I have been cutting as much sugar as I can for almost a year and half. I used to buy heaps of vegetables and fruits to make some smoothies as they are thought to be good for our health. Well it is true but if we focused on the SUGAR, this fact would be different result and need to be careful how to take them.
BUT WHY IS SUGAR THE ENEMY?
1, Sugar spikes hormone
As it is known, sugar is related to insulin which is a fat storing hormone and connected to all of the other hormones such as estrogen and testosterone.
WHO strongly suggests that daily free sugar intake needs to be 10% of energy intake which is approximately 40-50g (10-12teaspoons). Furthermore, cutting sugar to less that 5% of energy intake which is about 20g would be additional health benefits.
2, Sugar is everywhere
Most of foods contain loads of sugar but if it is natural sugar, that is not as bad as added sugar. Of course cakes, sweets contain heaps of sugar but even the foods we think it is healthy such as cereals and fruit juice have sugar.
3, Sugar leads to obesity
Sugar does not have any nutrients to sustain a body functioning. Sugar is stored as fat a lot faster than any of the fuel types. What happens in the body is that insulin lowers the blood glucose levels by promoting muscle and liver intake of glucose, promote fat synthesis and storage and convert excess fat into fatty acids when we eat sugar in foods. This is how we get fat.
4, It is a risk factor of other diseases
As I wrote down on section 3, Sugar raises the blood sugar, which leads to put pressure on the heart. Plus sugar is the silent killer since poor regulation of glucose and insulin is breeding for inflammation.
5, Difference between simple and complex carb
You may think sugar is really bad to our body so we need to cut all carbs as they contain sugar. Realistically, it is impossible since vegetables and fruits contain sugar as well as vitamins and minerals which are important to our body. To lower these, just check glycemic load or glycemic index(GI) which is an estimate how much the carbs in the food and will increase person’s blood Sugar level after eating it. Refined sugar called simple sugar(carb) spikes and drops blood sugar level dramatically whereas complex carbs have protein, fibre, fats and some vitamins, which helps to slowly increased decrease the blood sugar level.
Free Sugar
Free sugars refer to monosaccharides (such as glucose, fructose) and disaccharides (such as sucrose or table sugar) added to foods and drinks by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, and sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates. *1
Natural sugar (intrinsic sugar)
This is the sugar naturally in the fruits and vegetables. These sugar are covered by a plant wall sell which makes digestion slower and takes longer to get in the blood in comparison to free sugar.
Sugar is hidden in every food that you think it is healthy!
For instance, tomato sauce. Tomato is good for heath as it’s got vitamin C and vitamin K ,and it matches chips and wedges BUT 1 teaspoon of tomato sauce has about 4g of free sugar. Moreover, fizzy drinks such as coke and lemonade contain 30-40g of free sugar in a can.
Just check how much sugar you consume in a day if you are in Australia. You can look at nutrition information but sadly, you cannot see how much sugar in that product if you are in Japan.
You will see how hard to consume under 20g of free sugar per day even 40g!
References
- Bulletin of the world health organisation The science behind the sweetness in our diets 2014, 92, 780-781
- world health Organisation sugars intake for adults and children