I posted this question in the foods section, but I didn't get any responses, so I figured I would try it again over here. It has been said that it is important to watch how much sugar a person takes in each day, especially when trying to lose weight. The problem that I am having, however, is that I love fruit, and fruit is loaded with sugar. My question is, is all sugar bad for you, or is it just the processed stuff? Also, what are the effects of too much sugar, other than the spike and subsequent crash of insulin levels?
I think you may not be getting an answer because no one really knows. I've wondered the same thing and I've gotten two extreme answers.
Some people think extra sugar in any form will store as fat, others think "a calorie is a calorie".
I've done research on different types of sugar trying to figure out how they affect my blood sugar and so far have learned that table sugar is bad and fruit sugar is less bad but still not good if it's overdone.
So my answer to you, moderation.
Thank you
I'm like you; I love me some fruit, and as a result of aiming for a lower-fat, higher-fiber, higher-protein diet, I've ended up eating a lot of sweet things. (Fiber bars, protein bars, fruit...and a lot of reduced-fat things are sweeter, like peanut butter.)
Skookum pretty much has it. I am in the 'a calorie is more or less a calorie' category, but there is some evidence that processed food is less healthy than less-processed food, such that fruit is better than candy. The biggest problem with sugar, as far as I can tell, is its potential to cause diabetes by wearing out your pancreas. From what I have read, natural sugar is less likely to cause this than processed sugar (in part because natural sugar tends to come with fiber, which slows digestion and absorption, resulting in less of a spike of insulin production).
The only other thing I would add is this: humans are apes, and are probably better equipped, physiologically, to deal with sugar in fruits than a lot of other animals, even other omnivores. Our distant ancestors ate a lot of fruit.
It would be a good idea to research the amount of fructose (sugar that occurs naturally in fruit) in each fruit. For example, until I looked it up, I had no idea that bananas have to most sugar of the fruits. Obviously there are fruits that are lower/higher than others.
As Skookum said, moderation is the key. Yes, fruits and vegetables are good for you, but too much of one or the other can always be harmful to a degree. I knew a guy who never ate candy or sugar but had multiple pieces of fruit for each meal. He ended up being diabetic.
I would say follow the food pyramid and the suggested number of servings per day.
In all seriousness, I guess I'm of the school that a calorie is a calorie, fresh food is better than processed, and raw food is better than cooked. But I still have a teaspoon of sugar in my coffee every morning. True, I've switched to an organic raw sugar rather than white sugar, but even that's got to be better nutritionally than "Sweet'n'Low" or "Equal" or some other chemical?
Just my thoughts.
Because they are digested very quickly, any processed carbohydrates (sugar and white flour are the most common) cause a rapid increase in blood sugar which signals the body to dump a lot of insulin into your system to reduce the blood sugar. The processing has done most of the breaking down before you even eat anything (btw-insulin also signals fat cells to accept excess calories into storage.) When the sugar in the blood is removed so quickly due to the amount of insulin your body has released into your system, you end up with an extreme drop in blood sugar which signals your brain that you need to eat.
As lionpaw said, sugars in fruits are complex carbohydrates because they are bound with fiber and the sugar is released into the blood much more slowly because the bonds need to be broken down which takes longer. You don't get a sudden spike in blood sugar and the body doesn't panic and send out too much insulin (made in the pancreas). Same for starchy vegetables. The goal is to maintain a fairly constant medium level of blood sugar.
Fruits and starchy vegetables are WAY better than anything with white flour or table sugar. Non-starch veggies are even better than starchy veggies and fruit. But as with any food, a calorie is a calorie and you can gain weight if you eat too many of those little buggers no matter where they come from. Avoiding simple (processed) carbs will help you avoid too many calories.
And that's our science lesson for the day.; "{#emotions_dlg.tongue-out}")
