Nutrition: Do I Need Sugar?

 

Whether your prefer chocolate cheesecake or Starbursts candy, there’s a reason we all have a sweet tooth. The culprit is that notorious carbohydrate called sugar.

The National Center of Health Statistics discovered in the last thirty years that America’s consumption of sugar has tripled from the allotted serving of 7 teaspoons per day to 22. There’s about 4 grams to a teaspoon, so Americans consume 88 grams of sugar per day. That’s 75 pounds of sugar in one year for every man, woman, and child.

So what exactly is sugar?

Sugar—or sucrose—is a carbohydrate that naturally occurs in cane and beet plants due to the chemical process of photosynthesis. When it is separated from the plant, the result is 99.95% pure sucrose.

The types of refined sugar that we are most familiar with are variations of pure sucrose:

• White granulated sugar
• Brown sugar
• Confectioner’s (powdered) sugar

Sucrose has been processed to make twenty-six sweeteners that are up to twelve times as sweet as cane sugar.

Does my body actually need sugar?

The answer is yes and no. Our bodies need glucose, a simple sugar, for fuel. Our bodies will respond to carbs in the body by releasing a hormone called insulin that acts like an IV drip, gradually injecting the glucose into the bloodstream to give us energy and burn calories. When simple carbs are put into the body the body burns off all the glucose it can, but there is so much excess sugar in simple carbs that much of it is not burned up and ends up being stored as fat.

So how does sugar impact my health?

Sugar contributes to everything from obesity to teeth erosion to underdeveloped brains. Dr. Robert Lustig of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital says “Sugar promotes the same phenomena in the brain that addictive substances do,” and went as far as calling it toxic. The two prevailing impacts of sugar are:

• heart disease and
• obesity

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is finally getting the bad rap it deserves, as it is in most processed foods and contributes to heart disease. In a study conducted by the University of California, participants who drank a beverage containing HFCS had an increase in bad cholesterol, blood fat, and artery plaque buildup, which are all factors in heart disease. The body cannot use all the excess sugar in fructose, so after it passes through the liver, absorbs into tissue and muscle, it stores as fat. And fat build-up around the heart staggers its function, stalling blood flow and posing a significant risk of heart failure.

62.1% of Americans are overweight or obese, according to 2011 Gallup Polls. Experts link obesity with the fructose sugar form. Fructose is present in both sucrose (table sugar) and HFCS, both of which are in soft drinks and processed foods. Dr. Lustig says that excessive amounts of fructose is toxic, causing the liver to process it like it would alcohol, resulting in fat storage, and the release of brain chemicals that cause you to think you’re hungry.

Consuming lots of fructose for a long period of time is comparable to alcoholism in the liver and addiction to drugs in the brain. Pretty scary, huh?

Studies show that stress and fat metabolism are regulated by the same mechanism. So you consider the condition of America’s stress levels, factor in a lot of sleep depravity, which leads to inhibited choices, and the easily-accessible, pre-packaged foods and you are left with sugar-induced obesity.

So how much sugar can I eat?

Well, limit yourself to 7 grams of added sugar per day, and only consume the raw cane sugar. Better for your nutrition needs is fructose sugar, which is naturally-occurring in fruit and less foreign to the body. There are other plant-based sweeteners out there like Stevia and Xylitol that are worth researching and substituting.