What I Know About Sugar

Sugar is something I have wanted to know more about for a couple of years. I first learned about it when my friend told me she listened to a podcast about how sugar is bad for you. I researched it a bit but not in depth. I learned that sugar is more addicting than cocaine and it causes a lot of problems most people don’t notice. I decided not to eat sugar for a few months to see how I felt. During that time, I went through withdrawal symptoms like headaches and intense cravings but ended up feeling better than I ever have. On the other hand, I had more energy, I slept better, my body didn’t ache like it often does, and my brain fog was gone. I never bothered to find out why all those things happened though. That is something I would like to learn from this research. I would like to know the science behind sugars effect on the body and mind. Hopefully this will encourage me to cut sugar out of my diet again.

I have done some research on sugar in the past. I wrote a paper on sugar substitutes in a nutrition class I took last year. I wrote about how agave isn’t actually as good as people make it out to be because of the high fructose levels. It actually has more fructose than normal table sugar. When researching for that paper I learned that natural sugars, like the sugar found in fruit, has basically the same effect on the body as refined sugar. The best way to still get your fruit requirement and keep it low sugar is to consume fruit low in fructose such as raspberries and kiwi. Fruits like apples, bananas, and mangoes are extremely high in fructose so they aren’t as good for you as people think. I also learned that fructose is fattening and fats are not. You can’t get fat from eating fat like people have been trained to believe. You actually gain more weight from not eating fat. I’m really looking forward to researching this topic to hopefully better not only my overall health but my brain function as well.

 

Summary of Cherise’s Article

In the article “Is Fructose Bad For You”, written by Patrick J. Skerrett, Skerrett provides information on how nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is caused by sugar intake. The article starts off by explaining that yes, high fructose corn syrup is bad for you, but its the fructose in it that is actually the culprit. Fructose can be found in normal table sugar, honey, fruits, vegetables, and any sweetened foods or drinks. On average, sugar intake has risen from 15 grams per day in the 1800’s to early 1900’s up to 55 grams per day in present time. This is worrisome because ‘it suspiciously parallels increases in obesity, diabetes, and a new condition called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease that now affects up to one-third of Americans”(Skerrett). Triglycerides, one of the end products of the liver breaking down fructose, “can build up in liver cells and damage liver function. Triglycerides released into the bloodstream can contribute to the growth of fat-filled plaque inside artery walls”(Skerrett). Thus leading to heart disease, diabetes, and many other health problems. A main cause for the rise in sugar intake over the years is the “fat is bad” mantra that started in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Company started taking out good and bad fat in food products and replacing it with refined sugar. Nowadays, people are starting to relearn that good fats are very important to you overall health. Lastly, the article states that “experts still have a long way to go to connect the dots between fructose and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer”.However, “higher intakes of fructose are associated with these conditions, but clinical trials have yet to show that it causes them”(Skerrett).

http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/is-fructose-bad-for-you-201104262425