There has been lots of talk in the blogisphere recently concerning the requirement for sugar in our diet and I’ve been wanting to write this post for a while. There are lots of ideas floating around which I won’t mention here, but I thought I would share my own thoughts, starting with some basic facts.
What is sugar?
The typical diet contains vast amount of sugar mainly due to the fact that sugar is extremely misunderstood. There are many types of sugar and your body digests them in different ways. They are grouped into complex and simple sugars.
Complex sugars (disaccharide)
- Sucrose
- Lactose
- Maltose
Simple sugars (monosaccharide)
- Glucose
- Galactose
- Fructose
Long chains of monosaccharide’s produce disaccharide’s which must broken down by specific enzymes before your body can digest them.
How bad is sugar really?
The refinement of sugar via various processes strips sugar of all of plant based goodness and nutritional benefits. In fact sugar in small amounts can be good for you as long as it’s in it’s natural form such as fruit. Large amounts of sugar, especially when consumed on a regular basis can cause insulin resistance. Insulin is responsible for controlling the bodies blood sugar levels. A resistance to insulin can lead to the onset of diabetes. The resulting high blood sugar is converted into fat and cause obesity.
All types of sugar, white, brown and demerara sugar are nutritionally the same and all derived sugar cane. Sugar alternatives such as honey, maple syrup, agave nectar, stevia and date syrup do not cause blood sugar spikes like everyday refined sugar. Be wary of sugar alternatives that contain aspartame as they aren’t great and can effect your taste buds so that you crave sweeter foods.
Does our body need sugar?
The answer to this question is yes! However, this is readily taken out of context and distorted so that large quantities of the wrong type of sugar is consumed.
Without the simple sugar glucose you body just wouldn’t function. Glucose is used as a major source of metabolic energy by the cells in your body for biochemical reactions and electron transport chains. A lack of sugar and fat in your diet results in the metabolism of protein (muscle fibres) as an alternate source of energy. Also, the consumption of glucose stimulates the release of insulin from the pancreas. Subsequently, the brain is notified that you have eaten and tells your body to stop eating when you are satisfied.
My personal thoughts and experiences with sugar
Recently I have been eating lots of fresh fruit platters and grazing on berries such as blueberries and strawberries, which I’m loving right now. Fruit is actually a carbohydrate and predominately made from a simple monosaccharide called fructose. Although it is all very well eating high volumes of fruit as opposed to a chocolate bar, natural sugar is far better than refined sugar, too much sugar from fruit can have adverse affects on your blood sugar. I’ve also been juicing a lot recently and this a great, however juicing eliminates the fruits fibre so the sugars are easily absorbed into the blood stream.
Of course fruit isn’t all about sugar as it also contain water, fibre, vitamins and phytonutrients that your body needs and are highly beneficial. There are significant differences in the natural sugars found in fruit than sweets and fizzy drinks, the nutritional value in fruit far outweighs anything that you will gain from refined sugar.
The amount of sugar in fruit varies depending on what you are eating. There is a nice article scaling the sugar content in fruit here. Since realising this I have taken it on board and try and stick to low sugar fruits such as berries and apples and occasionally eat grapes and bananas. I do suffer from low blood sugar which means that I am prone to spikes in my blood sugar which I try to avoid by eating 5 small meals a day. I know that this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but it helps to keep my blood sugar stable.
Personally I believe that the whole sugar debate needs a little bit more perspective. These days I would much rather eat fruit rather than my body weight empty calories from refined sugar. Like I mentioned above the nutrients and minerals in fruit are highly advantageous for the body but too much can lead to a rapid increases in blood sugar. Balancing out the fruit with leafy greens and other veggies will help to prevent these peaks in blood sugar without compromising on the amount of nutrients you consume. Of course I eat ice cream, chocolate and cake just like the next person, God life would be so boring otherwise! The thing to remember that excessive amounts of sugar can be bad for you, but small amounts in a healthy diet will not harm you one bit.
What is your stance on the sugar debate?
Do you have a high level of sugar in your diet? How do you manage your sugar in take?
