Let’s Get Healthy, Mom! The Not-So-Sweet Truth About Sugar

We’ve heard whispers, an occasional pre-drilling admonishment from the dentist and an article here or there but is sugar really so bad?  All of it?  I hate to be a Little Debbie Downer but all signs point to YES.  It seems that Dr. Atkins (of the famous low-carb diet bearing the same name) was onto an inconvenient truth.  You’re darn right it’s inconvenient!  How do you make birthday cupcakes for 15 kindergarteners without using sugar?!

The history of sugar consumption in our country has been a bumpy one.  This sweet vixen of dessert delights has been tickling our tastebuds for centuries but it didn’t become a fixture in our Americanized diets until the turn of the 20th century.  If you’ve read through the Little House on the Prairie series of books you see that, back in the mid-1800’s, “store sugar” (refined white sugar) was very expensive and only saved for special occasions.  Now, it is the single largest source of calories in the average American’s diet.¹   

With the advent of the candy and soft drink industries our demand for sugar doubled between 1890 and 1920 and with it the incidents of diabetes grew fourfold.  Coincidence?  A few scientists didn’t think so and they’ve been fighting a battle against main stream science and the effects of bad “food” ever since.²  Unfortunately for these scientists who desire to do their job and follow the science, the industrialized food industry has a wide wing span and deep pockets.  In America, sugar is a lucrative, sacred cow as patriotic as apple pie and, well, you can’t make apple pie without it.  Perhaps that would explain why in the 1700s the average person consumed less than 4 pounds of sugar per year but now 50% of Americans eat up to a ½ pound of sugar a day; that amounts to a whopping 180 pounds of sugar a year.  

The problem with sugar is that this “all-natural food” isn’t so natural, especially when eaten in large enough quantities.  Scientifically speaking, it can be argued that the human body doesn’t need sugar…at all.   It can make the energy it needs from proteins and fats.  Although glucose, our friendly neighborhood sugar, is a nice bonus for our cells in times of intense activity, sucrose is completely unnecessary in our diet.  It wreaks havoc on our bodies in unpleasant ways and scientists are only beginning to scratch the surface of its unsavory effects.  Here’s the short version: when you eat a starchy food like rice or potatoes, every cell in your body utilizes the carbohydrates in that food (glucose) for energy before sending it to the liver for metabolism.  This is how your body was designed to handle carbohydrates.  White, refined sugar (sucrose) and it’s many derivatives like the seemingly harmless brown sugar, on the other hand, tries to do an end-run around this normal metabolic system.  Because it is made up of 50% glucose and 50% fructose, when sucrose is metabolized by the body it is primarily done directly through the liver.  When those sugar calories are consumed in liquid form (such as fruit juices, sodas and that good ol’ Southern sweet tea) it circumvents cell processing and causes the metabolism to speed up considerably putting unusual strain on the liver as it turns these calories into fat.  Cirrhosis of the liver is no longer just an alcoholic’s disease.  It is becoming all too common in obese populations as the detrimental outcome of fatty liver disease.  Our livers were not made to handle this type of excess.

The more sugar we dump into our systems the more damage we do.  Not only does it make you fat, it puts the smack down on your pancreas.  The pancreas responds to added sugar in the blood by pumping out insulin to utilize the sugar.  The problem is, the more sugar you eat, the weaker the effects of insulin become.  The sugar swimming around in our bloodstreams starts to ignore the insulin.  The pancreas continues to pump out more and more insulin to make up the difference until the pancreas essentially becomes exhausted and, voila, you have your very own case of diabetes.  Diabetes coupled with other risk factors for cardiovascular disease such as high blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol and abdominal obesity is now referred to as metabolic syndrome, the leading cause of heart attack and stroke.

You might want to sit down for this next one because the news only gets worse.  Recent evidence from UCLA has also implicated sugar, particularly fructose (remember that refined sugar is 50/50 fructose and glucose), in the hastened growth of cancerous tumors.  In fact, the evidence against sugar as the culprit in the increased growth of tumors is so compelling that the Cancer Institutes of America and many other world renowned oncologists have begun to place patients on a low to no-sugar diet as part of their cancer treatment.  In addition to using fructose to fuel their growth, cancer cells love a good dose of insulin and insulin-like growth factor.  Insulin speeds the growth of tumors and some cancers even form mutations to allow them to utilize the insulin more effectively.  By decreasing sugar consumption, you subsequently reduce blood insulin levels effectively shutting off a main course in the cancer buffet line.

Okay, it’s bad news for your overall health so you’ll just cut down on sugar consumption, right?  It may not be that simple.  In 2008, Princeton University professor Bart Hoebel and his team of researchers discovered that rats fed a diet of sucrose water similar to the percentage intake of the average American diet exhibited the three tell-tale signs of addiction – increased intake, withdrawal symptoms and long-lasting changes in brain chemistry triggering cravings and resulting in binges.  Their research also showed that when the rodents’ sugar water supply was cut off they were inclined to consume large quantities of alcohol to satisfy their cravings.  According to Hoebel, “Hungry rats that binge on sugar provoke a surge of dopamine in their brains. After a month, the structure of the brains of these rats adapts to increased dopamine levels, showing fewer of a certain type of dopamine receptor than they used to have and more opioid receptors. These dopamine and opioid systems are involved in motivation and reward, systems that control wanting and liking something. Similar changes also are seen in the brains of rats on cocaine and heroin.”³  Basically, sugar is an addictive substance and can become a type of gateway “drug”.

