Sugar - Imperative or Insignificant?

Most of us specify sugar as the biggest evil today. We try our best to drop it from our diets and feel guilty whenever we occasionally give in. But did it ever occur to you if these white crystals that were once an inseparable part of our daily diets, may not be that big an evil as they are lauded to be?

Let us first differentiate between different kinds of sugars :

Crystallized sugar: 

The first type of sugar that comes to mind is the white, crystalized version, commonly known as table sugar. This is the sugar we consume daily. We add a spoonful in our milk, tea, coffee, desserts, and every other sweet treat. 

Artificial sweeteners: 

These are sweeteners, most commonly renamed as “sugar-free” substitutes for dietary sugar.

Natural sugars: 

All vegetables, seeds, fruits have natural sugar content in them. These vary from food to food and are often the safest kind of sugar to be consumed.

Eventually, all 'types' of sugar have the same effect on your body. 

In India, we most commonly consume sugar which comes from sugarcane. According to Celebrity nutritionist Rujuta Diweka, "Sugar to India is as ancient as Yoga and Ayurveda itself as it firmly occupies the position of being one of the panch amrits of nectars of life. Sugar is not dangerous but rather the way it is consumed has changed in recent years. " Some common health problems caused by sugar are obesity, dysfunctional metabolism, liver damage. Excess sugar can even affect your insulin and leptin resistance. Therefore, the consumption of sugar is not the issue, but rather the quantity in which it is consumed.

Glucose, the most natural of all sugars, is essential to life. Our body needs glucose to generate energy. A diet with adequate complex carbohydrates (from foods such as whole grains and legumes), as well as foods containing natural sugar (such as fruit and milk), will fulfill this role. We should look at vegetables, fats, and proteins for our “sugar” intake.  Eat food – any food – and it will turn into glucose. This is true even for green veggies! 

Sugars are carbohydrates; every carbohydrate we eat eventually breaks down into sugar. They are the first energy source the body needs: they are much faster to break down into energy than their protein and fat equivalents. Our bodies can turn proteins, starches, and fats into glucose for our cells so there would be no need to take in any dietary sugars. Of course, almost 100% of the calories in vegetables are from sugars and we wouldn’t want to eliminate them because they include so many essential nutrients!

Many of the foods we consume contain "added" sugars - sugar that we add to a product ourselves to enhance the flavor or sugar that has been added to a product by a manufacturer. Unlike vegetables, these sources of sugar don’t add much nutritionally to the diet–and consuming these sweeteners in excessive quantities is harmful. Medical News Today has reported on numerous studies associating sugar intake with increased aging, cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, tooth cavity, and even cancer.

Sugar is rarely the only reason for obesity and heart disease.  There's no doubt that sugar is a contributing factor to obesity. But it isn't the only thing to consider when trying to lead a healthy lifestyle. It's simple - if you eat a lot of calories, you'll gain weight and become unhealthy." Diabetes is caused by a mix of genetics and environmental factors, but a sugary diet cannot directly cause it (alone). It's a complicated problem involving your pancreas and metabolism. People with diabetes know that if their blood glucose (the glucose levels in our blood) goes too low, they die. In that regard, they do need sugar. Glucose, to be exact. 

Cavities are caused by acidic foods and drinks that wear away the enamel on your teeth. Sugar isn't the cause of tooth decay; acid is.

Here are some important tips to have control over your sugar intake:

• Cut back on the amount of sugar you may regularly add to foods and drinks, such as tea, coffee, cereal and pancakes
• Replace sugar-sweetened beverages with sugar-free or low-calorie drinks
• Compare food labels and select the products with the lowest amounts of added sugars
• When baking cakes, reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe
• Try replacing sugar in recipes with extracts or spices, such as cinnamon, ginger, almond or vanilla
• Replace sugar on cereal or oatmeal with fruit.

World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends having 6-12 teaspoons of sugar every day. Sugar may not be necessary for survival, but glucose is essential to our body. The key thing to remember is that sugars occur naturally in a wide range of foods - including fruit, vegetables and dairy products - and can be consumed within a healthy, balanced diet and active lifestyle. As always, balance and variety in a diet is the most important thing for people to remember.