To be totally honest, I don’t monitor my sugar that closely, because I’m a big fan of salty foods and that tends to be where I need to keep an eye!
Salt is another thing of mine too. I love that seet and salty combo!
I try get my sugar fix from fruit. I’m a big chocoholic and love cake, but I’ve found dark chocolate takes away my chocolate cravings, and I use maple syrup, agave, stevia or honey in baking instead of refined sugar. I love bananas. I try to limit myself to one a day. Sometimes I have two, but no more.
The intense flavour of dark chocololate is great for fixing any sugar cravings!
I try and limit my added sugar quite strictly, and used to be pretty strict over fruit/natural sugar too, but am relaxing this a little these days.
I agree that it’s very easy to get carried away with fruit, even if there are lots of other health benefits to it, and feel that a good balance is what is most important. I think that a diet that is very heavily skewed towards, or away from, any main food group is not the best way forward (for me personally) and so I try and strike a compromise between protein, complex carbs, dairy, veg, fruit, healthy fats etc.
Oh and I try to make sure I exercise well in order to take into account the odd treat here and there! 🙂
I think it’s all about balance and it sounds like you have a great approach!
I try and limit the amount of refined sugar I have otherwise I’d be eating it all the time haha but I don’t mind too much about natural sugars. And when I say ‘restrict’, I eat fudge and cake in moderation. I don’t think it is going to kill you!
I couldn’t agree more. What would life be like without cake?!?!?
I believe sugar is no good and I wish I could remove it from my diet permanently its just so hard! I try to eat sugar free most of the week then at the weekends if I fancy something sugary I indulge but I am trying out recipes to go sugar free its the devil in white clothing!
Also I feel way better when it is excluded from my diet!
You do actually need sugar in your diet but not the refined version. I hope you post some of your recipes on your blog.
I think it is all about balance- I try to limit refined sugar but I don’t cut it out. I also use some sugar alternatives like honey/ agave or coconut sugar, but I do use normal sugar in baking too. I also think we should be looking at whole foods and not the macros so much- if you eat healthily with natural and whole foods then the protein carbs and vitamins etc will take care of themselves.
It’s great that there a re so many sugar alternatives now available in the UK. It makes reducing your sugar intake so much more easier. I agree balance is the spice of life!
Oh I love sugar. I could eat sweet things all day long. But I try not to haha. I think I’m pretty good in that I try and have small treats every day to satisfy my cravings so I don’t go overboard. Like you said life is too boring otherwise!
Haha! It is a difficult one to monitor. And a bit of what you fancy does you no harm.
Great post, Jemma. I love your balanced perspective. I feel very much the same way about sugar – I don’t mind getting moderate amounts from fruit, especially since I love it! I also have issues with low blood sugar, though (I get dizzy if it drops too low), so I do try to be mindful of the sweeter fruits. Other sugary foods give me headaches and sugar crashes, but that doesn’t seem to stop me from avoiding them… and I don’t plan to avoid them completely! 🙂
Thanks Iris! 🙂 I like your approach to sugar. Life would be boring without cake/choclate etc and in small quanties it’s fine. I do prefer comsuming natural sugar from fruit though, but I’m becoming more conscious about that too.
This is something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately as I eat far too much sugar! I have to say I think sugar, in its refined form, is the worst possible thing for us and the Government should give up on the “low-fat is healthy” idea and push low sugar diets instead. I’ve been seriously thinking about eliminating simple sugar from my diet for a while because over-eating it is definitely my worst eating habit…
Great post 🙂
Thanks! Refined sugar is awful and I think that the idea that too much refined sugar needs to be stressed far more than it is already. Fair enough in small amounts its quite harmless as part of a healthy diet, but it’s very easy to over indulge in refined sugar as it’s in sso many things.
Such an interesting read. I try to keep my refined sugar and simple carb intake down but I do love fruit and dry fruit which are high in sugar. Its weird how your tastebuds change once you start having less sugar – things that I used to love now taste incredibly sweet and sickly!