Starter Byte Challenge Day 9: How Sweet It Is- All About Sugar
Yesterday we talked about carbohydrates. Sugar is one of the 3 types of carbs. It’s not all bad.
Hi. Quick review. The 3 types of carbs are: sugars, starch, and fiber. Most food we eat has carbs. Most foods have a combination of different types of carbs.
Our first carb is sugar. It's naturally found in foods that grow from the ground or trees (think fruits & some veggies like potatoes).
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What’s In A Name?
Honey, made of 2 types of sugar- glucose and fructose.
If we’re talking about sugar, let’s iron out our vocabulary. Sugar isn’t just one thing. There are many types of sugar. They all work differently in your body, and they all have different names. The table sugar you eat or bake with (white or brown) is sucrose. The sugar that grows naturally in fruit is fructose. The sugar naturally found in dairy products like milk is lactose. Other types of sugars are less common. Some sweeteners (like honey) will give you glucose. Remember, your body makes glucose from the sugary and starchy foods you eat. Other sweeteners (like corn syrup) are made of maltose. Of course, we’ve all heard about high-fructose corn syrup made of glucose and unnaturally high amounts of fructose.
Later, we’ll get into the weeds and talk about how these different types of sugar can affect your health. For now, let’s stick with the big picture. What’s most important to your health is how you get the sugar.
By The Numbers
Despite what you’ve heard, sugar isn’t all bad. Like most nutrients, sugar can be helpful or harmful depending on what type you eat and how much you eat. Here’s a glimpse of the bright side:
First, sugar is a form of energy (4 calories per gram), and humans need energy to live. So there’s that.
Next, in naturally sweet foods, sugar is usually tied to a lot of helpful nutrients. For example, fruits naturally have sugar in them. Fruits also contain fiber, which promotes gut health and heart health. Plus, many fruits tend to have antioxidants (vitamins A,C and E) that promote heart health.
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We have to note here that people with diabetes need to watch their sugar intake very closely. If you have diabetes type 1 or type 2, your doctor or dietitian might steer you away from high-sugar fruits like bananas. However, a general diet, eating sugar as it naturally exists in foods with healthful nutrients is not problematic. It’s the processed sugar that scientists have connected to a long list of chronic diseases. You read that right, too much sugar over years can lead to irreversible health conditions, badness that can technically never be cured but which could have been prevented. Here are just a few of the health conditions that have been linked to eating too much processed sugar:
Stroke
Fatty liver disease leading to cirrhosis and need for liver transplant
Overweight and obesity linked to 13 types of cancer and high blood pressure
Ignore all that scariness for a moment. It turns out that eating foods that naturally contain sugars plus other nutrients ISN’T linked to the diseases above. So, if not all sugar will cause diseases, how do you know which type will? 2 words: PROCESSED FOODS.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s topic: Free and Added Sugars
Sourced from the American Diabetes Association.