Today marks the start of Sugar Awareness Week (8-14th November), led by Action on Sugar. This campaign was launched in 2014 to “inform and influence sugar policies within the UK.”1 We’ve already seen the impact of this through the reformulation of many products, particularly beverages, by manufacturers. This is good at an industry level, however there’s a question as to whether having a ‘Sugar Awareness Week’ is actually helpful on an individual level. Is this just sending out the (misleading) message that sugar is ‘bad’ and should be avoided? This article explores sugar: what is it and is it really something to be avoided?
What is sugar?
Sugar is carbohydrate in its simplest form. All carbohydrates are made up of units of sugar. Common sugars within our diet include fructose, glucose, galactose, sucrose and lactose. Sugars are naturally occurring within lots of foods such as fruits, vegetables and dairy. They get broken down by the body and absorbed into the blood stream, as the easiest available form of energy.
The dietary guidelines within the UK recommend that carbohydrates make up roughly 50% of food intake. This makes sense, as they are such a widely available form of energy and we need to eat a certain amount of energy for our bodies to function normally. Carbohydrates are particularly important for brain function, as the brain won’t work properly off any other forms of energy.
Sugar Awareness Week
Campaigns such as Sugar Awareness Week do not have an aim of getting you to reduce your fruit/veg and starchy carbohydrate intake. Their concern is ‘added sugar’ which means any sugar which isn’t naturally occurring within a food and has been added in by the manufacturer for its sweet taste. Dietary guidelines recommend that intakes of added sugar should be 5% or less of food intake. This includes foods such as cakes, biscuits, sweets and sugar sweetened beverages. As an intuitive eater, who believes that no food should be labelled ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ I’d like to discuss the fairness of sugar getting this bad rep.
The science
When talking about added sugar, we are normally meaning white table sugar which is sucrose. When eaten, one molecule of sucrose is broken down by the body into one molecule of fructose (exactly like the sugar in fruit) and one molecule of glucose (the body’s preferred energy form). There is nothing ‘toxic’ about sucrose, it doesn’t do anything strange to your body – it’s just food, which acts like food.
Too much of anything isn’t healthy
Eating too much of anything in life is not healthy. If the majority of your food consumption is sugar, its just as unhealthy as if the majority of your food consumption was fat, or protein. Our body needs a variety of different food sources to function at its best. Therefore, from this point of view, yes – eating too much sugar is unhealthy if you’re not eating much of any other food type.
It’s been claimed that sugar should be avoided as it’s easier to overeat due to its sweet taste. This is a myth. It’s been shown that eating sweet foods such as chocolate, lights up the dopamine pleasure pathway in the brain. Sweet food signifies comfort to a lot of people and sugar tends to get overeaten in circumstances such as disordered or emotional eating. In this case, it’s likely a person may need to get help for those specific issues, it’s not actually a problem with the sugar itself. As for those who believe that sugar is addictive – food addiction is a theory which has not been proven. You can read more about this here.
There is one gripe to be had with sugar – it is a fact that it can rot your teeth. However, having an awareness of this and keeping on top of good dental hygiene with a good brushing/flossing routine should keep any dangers from sugar at bay.
Sugar is a lifesaver
Let’s briefly mention diabetes – sugar can literally be lifesaving for a diabetic (any type). A normal blood sugar level in the human body is between 4 and 7 mmol/L. Any deviation from this can cause serious harm. In healthy individuals, the hormones insulin and glucagon are close regulators of blood sugar levels. However, for diabetics, there is something wrong with this regulation system (usually to do with inefficient insulin production or insulin resistance). This means that blood sugar levels in diabetics have the potential to go either too high (hyperglycaemia) or too low (hypoglycaemia). The treatment for hypoglycaemia is to consume glucose tablets (literally eating pure sugar). Surely it doesn’t make sense to demonise anything which is a necessity to keep your body alive?! Similarly, it’s normal practice to give someone a biscuit after they’ve given blood – to help stabilise their blood sugars and stop them from fainting!
The importance of food satisfaction
As mentioned previously, sugar lights up the dopamine pleasure pathway within the brain. This means it gives us food satisfaction. Food satisfaction is more important than you may think – the Japanese actually have food satisfaction within their nutritional guidelines! Food satisfaction is a survival mechanism because for the human species to survive, we have to want to eat food! Some argue that foods with added sugars are ‘empty calories’ (low nutritional value) so there’s no need for them in our diets. I respectfully disagree. Many people find the sweet taste of sugar very satisfying – which is a part of life – why should we feel ashamed to enjoy something purely for satisfaction? By restricting yourself of this satisfaction and cutting out added sugar, you may find yourself overeating as a compensatory action for not giving your body what it actually wants. For example, if you’re fancying something sweet – eating what you fancy will satisfy your craving and you can move on with your day!
So how helpful is Sugar Awareness Week?
It’s stated that Action on Sugar’s mission is to ‘inform and influence sugar reduction policies in the UK.”1 The biggest impact of these policies is at industry level as the manufacturers reformulate their products to contain less sugar. I agree that a reduced added sugar content without changing the flavour of products is not a bad thing, as it’s unnecessary to have so much sugar in a product if not needed.
However, sugar has been unfairly demonised. Why does there need to be a ‘Sugar Awareness Week’ in the public eye for this to be able to happen? It’s not a disease. It’s not something which can become dangerous to the body such as alcohol. So why put confusion out there and treat this food like a problem for individuals? Putting any type of food into the spotlight and demonising it is not helpful to anybody’s health. If anything, it can have the negative effect of fuelling disordered eating behaviours – diet culture territory – which is something to be more worried about when it comes to our health.
What are your thoughts on sugar? If you found this article interesting, please leave a comment below and share this with your friends. If you’re worried about your nutritional health, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and book your FREE 20 minute discovery call now to find out what Hattie can do for you.
References
- Action on Sugar (2021). About Us. Available from: About us – Action on Sugar (Accessed 5th November 2021).
