5 Guidelines for Eating Sugar
OK, I admit it – I love sugary foods. Fresh, chewy gumme bears are my particular weakness. I’ve been known to blow through an entire bag of gumme bears after a especially stressful day. I have flown to Germany just to score gumme bears. They are devoid of any nutritional content, yet I end up popping the darling, rainbow colored little bears like an addict. And I know better!
Most of us have a love/hate relationship with sugar. This blog will give you five guidelines on how to get sugar into your diet in a way that won’t make you feel guilty.
1. Just Say “Know”
Glycogen, a carbohydrate stored in your liver and muscles, is a short term reservoir of energy. After eating sugar (glucose), insulin is produced in your pancreas to transport the glucose. Your body uses all the glucose it needs for immediate fuel but any remaining glucose is stored as glycogen. If your blood glucose level falls, your body stops releasing insulin and releases another substance, glucagon, which converts glycogen (stored energy) to glucose.
When your body gets sugar from natural sources, like fruits and veggies, the fiber in them slows absorption. When you eat foods with added sugar, this can overwhelm the usual checks and balances, causing problems like blood sugar spikes. Eating too much added sugar can cause a host of other problems, including tooth decay, increased triglycerides (or stored fat), and malnutrition from too many foods filled with empty calories and deficient in nutrients.
You’ll get all the energy you need from foods with naturally occurring sugar. If you are able to eat foods that are completely free of added sugar, you are among the hallowed few. For the rest of us, the best strategy is to indulge in moderation.
2. Less Is More
One teaspoon of table sugar has 15 calories. If you have a couple of cups of tea or coffee in the morning and you use a spoonful of sugar in each, that’s 30 calories. If the rest of your diet is tight and you’re active, the impact is minimal. If you’re trying to lose weight and eating at a severe deficit, you’ll probably want to skip those few spoonfuls of sugar, because refined sugar is nutritionally empty and you want every calorie to have nutritional value. With that as the only caveat, enjoy your coffee with a bit of sugar (if you can’t stomach black coffee or don’t like an artificial sweetener such as Splenda)
3. Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup
In a recent study at Princeton University, two groups of rats (I know, I know, a previous blog had a rat study in it—this won’t be my signature element) were fed a sucrose solution and a high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) solution. The rats that consumed HFCS got fatter. “Some people have claimed that high fructose corn syrup is no different than other sweeteners when it comes to weight gain and obesity,” said study leader Bart Hoebel, “but our results make it clear that this just isn’t true, at least under the conditions of our tests.”
There are a few couple of theories about why HFCS is worse than other sweeteners. One is that the ratio of fructose to glucose in HFCS is slightly higher. Another is that in the HFCS manufacturing process, fructose molecules are free and unbound, making them easier to absorb. The fructose in table sugar is bonded to the glucose, which means it requires an extra step to be metabolized.
It’s easy to avoid the obvious sweetened foods like soda, cake, cookies, and pies. It requires more vigilance to steer clear of the less obvious ones because manufacturers add HFCS (as well as other sugars) to a myriad of products because it adds flavor. The ingredient list in a large percentage of foods contain sweeteners; e.g., ketchup, peanut butter, bread, salad dressing – to name a few. You can usually find organic versions of the same food with no added sugars or HFCS. Vigilance is the name of the game.
4. The Sugar in Fruit Isn’t Bad for You
Fruit can be loaded with sugar, but it usually contains fiber, which slows sugar absorption, making it an ideal way to get your simple carbohydrates without straining your insulin levels. Additionally, fruit is filled with easy-to-absorb vitamins and minerals and most fruit is also filled with water.
Even relatively low-fiber fruits like bananas offer many benefits. Bananas are rich in electrolytes, which are crucial to sports performance.
You will have to look pretty hard to find an overweight person whose biggest indulgence is fruit.
5. VERY Rarely Refined Sugar Can Be Beneficial
Imagine your favorite fitness professional has just put you through a killer workout and you’ve blown through the sugar in your blood and your glycogen stores, leaving you shaky and tired. Eating some sugar to recharge quickly isn’t a bad idea. Since sugar is absorbed quickly, it’s a great opportunity to add some protein and micro-nutrients to the sugar blast, because they’ll be absorbed just as quickly. If you gave the workout your all and you’re truly wiped out, you won’t even come close to storing that sugar as fat.
Parting Advice
If you’ve been sitting on the couch channel surfing, it’s best to have an apple. After finishing the apple, pick up the phone and call a qualified trainer.
