately off glucose? No glucose equals impaired brain function… a spike and then a plummet of blood sugar means the delicate balance required by the brain of this essential fuel is compromised.

Essentially, we want stable blood glucose levels so that our brain can function at a stable level too. It makes sense that unstable levels would make us have unstable moods and energy levels, and nobody wants that!  So despite this need for glucose… eating too much sugar, is in fact detrimental.  The form of sugar and the packaging it comes in, makes a difference… and by packaging lets just say the best package is the way nature does it… and the best sources of glucose are those found naturally in whole foods.

Why it’s not that easy to just to quit sugar:

A rather concerning challenge with the sweet stuff (sugar, like table sugar and processed sugar including syrups) though is that it is reinforcing, the more we have, the more we want… When we constantly eat a diet high in refined sugars it changes the way our brain reacts to different foods. When we see the sweet item a chemical called dopamine is released, dopamine is our “wanting or motivating chemical messenger” so it tells us that we need that food for energy (it has learned that sugar gives us an instant hit of energy). When we taste the item, hormones are released that make us feel terrific (temporarily), especially if we let ourselves get too hungry or we are in a habit of eating badly. After a while of us doing this with sugary foods, it becomes a habit and the norm of eating. Even when we are not hungry, if we see a sugary item our brain will tell us that we NEED to get that food. This is how sugar becomes so “addictive”.

Of course, the type of sugar is also important. The type of sugar we are talking about above is mainly refined sugar or highly processed simple carbohydrates. We might all be aware of refined sugar being present in cakes, muffins, donuts, sweets, milkshakes and store-bought juices. But this dangerous type of sugar is actually present in a lot of so called ‘healthy’ foods. For example crackers, yogurt, canned baked beans and tinned spaghetti, white rice, rice thins/rice crackers, muesli, breakfast cereals, and a lot of different sauces (e.g. tomato, bbq, sweet chili, gravy, pasta sauce). And that’s just the short list. There are a lot of foods that you wouldn’t know contain this refined type of sugar. A good tip is to have a look at the ingredient list and look for ‘sugar’, ‘glucose’ or ‘high fructose corn syrup’ or “syrup”, and even honey can send blood sugar levels soaring. The higher it is in the ingredients list, the more there is in that food.

Ok, so do you need to avoid all carbohydrates?

Sugar gets bad press because in a nutshell, it is very easily broken down into fuel but is devoid of nutrients.  Sugars quickly turn into glucose (and in some instances fructose) and too much of either of these in processed form can be detrimental to the body (they disrupt hormones and excess is stored as fat, too much internal fat has health consequences).  Whole unprocessed carbohydrates though (present in real whole foods) are different, they contain many different nutrients and can be enjoyed in moderation and as part of a healthy diet, in fact – arguably they are essential as part of a balanced diet.

What’s the defining characteristic?

The final thing we want to touch on is glycaemic load and glycaemic index and why they are important.

Glycaemic index tells us about the quality of the carbohydrate within the food. The higher the glycamic index, the quicker the carbohydrate will break down (meaning a spike of blood sugar). Low GI foods are better because they allow the food to be digested slowly over time, keeping blood sugar levels stable.

In comparison, glycaemic load tells you about both the quantity and quality of the carbohydrate. It is very useful for determining the quantity of a food needed to peak blood sugar, and using this information to eat in ways that maintain good blood glucose levels. Typically, sweet foods have a high glycaemic load however there are many that do not. For example xylitol (a natural sweetner), plain yogurt and some fresh fruit like blue berries although sweet tasting, have a relatively low glycaemic load (which means they don’t spike your blood sugar quickly).  Choosing whole grains or complex carbohydrates and leafy non starchy vegetables mostly is a good strategy to get good carbs in without the sugar rush or blood sugar rollercoaster.

Fruit contains small quantities of fructose, but the sugars packed in fruit is as natural as sugar can get and also packaged up with other nutrients.  You don’t need to worry about fruit really… However if you are watching your weight or you have diabetes it might be worthwhile to pick fruits that have a lower glycaemic load than others to put in your muesli for example, it would be better to eat blueberries over grapes.  Eat only one banana at a time… That said, when it comes to dried fruit, the glycaemic load is higher because you tend to eat more … so in that case it’s better to eat fresh fruit over dried fruit, rather eat fresh apricots than dried and rather eat fresh grapes than raisins.

Now that we know about the addictive nature of sugar and how significantly it can affect our health, it is important that we start promoting healthy food habits and choices with our children. It might be that the classic “a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down” is not the way to go anymore.  Especially not if it is training their little taste buds from a very early age to crave sugar, which the research shows us, it is!