Understanding the “Sweet” Stuff

If you follow the different nutrition trends that float through the news headlines, new book titles, new food products and “pills”, and opinions of many over the last few years, you will be quite familiar with the hot talk on sugar and sweeteners. There still seems to be some conflicting information out there which becomes frustrating at times, so here I go again in trying to help you make sense of the information. If sugar is one of those New Years Resolutions you are still working at sourcing and possibly minimizing in your diet, maybe these little tips will help you out.

There are two questions I get most often: (1) Is it better for me to have sweeteners over sugar and (2) Isn’t honey and agave better for you than table sugar?

Sugar vs. Sweeteners: Sweeteners are man-made. In other words, processed. I think this would be enough information to share with you, but let me explain a little more. When you eat foods that “are sweetened with (insert name of sweetener here)”, upon putting that food in your mouth, your body and brain thinks it will get sugar (primary source of fuel). When the body doesn’t receive this fuel, it’s been tricked. Research has shown that people who consume foods with this “calorie free stuff”, end up over-consuming calories (rightly so, since your body expected a dose of fuel when that food touched your tongue). Current research also indicated a link between those who consumed non-caloric artificial sweeteners (NAS) and obesity. What’s important for you to acknowledge is how much added sugar you may be consuming. Then work with someone to help you slowly cut back on the sugar until you start to recognize the true flavor of the food. I mean, in the end, we need sugar, our body requires it, but that is the sugar from fruits, vegetables, dairy products and whole grains, AND most importantly in the right quantities.

Natural Sweeteners vs. Table Sugar: I could write a book on this whole topic alone. The main point to get across is that Yes, there are more natural sources of sugar, such as honey. However, what you must recognize are two things:

(a)         Honey, Agave, Table sugar, Icing sugar, and Cane sugar all have the same calories within a small range of 10-20 calories per 1 tsp serving.

(b)        If a package’s ingredient list has 5 different names for sugar, put it down!