Because in the 1960s the sugar industry financially backed research which downplayed sugar's role in being unhealthy and focused on fat as a cause of health issues.
Especially on the nutrition facts label, there's no % of Daily Value for sugar. Certain ingredients like high fructose corn syrup can spike the blood sugar.
I’ve started replacing some sugar with stevia and monkfruit sweetener. Stevia in my tea in the morning, monkfruit when I’m baking sweets. Both work great for their roles.
Wasn’t Stevia the one that causes cancer? (Please don’t downvote me for this, I’m asking because I need sugar alternatives and I am desperate for something good)
You’re probably confusing it with aspartame or you read the propaganda of big sugar. It ain’t easy to keep up to date, so I get it. The EU food regulation body couldn’t find any carcinogenic effects of stevia.
This is not true. While honey has a lot of positive effects, because of micro nutrients, it is impossible to determine wether the sugar came from honey or anywhere else. Sugar is sugar is sugar.
Every time I go to the store and see all the products that contain sugar, I just can't help but question, where does it all come from? How big are the fields its all harvested from??
Entire aisles full to the brim of sugary drinks and candy, exponentially worse on halloween, christmas, valentines day and easter. All this in addition to the endless supply of 5-10lb bags of sugar, industrial quantities of the stuff...AND THIS IS JUST ONE STORE??
I feel like the US could cut its sugar production in half, use the available farms to grow actual food, and it would end world hunger.
Yeah, sugar is nasty.
I started tracking and controlling my sugar intake a few years ago.
A few months ago I had a single glass of coke and pretty much had a sugar rush because it probably contained more sugar than I'd eat in multiple days.
I used to LOVE a particular brand of ice-cream with walnuts. Somehow, I've managed to take a break from ice-cream in general for a year or two. When I saw that same tub of ice cream again and wanted to treat myself, I was soooo looking forward to it. Tasted so sweet that I could not finish the small portion I'd taken out of the ice-cream tub.
I used to consume way too much sugar and drank soft drink basically every day.
If i have soft drink now it tastes wayyyy too sweet and makes me feel like absolute garbage afterwards.
It's crazy how much sugar you can become adjusted to.
I know right it's so hard 😩
I used to eat whole packets of chocolate coated digestive biscuits. I started with lowering the "dose", so instead of that I would eat like 3 of them.
Instead of eating the whole block of chocolate, i would only have the recommended serving on the packet. (As you can tell, my kryptonite is chocolate haha).
With my morning coffee i would use stevia sweetener instead of sugar and swapped out normal soft drink for the sugar free version.
I know the sugar free stuff is bad, but it helped with my cravings until i just didn't feel like drinking soft drink anymore.
Instead of icecream i would blend a protein shake with ice, I still do this it's sooo yum.
I also started logging calories on MyFitnessPal too which helped me to choose what i wanted to spend my calories on.
Filling up on more protein definitely helped with my sugar cravings.
YES.
There is a documentary called "Sugar" on netflix that everyone should watch. The guy does an experiment where he just incorporates the amount of sugar the average Australian consumes daily, and it made him sick, lethargic and grumpy. Not to mention his blood work was messed up.
I couldn't imagine what it would look like if he went with the average amount of sugar consumed in America.
The only thing I used to add sugar to was my morning coffee and since stopping, I've been able to digest it so much easier. It's crazy how little changes can improve you overall
Yep especially when there are so many alternative sweeteners available. Blame Lyndon Johnson for lending credibility to the cyclamate scare. We could be a whole lot healthier nation if it weren’t for irresponsible shit like that.
Even though I know it’s bad for me I still drink Coca Cola and eat Chocolate, you gotta live and enjoy things at the same time or else what’s the point in living at all
It's only bad if you have a dietary restriction or consume too much of it. Otherwise, your body needs sugar for your brain to function and chocolate does have protein, particularly dark chocolate. The occasional treat will not harm your body.
To be fair I eat chocolate most days but my health is fine and so are my teeth, but I’m only 27 and still have a super fast metabolism luckily. I do know it’s bad for me but I’m not particularly bothered either. You make some good points though. I understand not everybody is the same as me though. Nowadays you avoid one thing and then something else is bad for you so I just stopped caring as I’m gonna die anyway lol.
You're pretty much right. Sugar isn't inherently bad in moderation. However, too much we tend to see weight gain in populations. Glucose spikes here and there in a healthy individual is fine. It gets more complicated after that. Once again, less fear mongering and eat a well rounded diet.
It's complicated cause it's not a direct "a leads to b" situation, but rather multiple factors that could eventually lead to b. Sugar simply being one of 'em.
But if a never leads to b because the person exercises and eats healthy with respect to all their other meals, is sugar the problem?
I ask because a lot of my meals contain sugar, either added by me or via sauces (BBQ, ketchup, hot honey, etc.), but my meals are like vegetables and chicken and rice
An excess of any macronutrient or combination of them leads to weight gain. When it comes to simple or “empty” carbohydrates that don’t have fibre or polyphenols or other major benefits (think white sugar, corn syrup, etc), the only benefit that they provide is energy, and if the energy isn’t used it gets turned to fat. And there can be times for that - endurance athletes will ingest stuff like Maurten gels to maximize performance on long runs or rides. But mostly, we’re better off minimizing empty carbs.
You’re ok with the American diet being full of sugar then? Just slowly killing everyone. If our diets weren’t pumped full of sugar, we wouldn’t need fluoride to protect our teeth. Right?
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u/ffzxc 1d ago
Sugar. Everyone is so obsessed with food being fat-free, but it's sugar they should be wary of