Sugar These Days

70% of Americans are overweight.
33% of Americans are obese.
On average, 150-170 lbs of sugar are consumed per individual each year....say what?!

America as a country has grown in many ways over the years, including the size of the citizens waistlines. Now, I'm not trying to rant about how fat America is now a days, but rather to point out one of the major culprits of why that is. Sugar. More specifically added sugar which is not found naturally in foods.

So why would sugar be added to food in the first place? Well, it tastes good! Sugar is added to enhance the flavor, combat bitterness, improve color and preserve the product. It is shocking what contains sugar these days. If it is a processed food, chances are sugar has made its way in.




What is refined sugar?

Refined sugar is a simple carbohydrate that contains 4 calories per gram. I like to compare it to refined grains such as white rice and white flour. These grains are stripped of all the important vitamins, minerals and fiber and left with nothing but a simple carbohydrate that leads nothing for the body. Added, refined sugars are similar. It all starts with raw sugar usually from sugar cane, corn or sugar beet plants. This raw sugar goes through a process to remove all color compounds and impurities. We are then left with white, refined sugar. Doesn't sounds too bad, right? There are definitely worst compounds out there for sure, but the problem at hand is that sugar is in EVERYTHING these day. Too much of anything is never good...and too many people are consuming too much sugar (150-170lbs a year!!) Many times, they aren't even aware that every single thing ever that they are consuming now a days, contains sugar...too much sugar. That may be a slight exaggeration, but really not that far off.

Health speaking, refined sugar has ZERO nutritional value. No vitamins, minerals, fiber. Nothing. It is merely a simple carbohydrate that contains 4 empty calories per gram that may be used for energy...if you're lucky. If calories of any kind do not contain any nutritional value, there is a really good chance it will be stored as fat, or have some other, damaging effect in the body.



What does sugar do in the body?

Lets first clarify that added sugar is usually what we refer to as table sugar (white and granulated) and is composed of sucrose. Sucrose is a disaccharide that contains the two monosaccharides glucose and fructose.
              1. Glucose is the human body's primary source of energy. Your brain needs it. Because of this need, your body will make sure you have it by breaking down carbohydrates in the diet. The best carbohydrates for this process are natural whole foods because it will not induce an insulin spike that simple sugar does. (all has to do with glycemic index/load--future post)
              2. Fructose is naturally occurring in honey, fruits and some vegetables. It is almost 2 times sweeter than sucrose. This is why many added sugar sweeteners contain a higher percentage of fructose than glucose. One fine example, and perhaps the greatest offender of them all, is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The problem with fructose is that, in excess, it can overload the liver, damaging it in the process. This fructose (in excess) will be stored as fat, and research shows that the fat is usually stored in the liver (high risk of non-alcholic fatty liver disease), and around the abdomen (high risk of diabetes, metabolic syndrome, etc). Like I said, fruit contains fructose naturally, but don't worry, you wouldn't be able to consume enough fruit to cause 'fructose damage.' It's that highly concentrated HFCS and other sweeteners and syrups we are worried about.


So, lets say you eat 5 twizzlers, the pull and peel kind of course, and you feel great. Yummyyy. But, what happens internally, and once it is metabolized?

First, your pancreas senses the influx of sugar in the blood stream (increase blood glucose) and releases the infamous hormone, Insulin. From here, insulin can take one of two paths:
             1. store the glucose as glycogen in the liver and muscle for future easy accessed energy- yay!
             2. store the glucose as triglycerides in adipocytes (a.k.a fat)- not so yay!
 
A lot of what determines the fate of glucose depends on genetic predisposition, and what else you have eaten lately. If there is enough energy stored as glycogen already, then chances are the fat cells will be fed.

Many times the pancreas releases a little bit too much insulin due to the sudden surge of blood sugar and metabolizes all of the blood glucose leading to hypoglycemia--> sugar crash! So, first, the increased blood sugar is metabolized by insulin for energy (if not stored)--sugar high--then, the insulin keeps going and going until there isn't enough left for the body--sugar crash. This leads to wanting more sugar! It's one of those vicious cycles.

How can you tell it has added sugar?

Take a look at the label. Look under the nutrition facts in the ingredients list. It is not always fair to look at the line in the facts stated 'sugar' because that will include all of the natural sugars as well. If you were to look at a nutrition label for an apple it would say it had something like 14g of sugar in it. This is all natural fructose, so we won't harp on that. We are talking about the sugar added to those goodies in the plastic wrapping. Here are a handful of the ingredients that mean sugar:

                   -sugar                               -cane sugar                            -dextrose         

                   -corn syrup                       -evaporated cane juice          -fruit juice concentrate

                   -brown sugar                    -crystalline fructose              -sucrose

                   -molasses                          -maltose                                -lactose

                   -malt syrup                        -agave nectar                        -corn sweetener

                     

                                                      ....the list could go on.

Here's a label for bread- an ingredient denoting sugar appears three times!

Warning: One way people combat refined sugar is by substituting it with sugar free products, usually in the form of sucralose (splenda), saccharin (sweet n low), aspartame (equal) and a slue of other chemicals and sugar alcohols that are found in 'diet' and 'sugar-free' products. Most of these products not only disturb digestion, but can also damage the kidneys overtime. The safest no calorie substitute, in my opinion, is stevia. A future post will contain more information on these sweeteners, but in the meantime, just beware!



I leave you with a challenge...
     Try to go one whole week without consuming added sugar (this includes artificial sugar substitutes)! Check out the ingredient list on product labels- you may be surprised! This may open your eyes, while forcing you to eat less processed, and more whole foods. You may also start to crave it less! Just resist, and say no thank you...

#stix