A lot of people aren’t aware of the dangers of sugar.
A lot of people focus on the amount of fat in their food and have
heard a lot of old wives’ tales about how damaging fat can be when actually,
what’s recognized as the biggest danger to health and to actually causing
a lot of obesity is a high sugar diet.
A lot of people aren’t aware of the dangers of sugar.
A lot of people focus on the amount of fat in their food and have heard
a lot of old wives’ tales about how damaging fat can be when actually,
what’s recognized as the biggest danger to health and to actually
causing a lot of obesity is a high sugar diet.
Video highlights:
00:00 – Dangers of a chronic high sugar diet
00:27 – Too much sugar reduces your ability to handle carbohydrates
00:51 – A high sugar diet reduces your insulin sensitivity
01:09 – Insulin response to meals is increased with too much sugar
01:28 – Excess fat gain results from a high sugar diet
02:14 – Effects of Glycation
02:39 – Prevalence of added sugar
02:50 – Common names for sugar
05:06 – Food manufacturers add sugar to many foods you’d never expect
05:19 – Look at labels with a critical eye and be careful
06:05 – The sugar content of common foods
06:10 – The typical person consumes 34 teaspoons of sugar per day
08:00 – Minimize your sugar intake when trying to lose fat or be healthy
08:17 – Studies show that diet soft drinks make you fat as well
So some of the things that having too much sugar in your diet can do is actually reduce your ability to be able to handle carbohydrates, e.g. when you do come to have carbohydrates, what happens is that you’re far more likely to store them as fat in your body because your body isn’t able to handle them as effectively. A high sugar diet also reduces your insulin sensitivity, which again, is tied in to how you handle carbohydrate, but actually makes you far more sensitive and far more likely to get diabetes. It also increases your insulin response to meals, which basically means that every meal that you do have is far more likely to be stored as fat because insulin is the fat storage hormone. Without insulin, you can’t actually store fat, and a high sugar diet means that you’re producing far more insulin.
A high sugar diet, as it says there, also leads to excess fat gain due to the chronically high insulin levels, as I just mentioned. But it especially creates fat around the love handle and upper back areas. So, you can always tell if you’re able to handle carbohydrates by how easily you store fat around those areas, particularly the upper back. The upper back is somewhere where you can tell. If you have excess fat there, then you’re far less likely to be able to handle carbohydrates in general. So then, when you do have any sort of sugar, you’re far more likely to store it around your love handles. So, if you find that actually, your love handle area is one of your problem areas, then looking at the amount of sugar you’re actually taking in is probably the best thing that you can do to really try and fix that.
Also due to something called “Glycation” with excess sugar intake, it can also cause premature aging, cancer, altered vision, cataracts, Alzheimer’s, some vascular disease, erectile dysfunction, kidney disease, joint pain and arthritis. A whole host of different diseases are actually linked to excess sugar.
Now, a lot of people don’t actually realize when they’re having sugar as nowadays, sugar can be added to a lot of different sorts of foods and in just general food preparation. So, to make you aware, there’s lots of different names for sugar. So, if you’re ever looking at food packaging, it’s not just going to say “sugar” on it. It may be – well, I mean, a lot of the companies are very smart and they use different names so that people aren’t aware actually what they’re taking in.
So, just to make you aware of the other names that sugar can come and be called is sucrose, fructose, glucose, maltose, dextrose. So there are a lot of “oses” at the end, as you can see. Maltodextrin, hydrolyzed starch, inverted sugar, corn syrup, honey, which is obviously sugar. Cane sugar, agave nectar. And that’s one thing just to mention. A lot of people are always promoting as a health food, agave nectar. But actually, I think it’s 98% fructose. So actually, we wouldn’t suggest it as an everyday food to have and as a sugar substitute. It’s fine if you’re going to have it as a special occasion and a special cheat meal or what have you, but having it every day is not recommended. Sugar beets is also another name for sugar. High fructose-corn sweetener, maple syrup, molasses are also names that they can be called. So, it’s important that you get used to kind of looking at your foods, the packages, and seeing what it’s actually called. So sugar can be hidden in a number of different ways, as you can see by the different names that it can be called.
