What is sugar and how has sugar shaped your life? We all encounter sugar in all aspects of our diets, from fresh fruit to an after dinner glass of wine. Sugar is in treats that celebrate our milestones, sugar is in the fruits that we blend into smoothies, sugar is in the creamer that we add to our coffee, sugar is even in the fat free dressing we put on our garden fresh salad.
But sugar is bad for us, right? We need to say no to sugar to be healthy, correct? If you are trying to live healthy you may have investigated what is the best way to eat. You may have also discovered that there is no shortage of custom designer diets out there. But what is the best one to follow? Some health experts say raw vegan food is the best diet, and others would say carnivore or keto is the best, and there are hundreds of variations on in every direction. What makes this even more confusing is that most of these experts have a wealth of information to support their claims. Personally, I don't think there is a one size fits all diet. We all have unique biochemical systems, but there is one thing almost all health experts agree on, and that is the negative effects of processed carbs and sugars. In my research I haven't found a single reliable source that believes processed sugars are good. So, what do we do with this information? Get rid of sugar completely? How can we do that, and do we even want to do that?
Based on all the healthy diet research, there probably isn’t a single type of diet that would work for all body types, but it is agreed that we should limit our sugar intake, especially processed sugars. Does this mean we can never have iced cream, cake, or chocolate ever again? Does this mean that a fancy drink on our date night needs to be eliminated? Not at all! My intention in writing this blog is not to tell people how to live their lives, but to simply bring an understanding of what sugar is and how it can affect our health. Every decision we make comes with a tradeoff and an informed decision is all that matters. Saying no to sugar for the rest of your life has the potential of negatively affecting your quality of life but so does overindulging in sugar. I have collected some information below that will provide you with an understanding of what sugar is, why we crave it and what it can do to our bodies.
Sugar is a natural product found in any food that contains carbohydrates. Some types of natural sugar are:
Fructose (found in fruits)
Glucose (found in honey, fruits and vegetables)
Lactose (found in dairy)
Galactose (found in dairy)
Maltose (found in barley)
Sucrose (found in plants such as sugarcane)
There is also a plethora of processed sugars found in a large majority of processed food such as:
High fructose corn syrup
Agave nectar.
Barbados sugar.
Barley malt.
Barley malt syrup.
Beet sugar.
Brown sugar.
Buttered syrup.
Cane juice.
Sugar is useful for the body as sugar and carbohydrates are a form of energy that the body can quickly process. However, when you consume sugars and don't immediately use them, your body produces a hormone called insulin. Insulin turns the sugar into fat cells to store for later energy needs. This was an evolutionary advantage for our hunter gatherer ancestors when food was scarce as they sometimes had to go for days without food and needed that stored energy to sustain them. However, in the modern era, this former evolutionary advantage has become a handicap that has caused an epidemic of chronic illnesses. Diabetes, obesity, hypertension, heart disease and a multitude of autoimmune disorders. These chronic conditions are often referred to as the diseases of civilization because our pre-modern ancestors never suffered from them due to their diet low in carbs and sugar and mostly protein and rich fats. Now that food is no longer scarce or hard to come by most of us, especially those of us in the Western world, eat more than our bodies need for survival. We also eat a huge variety of foods, rich in carbohydrates and added processed sugars.
Additionally, our lifestyles have become relatively sedentary due to technological and travel advances, so we are not expending the energy required to utilize all that we ingest. Therefore, those sugars spike our insulin which saves in our body as fat cells. If that wasn't bad enough, sugars also stimulate opiate and dopamine receptors. These are in the reward center of the brain and are the same receptors that are triggered when we are with loved ones making us feel safe and pleasant. This in turn makes sugar highly addictive. Some experts go as far as saying that sugar is one of the most addictive substances on the planet. This is again, another evolutionary carry over that was once an advantage when sugar rich foods were scarce. This stimulation would push us to eat as much of this rare food as possible, helping to sustain us in leaner times. However, leaner times in our current lifestyles are rare.
So, what is the answer? Do we say no to sugar, which is integral in many of our eating traditions, or do we continue to enjoy sugar which could be detrimental to our health? Only you can decide what works for your unique lifestyle. I just hope that this information helps you to make an informed decision on the role of sugar in your life.
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