Are All Sugars Bad?

This is a question that is argued over again and again, especially lately with the rising popularity of ketogenic and low carb diets.

It can get really confusing if you care about healthy eating and especially if you are considering giving up sugar or going on a sugar detox.

So here is my take on this subject and I'm sorry to say that there is no simple answer to this question. Are all sugars bad? Well, no, but yes - all sugars can be turned into bad sugar. It depends on what kind of sugar you are talking about and perhaps more importantly, how that sugar is incorporated into the food you are eating.

All carbohydrates are basically a form of sugar. Not all carbohydrates are bad. There are carbohydrates in many healthy real foods like vegetables, whole fruit, legumes, and even whole grains.

Here's where it gets sticky – literally.

This evening Yonah and I were invited to dinner with friends. At the end of the meal our host brought out a jar of jam that boasted "no added sugar" on the label. This jam is perceived by many as a healthier option because it is made with sugar that comes from fruit, rather than table sugar. This is good expample how a natural sugar, the sugar found in fruit becomes a bad sugar and the problem is that many people don't even realize it.

The fruit that is in a cherry is incorporated into the fruit with fibre. When you eat a cherry, you have to chew it, you spit out th pit, then you take another small cherry - that takes time. The chewing and the fiber in the cherry slow the absorption of the sugar in the fruit. The rate at which the sugar you eat hits your liver and blood stream matters, a lot.

Now let's look at this cherry jam that is sweetened with fruit sugar. When the sugar is taken out of the fruit, in other words separated from the fiber, and added to cherry jam to sweeten it you are eating concentrated and sweetened cherries - no chewing, no pits, and virtually no fiber. Added fruit sugar is no better than the table sugar added to cheaper jams – maybe even worse as it may have a higher ratio of fructose. Fructose is the most harmful sugar out there when added to foods. It makes the liver produce fat and causes insulin resistance. Jam has a high concentration of sugar and virtually no fiber, so the fact that the sugar in it is from a "natural" source does NOT turn it into a healthy option.

When thinking about good sugar or bad sugar, it is extremely important it is to differentiate between ADDED sugars and NATURALLY OCCURING sugars. Once the sugar has been artificially added to a food, you are eating more sugar, period. It doesn't really matter if it is a processed sugar like table sugar or a "natural" sugar like fruit sugar or honey or maple syrup. Sugar is sugar and if you eat more than a very small amount it's bad for you.

Eat real food, eat fruit, ditch the jam.