Sugar, That Sweet Poison

Sugar...that sweet poison.

Written on 6/1/2015

A few weeks ago I read an article that is still freaking me out. It was in National Geographic, SUGAR (a not so sweet story) by Rich Cohen. What it revealed; Sugar is slowly killing us all. It's basically poison.

So it seems simple, just decrease the amount of sugar you consume. And, there's where I started to freak out. Checking the labels of my products from home, I saw that EVERYTHING HAS SUGAR. Even thinking that your are having sugary things "in moderation" is often still exceeding the FDA approved amount of sugar per day, about 25 grams.

Don't believe me? An apple cider mix for an 8 oz mug of hot apple cider = 20 grams of sugar. One tablespoon of Nutella = 17g. A Nature's Bounty Oatmeal and Honey granola bar = 12g.

But why is something that is "naturally" found so bad for us. According to the article, at one point during human evolution, our species lived in an area covered in fruits. We ate fruit, and there for sugar, regularly to keep us going. Then, a drought eliminated the plentiful amount of fruits and our ancestors that survived were ones that could slowly metabolize fruit and store it into fat. The adaption caused us to decrease the amount of sugar we consume to a very limited amount, but our addiction to the sweet things around us still grows stronger.

There is too much sugar. In everything. This extreme sugar intake is a likely cause of many diseases in the modern world: heart disease, cancer, and as we know, diabetes..just to name a few. A big part of the problem is processed sugar. Its already so easy for us to digest that our pancreas can't keep up and filter what we don't need out. So its goes quickly from our stomach to our pancreases to fat. And because there is no nutrients being absorbed, we feel lethargic, which causes a lack of exercise, which causes us to become overweight, which causes disease.

Its not just the fat content of a food like we've been repeatedly told. In fact, things with "low" fat, often have high levels of sugar to make them taste better. So, as stated in the article, we are eating things that don't taste as good to be healthy, and by doing that we are actually eating things that are really bad for us, and still don't taste as good. GREAT.

See why this whole sugar thing is stressing me out? I try, admittedly I could try harder, to take care of my body. I try to eat smaller portions of fresher, healthier food. But I never knew sugar was so bad. And now that I know, I'm not even sure how to decrease my intake to below 25 grams a day. I could only eat the most natural of things, which seems easy enough.

But the problem I have is that sugar is delicious and I love it. Should I give up something that I love now to make sure I'll live an extended healthy life? Or keep eating it because, hey, its tastes good...great... and you only live once.

I suppose it all comes back to balance just like everything else. Do I really need to put sugar in my coffee or tea? Do I need a coca-cola? No. Is it okay to indulge in a sugary delight like ice cream occasionally? I think so. I suppose being aware of the sugar problem we all face was just another reminder that its important to take care of yourself and know what you are consuming.

So, it seems, its less about deprivation entirely, but more about restraint. Not eating a entire bag of Twizzler's in one sitting. Not just "in moderation" but only occasionally in manageable amounts.

Although, I can't help but wonder if I could go a day, or maybe even a week avoiding sugar (excluding sugar in fruit). Especially here, it seems simple enough. Vegetables and fruits are inexpensive and easily available to me. I cook for myself almost every day. Maybe a sugar-free week will be a blog post yet to come.