There are several types of simple sugars (fructose, lactose, glucose, galactose, sucrose, dextrose, etc). And I thought all long chain sugars/complex carbohydrates were broken down into simple sugars anyway, so why say ‘sugar is bad’? All carbs become sugar, and there are many types of sugar.
So why is sugar considered unhealthy? There are tons of sugars and all carbohydrates eventually get broken down into sugar anyway. Do people just mean large amounts of sucrose when they say ‘sugar is bad’? Even if they do, what is wrong with that (aside from dental cavities)? What kinds of sugars are the complex carbohydrates broken down into?
According to this article pretty much all sugars cause Candida growth.
Sugar – It is best to eliminate all forms of sugar, as it feeds the yeast and encourages its growth. These foods include: white sugar, brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, corn syrup, maple sugar, molasses, date sugar, turbinado, raw sugar, demerrara, amisake, rice syrup, sorghum.
Read labels carefully. The hidden sugars to watch for include: sucrose, fructose, maltose, lactose, glycogen, glucose, mannitol, sorbitol, galactose, monosaccharides, polysaccharides.
Glycemic Index is not really a science as of yet. Glycemic index varies greatly and the numbers that are listed on a chart are usually an individual in a fasting state eating only one food. A variety of factors (drugs, speed of digestion, metabolism, fiber, fat, protein, etc) can all affect glycemic index.
Many people who condemn sugar in my experience only condemn table sugar, they support eating fruits (which have fructose in them) and they support complex carbohydrates (which are broken down into glucose). What I also don’t get is why is fructose (in fruit) considered healthy and complex carbohydrates (which are broken down into glucose) considered healthy but high fructose corn syrup (which is 50% fructose/50% glucose) considered unhealthy?
Sugar is probably not, in and of itself, bad for you. (I’m very dubious about some of the claims in x-ray vision’s link.) However, too much sugar, especially in nutrient-poor foods, is obviously not good for you.
Ripe fruit contains both sugar and lots and lots of vitamins and nutrients. It was a good thing for our ancestors to crave sweetness because they didn’t come across a lot of ripe fruit, and it was good for them, and there wasn’t much else out there that was sweet.
In modern society, we can get sweetness in great abundance, and it is often entirely divorced from nutrients. We often get our sugar, not from the occassional ripe, nutritious fruit, but from sodas, candy, sweetened breakfast cereals, etc.
Consuming too much sugar means consuming lots of calories, which obviously can lead to obesity. In some people’s diets, sugary foods may also crowd out nutritious foods, leading to nutritional deficiences (though I should stress that, contrary to the claims of the dietary supplement industry, most Americans get plenty of vitamins and minerals, even from a very poor junk-food-laden diet.)
There’s also the issue that simple starches and sugars break down very quickly, leading do the spikes of high blood sugar, followed by overcompensation in insulin production, then a period of low blood sugar which can lead to lack of energy and craving sweets, and hence consumption of more sugar. (This is also in x-ray’s link.) It has been suggested that too many severe swings from high to low over a lifetime can be a contributing factor to Type II diabetes.
Althought the blood sugar argument is usually the main one when condemning sugar, I do not know if there is science to support it (I could be wrong). It was my understanding that our understanding of glycemic index wasn’t really applicable to real life, GI readings are taken on unique individuals who are fasting and only eating one food product at a time. This doesn’t include your own personal variance, what other things you eat in your diet (fats, protein & fiber all lower GI), drugs (some drugs speed digestion, some slow it), etc. which can make real life glycemic index situations alot more complex than laboratory readings.
Also, even if a person looks at the GI charts there isn’t really any sense of low GI foods being complex carbohydrates and high GI foods being simple. Coke has a GI of 53 which isn’t exactly low but its not extremely high either.
I think many scientists and science educators would answer the OP by pointing out that the public is massively misinformed, underinformed, or uninformed about things relating to science and nature. And one reason may be that the press, in its endeavors to simplify and get many points across in a limited time and space, tends to oversimplify. At one point, of course, sugar was considered essentially a benign substance. IF it was bad for you, it was because you ate a lot and didn’t brush your teeth, leading to cavities. Or because you ate too much and you got fat. But the material seemed to be inherently safe. And, as we know, it is one of the primary energy sources of life, so it can’t be inherently bad. However, one thing that promoted its bad image was a series of inconclusive studies that led to sensationalistic reports. E.g. Sugar makes kids hyperactive. (I know that will provoke some responses in itself, but the fact is that the studies are inconclusive and what they seem to show is that at most, a small number of people may respond that way, i.e. inconclusive and certainly not definitive). However, once the “fact” is reported, it takes on a life of its own, and people believe it. The point is that just like fire, sugar can be good or bad, depending on how its used. We now do have a deeper understanding of the notion of TOO much sugar, which was a fairly rare notion even 25 years ago. So some new understanding mixed with a scientifically illiterate public has led to the fact that the public considers sugar bad.
One of my points is that all carbs are sugars. Fruits are simple sugars (fructose) and vegetables are complex sugars that are broken down into simple sugars (glucose). So the idea that table sugar or a 50/50 fructose/glucose mixture (which is called high fructose corn syrup and is used in alot of processed foods) is somehow dangerous while fruit sugar and vegetable sugar are healthy doesn’t add up.
The important factor here is that it takes time for your body to break down complex carbs in to simple sugars. That way the sugars are released into the bloodstream a little at a time in a longer period of time. That makes complex carbs a good source of energy. Its when a lot of sugar gets dumped into your bloodstream all at once that the trouble begins.
Who’s telling you that table sugar is dangerous and that fructose is healthy? Its all about the amounts you’re getting. If you’re having a little sugar in your tea, that’s not unhealthy. If your replacing drinking water with drinking apple juice, that is unhealthy. If your eating a handfull of blueberries, that’s healthy. Your getting a little fructose along with lots of nutrients. Its all about moderation.