The Sweetest Email
And The Bittersweet Truth About Sugar
No one has a bigger sweet tooth than me
Ice cream, cake, cookies, brownies - you name it, I’ve likely grappled with the fear of a restaurant I go to not having a good dessert menu.
The thing is… we expect desserts to have sugar in them. What we don’t always expect to have sugar is our salad dressing, pasta sauces, bread, soup, cured meats, nut butters, crackers, ROTISSERIE CHICKEN.
Foods that get sneakily LOADED with sugar - yogurt, coffee creamer, cereal, granola bars, juice. Just to name a few.
Added Sugar
“The definition of added sugars includes sugars that are either added during the processing of foods, or are packaged as such, and include sugars from syrups and honey [as *added* to another food, but not considered on its own], and sugars from concentrated fruit or vegetable juices that are in excess of what would be expected from the same volume of 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice of the same type.” - The FDA
As an example, the nutrition label on a bottle of honey will only read “Total Sugars” because honey is sugar. However, on a box of granola that is sweetened with honey, the nutrition label will show “Total Sugars” AND “Inc. x grams of Added Sugar”.
The Dangers of Added Sugar
Having ~some~ sugar is not a terrible thing. It is when everything we eat has sugar where it starts to quickly add up and become a health risk.
"The effects of added sugar intake — higher blood pressure, inflammation, weight gain, diabetes, and fatty lever disease — are all linked to an increased risk for heart attack and stroke” - Harvard Medical School
“Excess sugar consumption has been associated with cirrhosis, neuropathy, kidney disease, general inflammation, and cancer. In fact, there are several cancer links, [including] breast, colon, and endometrial.” - Dr. Rekha B. Kumar, Endocrinologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
“Sugar turns on many mechanisms of disease and death, including inflammation. It fuels cancer and heart disease, it drives hormonal changes, it slows metabolism, and it literally shuts down the body’s ability to burn fat. On top of all that, sugar is highly addictive: the more we eat, the more we want.” - Dr Mark Hyman, Functional Medicine Expert
Check Your Nutrition Labels
For someone like me, sugar would have to be ripped out of my cold dead hands, so giving it up completely is not the approach to a healthy diet that would work for me. What does work for me is checking nutrition labels so that I can choose a BBQ sauce or a yogurt that does not include added sugar.
The FDA recommends consuming no more than 50g of added sugar a day…. *Insert the currently viral TikTok of the guy saying “You sure about that?” If you think you are someone that consumes a lot of sugar on a daily basis than 50g/day might be a decent start. But the more we are mindful of our sugar intake, the better.
- Jennell
