7 Facts Everyone Should Know About Sugar
“Be the salt and light”. This is what Jesus once said to his followers. How about sugar? Isn’t sugar best friend of salt? We know that we cannot live without salt, but can we live without sugar?
Just try to walk into your kitchen and look around. You’ll be surprised by how many products contain sugar. Yogurt, ketchup, orange juice, spaghetti sauce, chocolate milk, Sprite, strawberry shortcake, cereal, granola bars, coconut water, and much more.
We’re surrounded by sweets and sugary products, but what do we know about sugars? Here are the 7 most important facts everyone should know about sugar.
1. Daily Recommended Sugar Amounts
According to the American Heart Association, men should consume no more than 9 teaspoons or 36 grams of sugar per day and women should eat no more than 6 teaspoons or 25 grams of sugar per day.
And guess what! One can of 12-ounce soft drink contains 37 grams of sugar.
American adults eat an average of 77 grams of sugar per day and American kids eat an average of 81 grams of sugar per day. If you multiply by 365, American adults consume an average of 60 pounds of sugar per year. This is way more than daily recommended sugar amounts.
2. Natural Sugar and Added Sugar
Let’s try to understand the difference between natural sugar and added sugar.
· Natural sugar is mainly from fruits, veggies, and plain dairy products. It is naturally occurring sugar that you can taste when you eat an orange.
· Added sugar is all sugars that are either added during the food processing. Everyone should be aware of these since the body process the added sugar quicker than natural sugar.
Beginning in January 2020, FDA recommends manufacturers to include added sugar line under total sugar in the nutrition facts label. This new change will help people to determine how much added sugar is included in each product. It’s smart to develop a habit of looking at the product label!
3. Sugar in Disguise
In the nutrition facts label, sugar can be disguised under different names that you will never think of. Sugar will be hidden under non-sugar-like names to pretend to be healthy and sugar-free. Be a smart consumer and don’t be tricked by that!
The easiest way to find sugar is by looking for words ending in “- ose”.
· Sucrose
· Maltose
· Dextrose
· Fructose
· Glucose
· Galactose
· Lactose
Sadly, these are few other terms used to describe sugar that don’t end in -ose.
· Cane Juice
· Dextrin
· Barley malt
· Syrups
· Diastase
· Fruit Juice
· Turbinado
· Ethyl Maltol
4. Sugar Addiction and Obesity
What are some of the possible health problems associated with high sugar intake?
Obesity is one of the leading preventable causes of death in the USA and sugar is responsible for the recent rise in obesity.
The US Department of Agricultural has reported that per capita soft-drink consumption has increased by almost 500% in the past 50 years.
As you saw earlier, one can of 12-ounce soft drink contains 37 grams of sugar, so these numbers are not surprising.
Have you ever wondered what happens when we eat sugar?
When you swallow something sweet, sugar increases dopamine release in the brain, a feel-good hormone that also causes addictive behaviors. Next, pancreas secrets insulin. This tells the muscle to take up sugar and drop the blood sugar level. Insulin lowers blood sugar levels and starts on the fat storage process. As blood sugar levels drop, the brain signals you to eat sugar again. The whole cycle starts over, and we are left with huge fat storage in our body.
5. Type 2 Diabetes
Weight gain and fat build up associated with sugar is the leading risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder where blood glucose is increased due to impaired insulin secretion.
Intake of a large amount of sugar can increase the risk of insulin resistance. When a lot of sugar enters the bloodstream, the pancreas produces more insulin to get blood sugar into cells. If this continues to happen, cells stop responding to insulin and become insulin resistant. In return, the pancreas works harder to make more insulin to remove sugar from the blood. In the end, the pancreas can not make enough insulin, and blood sugar levels continue to rise.
Do you know what happens to the blood sugars that insulin removed from blood? Insulin helps the liver to convert it and store excess sugar as body fat.
6. Increased Risk of Cardiovascular Disease
Now we know that sugar contributes to obesity and type 2 diabetes. However, there is one more significant health condition that sugar may cause: cardiovascular disease.
Johns Hopkins team reported that morbidly obese individuals were more than two times more likely to have heart failure. Obesity increases the risk of high blood pressure and high sugar consumption increases cholesterol levels which could accelerate atherosclerosis. Obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes (all are possible consequences of sugar intake) combined to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.
7. Oral Health
Dental caries is the most prevalent chronic disease worldwide and affects all age groups. In the United States, 23% of adults have untreated dental caries. Dental caries are painful, expensive to treat, and diminish the quality of life.
The systematic review revealed that consuming less sugar lowers the risk of dental caries. Since dental caries is a lifelong progressive disease that slowly develops with the intake of sugars, it is important to limit the sugar intake in childhood to minimize the risk of developing dental caries.
What are your thoughts on sugar? Have you been able to moderate your consumption? Do you have any good recommendations of how to do this well?
