The short answer is yes, but it’s not that simple.
Growing up, we were always told to avoid or limit our sugar intake. Well, I wasn’t exactly told that. I know many kids were told that though, and many of my friends could only have 3 pieces of their Halloween candy a day after trick or treating.
That’s not how it worked at my house. My Mom absolutely loves sweets. So, I grew up having extremely large pieces of cake on birthdays, pie on weekends after dinner, cold stone ice cream for dinner during the summer months and Halloween candy whenever I wanted it. So, I definitely wasn’t brought up to think sugar is bad, and I wasn’t restricted from sugar. I am not sure if that made me have a healthier relationship with sugar or it just means that I have a sweet tooth of my own. I do, however, like to treat myself sometimes even if it isn’t always the best choice long term.
First, added sugar is generally referred to as sucrose, which is comprised of glucose and fructose, and there is no nutritional need or added value by consuming added sugar. Added sugar does cause inflammation and health problems just as gluten, dairy and soy do for those that are gluten and/or dairy intolerant. Sugar is a little bit more like soy. It is universally inflammatory and bad for your health. It doesn’t matter if you have a specific allergy to it or not. Everyone is added sugar intolerant. It can cause heart disease, depression, inflammation, and anxiety among other things. Sugar also can cause you to just simply intake more calories than necessary, so it is also associated with weight gain. That really isn’t my main concern but being overweight can cause other health issues to occur at a quicker rate, such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. So, it is something to be watchful for. So, it is important to cut down added sugar in your everyday diet.
Also, sugar free replacements, like sugar-free syrups and diet sodas are just as problematic. So, don’t think you are getting around the added sugar problem by using sweeteners such as, aspartame, saccharin, and sucralose. These offenders are known to cause for high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart attacks, and stroke. These need to be cut out too.
I want to note that I am differentiating added sugar from naturally occurring sugars. That is because the sugars in fruits and the like are not harmful to you. They are naturally occurring and do not cause inflammation the same way that foods with added sugars do. Natural sugar actually contains glucose, vitamins, minerals and needed nutrients, including fiber, protein and fat.
So, what can we do? Check the ingredients of everything we buy. A lot of foods we wouldn’t expect to have added sugar as one of their ingredient items actually do contain added sugar. Also, using our common sense is helpful, because I am sure we can all imagine that sodas, cookies, chips, candy bars, condiments (including dressings and marinades) and many juices would have added sugar. When checking for added sugars on labels, check for sucrose, agave, cane sugar, raw sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, honey, nectar, maple syrup, cane juice, and malt syrup.
And, if you are craving sweets like me, because you all know now that I have a pretty big sweet tooth, grab some fruit and if you really have to, break off a piece of an organic bar of dark chocolate.
Here’s to being well preserved.
Always,
