Sugar, The Making of a Mountain
“In the interest of fighting the childhood obesity epidemic, I’ve decided to eat all the Halloween candy I bought.” http://brittanyestes.com
Halloween is just around the corner. That means costume and candy shopping, plastic pumpkin buckets, parties, trick or treating, and…of course….sugar! It’s that time of year when we allow our kids to seek out candy with abandon. They know the bigger their pile, the more they are revered. This attitude works well for the candy companies. A whopping 25% of the candy industry’s revenues comes from Halloween related sales.1
Although Halloween is famously known for its ability to produce sugar comas, it is not the only day we consume massive amounts of sugar. As a country, we are sugar hungry. Last year Americans consumed 10.8 million tons (yes, TONS) of sugar.2 For perspective, an average adult elephant weighs 3 tons. That means we are consuming a mound of sugar equivalent to a pyramid of 3.6 million elephants; that is quite the mountain of sugar!
But instead of vilifying sugar (right now), let’s first understand what it is and why we love it so much.
Sugar comes in many forms – cane sugar, high fructose corn syrup, beet sugar, turbinado sugar, rice syrup, maple syrup, honey, molasses, maltose, dextrose, lactose, barley malt, sorbitol, mannitol and more! It can be confusing looking at a nutrition label and determining what really IS contributing to our sugar intake. Here is a quick tip: anything on the ingredient list that says sugar or syrup, or that ends in –ose or –ol is a sugar or sugar alcohol.
Although there are many names, the most recognizable form is the heap of white crystals we see in coffee shops and our pantry. The “sugar” we buy at the grocery store is actually a combination of two simple sugars – fructose and glucose. Fructose is now well known, as the name high fructose corn syrup implies. Glucose may only be recognizable by those who know a diabetic. When we talk about simple sugars, this designation merely indicates that the sugar is in its simplest form for the body to digest. That means, table sugar and high fructose corn syrup are digested very quickly in the body. Of the two, glucose is the preferred fuel source for the body. In fact, our brains only run on glucose!
In truth, our bodies can only use simple sugars, specifically glucose, for energy production. However, before you start celebrating this fact with a chocolate bar, take note. Our bodies break down ALL carbohydrates into simple sugars for the body to use. We have the capacity to turn our oatmeal, sweet potatoes, quinoa and whole grain bread into glucose. Additionally, when our sugars and carbohydrates are naturally accompanied by fiber, we avoid insulin spikes and sugar crashes as well as reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Our bodies also have the capacity to convert fats and proteins into glucose in a pinch, but without adequate carbohydrates in the diet – at least 100 grams per day – we become sluggish in the body and foggy in the brain.
With this in mind, you should concentrate on moderate intake of quality carbohydrate sources instead of sugars. The easiest way to do this is to pick whole foods and read nutrition labels. When reading labels, keep in mind that 4 grams of sugar equals 1 teaspoon. That 20 ounce soda you’ve been drinking has 44 grams of sugar, which is 11 teaspoons! Understanding grams per teaspoon can be a real eye opener as you read labels of some of your favorite foods.
Reading the Nutrition Facts is a great beginner guide, but not necessarily a hard and fast rule when it comes to fruit and dairy products. Nutrition labels are required to indicate any sugar, including sugars naturally occurring in dairy and fruits. A yogurt may seem high in sugar on the label but the ingredient list could indicate no added sugar. Therefore, the best method to determine how many added sugars are in your food is to look at the amount of sugar and the ingredient list. Just remember, the less food you have with a nutrition label, the more whole foods and less added sugars you’ll consume anyway!
The term sugar, at least in the scientific world, is really just a designation to determine what type of carbohydrate it is. In reality, the nutrients that come with the sugars are more important. Pure table sugar has no fiber, vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats or enzymes – it only has empty calories. Additionally, because these sugars are devoid of nutrients, our body actually needs to use its own stores of nutrients to process it. So a high sugar diet is not only devoid of nutrients, but it further depletes our body of health. Yes, there are some instances where sugar may be exactly what we need – to quickly stabilize low blood sugar of a diabetic or replenish glycogen stores of an endurance athlete. There are also some sugars that come replete with nutrients, such as honey, molasses and maple syrup. However, in general, as a nation we need to reduce our consumption of these empty calories.
How the heck do we do that when it just tastes so darn good? There’s a reason we love sugar so much. Next week we’ll explore how sugar produces feel-good chemicals in our body and how it effects our brain. Stay tuned!
http://brandongaille.com/42-awesome-candy-consumption-statistics/
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