Struggling with your weight even though you watch what you eat and avoid fat?

Then avoid daily use of soft drinks or sodas, sweetened fruit juices and processed sweet foods. This last item can cover hundreds of foods on the supermarket shelves!

Why?

                                                                                                                           Evidence is mounting that sugar not fat is THE MAJOR CULPRIT causing obesity and chronic disease. Science (1,2) has now shown us, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that sugar in your food, in all its myriad of forms, is taking a devastating toll on health.

Sugar is loaded into your soft drinks, fruit juices, sports drinks, and hidden in almost all processed foods—from salami to biscuits to Worcestershire sauce to cheese spread. And now most infant formula has a high sugar content, so babies are becoming accustomed to sweetness and being metabolically ‘poisoned’ from day one if taking formula.

Consumption of sugar by the average person in America has gone from about 4 pounds per year in 1700 to a massive 180 pounds per year or half a pound of sugar PER DAY - in 2009. But the trend of higher sugar consumption is also found here in Australia. A new breed of sparkling fruit juices that contain more sugar than CocaCola have been labelled ‘Worst Offenders’ in a review of 40 popular drinks marketed for children and teenagers in Australia.

What is the problem?

The single largest source of calories in America comes from sugar— specifically from high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).
 
While it has been claimed that HFCS is no different from any other forms of sugar, it has been shown that “when rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they're becoming obese -- every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don't see this; they don't all gain extra weight" (Professor Hoebel a specialist in the neuroscience of appetite, weight and sugar addiction).
 
Researchers also found that in addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides. Making matters even worse, two other recent studies have also linked HFCS to liver disease (A third found no connection).

Are all sugars and sweeteners bad?

It is both the amount and type of sugar that causes problems.

While the body needs glucose to drive the energy of cellular activity, insulin keeps the blood glucose in balance within a narrow range. When this is too high, we run the risk of Diabetes and other conditions and too low we cease to function.
 
Fructose is a sugar found mainly in fruits, which undergoes metabolic processing in the liver. And therein lies the problem. Studies have suggested that consuming too much fructose messes up all kinds of things in the body. Some show a correlation with obesity. Fructose tends to promote an increase in triglycerides in the blood, which are a definite marker for heart disease. Other studies have shown that fructose pulls important minerals from the blood and also increases levels of uric acid in the body, an abundance of which brings about the symptoms of gout. Studies have also shown fatty liver disease from too much fructose, making the liver look like that of an alcoholic. And finally, fructose reduces circulating insulin, leptin, and ghrelin levels, hormones which control satiety and appetite.

Basically

• Dextrose, glucose and fructose are all simple sugars. The difference comes from how they are metabolized in the body.
• The simple sugars can combine to form more complex sugars, like sucrose (table sugar), which is half glucose and half fructose. 
• High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose.
• Honey is about 53 percent fructose, but is completely natural in its raw form and has many health benefits when used in moderation, including as many antioxidants as spinach. 
• Ethanol (drinking alcohol) is not a sugar, although beer and wine contain residual sugars and starches, in addition to alcohol.
• Sugar alcohols like xylitol, glycerol, sorbitol, maltitol, mannitol, and erythritol are neither sugars nor alcohols but are becoming increasingly popular as sweeteners. They are incompletely absorbed from your small intestine, for the most part, so they provide fewer calories than sugar but often cause problems with bloating, diarrhea and flatulence. 
• Sucralose (Splenda) is NOT a sugar, despite its sugar-like name and deceptive marketing slogan, “made from sugar.” It’s a chlorinated artificial sweetener in line with aspartame and saccharin, with detrimental health effects to match. 
• Agave syrup, falsely advertised as “natural,” is typically HIGHLY processed and is usually 80 percent fructose. The end product does not even remotely resemble the original agave plant. 
• Stevia is a highly sweet herb derived from the leaf of the South American stevia plant, which is completely safe (in its natural form). 

Therefore it is really important to check the labels to see what type of sugar or energy source is listed.

What is the problem with HFCS in particular?

HFCS will not only put on kilos faster than other ingredients, including other sugars, it promotes a particularly dangerous kind of body fat called adipose fat. (1) This is the type of fat that collects in your abdominal region and is associated with a greater risk of heart disease.

What about fruit?

Seeing that fructose may be the negative and fructose is found mainly in fruit, does that mean we should avoid fruits?

Essentially fruit is good because it also contains fibre, vitamins and minerals. You may need to watch the quantity because of the sugar content, but it’s unlikely you’re going to overdo it with apples (the highest fructose fruit I found).

So what’s the best sugar you can eat?

None. If you must add something to your food or drink, use the least processed that you can get, which would be honey and use sparingly. In the end though, stick to the natural sweetness of blueberries, apples and other fruit low on the glycaemic index. If you can drop the cakes, sodas and fizzy drinks, cakes and biscuits, you can eat apples all day long and be just fine.

Therefore the bottom line to feeling good and not putting on weight is to eat fresh, whole food that has not been processed – a minimum of 5 vegetables per day and 3 fruits - and to exercise more. Walk to work, get out in the sun and play with the children.

1. Miriam E. Bocarsly, Elyse S. Powell, Nicole M. Avena, Bartley G. Hoebel. High-fructose corn syrup causes characteristic of obesity in rats: Increased body weight, body fat and triglyceride levels. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, 2010; DOI: 10.1016/j.pbb.2010.02.012
2. Stanhope KL, Schwarz JM, Keim NL, Griffen SC, Bremer AA, Graham JL, Hatcher B, Cox CL, Dyachenko A, Zhang W, McGahan JP, Seibert A, Krauss RM, Chiu S, Schaefer EJ, Ai M, Otokozawa S, Nakajima K, Nakano T, Beysen C, Hellerstein MK, Berglund L and Havel PJ. “Consuming fructose-sweetened, not glucose-sweetened, beverages increases visceral adiposity and lipids and decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese humans,” J Clin Invest. 2009; 119(5):1322-1334

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