So how much sugar to actually aim for in a food? Foods that contain less than 5 grams of sugar per 100 grams of food are considered low sugar. Although, you should look for foods with as close to 0 grams of sugar as possible. And what you find is the healthier a food, the less sugar it generally has. It certainly doesn’t need any added sugar. And generally, healthy foods are much higher in fibre anyway so the amount of sugar they actually have is much, much lower. So, if you’re looking on a packet, then looking to as close as certainly below 5 grams per 100 grams of food, but as close to 0 grams of sugar as possible.
It’s very important that you are aware that food manufacturers do add sugar to a load of different sorts of foods that you wouldn’t actually expect. So frozen fruit, bread, dressings, sauces and loads of other things. So it’s very important that you do kind of cotton on to that and get used to just looking at the package just to see if added sugar has been thrown in there. I mean, frozen fruit, you wouldn’t have thought would need any sort of added sugar as fruit is full of fructose and has sugar naturally itself, but what you find is a lot of these food manufacturers do throw in a lot of extra sugar. So it’s important that you keep a really critical eye and look at labels and that you’re aware of everything that is in your food. Make sure that you also check out any drinks because they can have added sugar as well. So fruit concentrates. Also, purees and sweeteners often have a lot of added sugar in them.
So, here’s just a quick glance at the sugar content of common foods to make you aware. So the average typical person actually takes in 34 teaspoons of sugar per day. If you actually got that out and just put that in a glass or what have you, that would seem an enormous amount of sugar to you and would be quite frightening. But people quite often just have that throughout the day without really realizing because it’s within their food and they’re not really aware of it.
So 2 slices of bread is actually 3 teaspoons of sugar. One bowl of cereal, your average breakfast cereal, is 4 ½ teaspoons. One bagel, 4 to 5 teaspoons. 80 grams of dried fruit is 4 teaspoons. So that’s why for fat loss, dried fruit is not really recommended because it is a very much more concentrated version of the real thing and has far, far more sugar comparative to the amount of food you eat. So that’s 4 teaspoons just for a normal size amount of dried fruit. So try and stay away from the dried fruit if you’re looking for fat loss. One can of soft drinks or a Coke or Sprite or what have you, 9 teaspoons of sugar, which is quite frightening.
So, that’s one of the things to really be aware of. That if you’re eating healthily but you’re drinking a lot of soft drinks like lots of Cokes and things like that, then every single can, you’re getting 9 teaspoons of sugar. So it’s really important that you’re aware and really try and cut down those sorts of drinks because you’re going to be getting far too much sugar for one, to be healthy, but two, for fat loss, and it’s going to make you far more likely to store fat and far harder to lose fat by having that amount of sugar just in a drink.
One bowl of ice cream is actually 23 teaspoons of sugar. So that’s why if you’re going to be having ice cream, it’s best to limit it to your special cheat meals. So, when we’re looking at trying to lose fat or to just generally be healthy, it’s important you minimize your sugar intake as much as possible. Be aware of everything you eat or drink that contains sugar and try and minimize it. So like we said, below 5 grams. Definitely, as close to 0 grams as possible.
Now it’s important to mention with Coke and soft drinks like that, that studies have shown that a lot of people try and think they’re being healthier by having diet soft drinks. But, the studies do show that they actually have the same effect on your body and body composition, e.g. fat gain as the real full fat version as your body actually can’t really differentiate between the two. So, when the drink enters your body, it’s tasted as sweet. Actually, it can get quite technical, but your stomach almost can taste things. So it kind of tastes sweet. And so, therefore, the same hormones are released, e.g. insulin and things like that so you’re just as likely to put on fat by drinking the diet version. So, we really, really do strongly recommend that you really aim to cut down either the full fat or the diet versions and try and replace them with water. I mean, lime water and things like that if you want the taste. But just by cutting down those sorts of drinks, you’re going to find that it’s a lot easier to lose fat. Plus, you’re going to be a lot healthier.
So, I hope you found that interesting. It can be quite frightening when you realize just how much sugar there is in food. But by hopefully making you aware and encouraging you to look at the labels, you’re going to be able to definitely lower the amount of sugar you’re taking daily.
