Should I Avoid Sugar?

I’d love to just finish this article in 1 sentence, better yet 1 word, with a swift NO but then that wouldn’t be very educative now would it?

So should we avoid sugar? Was the journalist right when they said sugar is as addictive as cocaine? Is sugar to blame for obesity? NO, NO, NO.  Article done! Finished! Capeesh! Finito!

In the 1990’s we blamed fats for heart health and obesity, then we blamed carbs and now we are blaming sugar. I wonder who will be the culprit in 2020? I’m guessing it will be things like pesticides, the deodorants we use and the pollutants we inhale, but again I digress.

So what is sugar and how much do we consume?

Sugar is a short chain, sweet carbohydrate that comes in multiple forms, of which some include glucose, fructose and galactose. The sugar we are used to seeing on table top benches at coffee shops and cafes is known as sucrose, which is a glucose coupled with fructose.

In the past 20 years, sugar consumption has gone up while a simultaneous increase in calorie consumption has also increased. All while exercise and calorie expenditure has gone down.

On a global scale, in today's society, we eat more calories and burn less… So who do we blame? Do we blame sugar, which is one single nutrient within an entire diet or do we blame the gross over consumption of calories eaten alongside a reduction in physical exercise or calorie expenditure?

We know that an over-consumption of calories leads to weight gain, but can sugar too?

According to Black et al (2006), there were no proposed differences in metabolic markers when comparing two isocaloric diets with the only variable being sugar/sucrose intake, of which the two groups consumed either 10% of total calories or 25% of total calories from sugar.

In reality, this means in a diet as low as 2000kcal per day, that is upwards of 125g  (25 teaspoons) of pure table sugar per day, and yet no effect on insulin sensitivity or weight change was found, further confirming that the dominant concern when dieting should be from total caloric intake and not nutrient specific intake.

Remember, 25 teaspoons of sugar per day, compared to 10 teaspoons of sugar, when consumed in a diet consisting of the same amount of calories had ZERO negative effects.

But what about the cocaine comment?

It is true that sugar ‘lights up’ your brain the same way cocaine does under a PET or MRI scan? Yes.

But so do all reward orientated events like winning. So does all food consumption or feelings of euphoria.

The fact remains that if you either anticipate the enjoyment of something or are in the process of enjoying something, dopamine receptors light up and mood enhancement follows.

This is not an abnormal response but instead a standardised physiological response. Now if you’ve read my articles before you will know I always speak about context.

Does sugar create a cascade of happiness?

Yes.

But does that actually mean anything in the context of fat loss, physical health or dietary food consumption quantity?

No.

Sugar is not the reason for obesity but instead is merely a small portion of an entire environment that is not conducive to good health.

Final Notes

So what does this all mean?

We need to stop pointing the finger at single issues and instead look at weight loss, weight maintenance or performance in more of a holistic manner. We cannot blame sugar when it is quite simply just 1 nutrient in the context of an entire diet.

While sugar may not provide any nutritional benefit other than it being a carbohydrate, it is by no means a negatively impacting food source. Whether you are consuming a monosaccharide, a disaccharide, a high GI or low GI food or if it’s a simple carb or a starchy carb, the end point of digestion all ends up essentially at the same point with them being converted into a glucose molecule for either fuel usage or fuel storage as glycogen.

Sugar is not the enemy and nor is it to blame for the current obesity and health epidemic we have in westernised countries. It is merely just 1 piece of a very large puzzle.

Practice mindful eating, eat and live holistically and above all, enjoy yourself!