According to Dr. R.J. Johnson, author of The Sugar Fix: The High-Fructose Fallout That Is Making You Fat and Sick, sugar activates its own pathways in your body—those metabolic pathways become more efficient.  In other words, the more sugar you eat, the more effective your body is in absorbing it; and the more you absorb, the more damage you’ll do.  You become “sensitized” to sugar as time goes by, and, as a result, more sensitive to its toxic effects.  Alternatively, the good news is that when you give yourself a break from sugar consumption, your body’s sensitivity to it quickly decreases and those metabolic pathways begin to return to normal.  Research suggests that just a two week hiatus from consuming sugar will cause your body to be less reactive to it.  So, what is the best way to start packing your bags for that sugar-free vacation?

By now you’re probably shaking your head in defeat and ready to throw in the sugar-coated towel.  Not so fast.  Your health and the health of your children are worth the fight so have yourself a little pity party then put away that bag of M&M’s, jump into your big girl panties and let’s get to work.  I’m no paragon of sugarless eating so consider me a fellow traveler on this journey to good health.  I am just as interested in finding out how to kick the habit as you are and here is what I’ve found.

The difficulty lies in the fact that no one has established a definitive cut off for good or, at least, acceptable vs. detrimental sugar consumption.  So, I will go with what the research seems to suggest.  In the 1980s and early 90s, when food industry mouthpieces were declaring the exoneration of sugar, it was based on the inconclusive research that assumed the average American ate 40 pounds of added sugar or less a year.  To break it down, that is 10 ½ tsp. or 52.5 grams a day.  This is equivalent to 16 oz of fruit juice (make no mistake, fruit juice is not the same thing as a piece of fruit).  Unfortunately, the USDA statistics have been nearly doubling that consumption estimate every decade since then.  In my estimation, if the science was blurry at 52 g of added sugar consumption a day (this does not include eating unsweetened, whole fresh fruit) then we should be aiming to stay well below that number.

Here are a few tips to get you started…

1. Start reading labels.  If you’ve never read the nutrition label on the side of the boxes and bottles of the food and drinks that you buy then you might be in for a rude awakening.  Sugar is everywhere and can be found under many names including evaporated cane juice, maltose, sucrose, dextrose, and, of course, high fructose corn syrup.  A friend just pointed out to me that a certain brand of whole grain “healthy” chips has added sugar.  Why do we need added sugar in our chips?  Or in our yogurt, chicken nuggets, peanut butter or taco seasoning for that matter?!  Awareness of how much sugar your family is taking in and the dangers of sugar is a great starting point.

2. Cut out the junk food.  It seems simple enough but everyone’s definition of “junk” is different.  After you’ve been reading labels for a trip or two to the grocery store and you have an idea of how much sugar your family is consuming, it’s time to start cutting out the non-essentials and finding healthier alternatives.  Get rid of the chips, cookies, ice cream and soda.  And, don’t be fooled by “organic” or “all-natural” alternatives.  Organic junk food is still junk food and contains little, if any, nutritive value.

3. Start cooking from scratch.  According to the American Heart Association, a majority of the added sugar that we consume is courtesy of the pre-packaged food in our pantries.  By making our own food we are able to control the amount of sugar that goes into it.  Am I suggesting making your own bread?  Not necessarily but it’s not as difficult as you think (check out my favorite whole wheat sandwich bread recipe).  I have found that simply cutting down on the sugar in my go-to recipes has been an unexpectedly easy way to decrease our sugar consumption.  Most of the time my family doesn’t even notice the difference when I leave out ½ to 1 cup of sugar from their favorite banana bread or cookie recipe.

4. Drink water.  It’s inexpensive and, unlike sodas and fruit juices, it is essential to proper bodily function.

5. Replace the junk with healthy alternatives.  The good news is that you would have to eat unusually large quantities of fruit to reach that 52g of sugar per person per day limit.  This chart clearly shows that apple juice is not the same as an apple, so to speak.  So, the next time you or your kids are craving something sweet, head for the produce aisle and pick up some fruit to calm that monster craving.  When offering alternatives, give your kids a choice in what they may eat for snacks but do not give them the final say.  For example, when my kids ask for a snack I will usually give them two healthy choices (yogurt or blueberries, cheese or cucumbers).  I do not ask them, “What would you like for a snack?”  If they are legitimately hungry they will take one of the choices that I offer.  When it’s close to dinner and they vehemently declare that they are on their death bed from starvation, I tell them they may eat a veggie like baby carrots, sliced red bell peppers or sliced cucumbers.  It’s their choice – veggie or wait for dinner.  Believe me, no one is going to starve around here without sugar.

6. Eat breakfast.  Make sure your family eats a breakfast loaded with proteins and healthy fats.  Yes, I said fats.  Most of them don’t deserve the evil reputation they’ve acquired (but that’s a post for another time).  Your children’s brains are still developing and they need good fats to promote healthy brain function.  This will keep them feeling full for a longer period of time, helping to curb the carb crash cravings and allowing them to concentrate more fully in school.

7. Save the sugar for a special occasion.  Treats are no longer “treats” if you get them all the time.  I’ve noticed this myself.  When I’m having a particularly bad-eating-week the more unhealthy food I eat, the less satisfying it is.  The same is true for my kids.  I became weary of hearing after every meal, “Can we have a treat?!” and when they began to ask that question after breakfast, I’d had enough.  Following a suggestion in a parenting magazine, we implemented Treat Day.  We have a family calendar hanging in our kitchen with a candy-shaped sticker on each Friday.  My children know that every Friday is Treat Day and they can expect to receive a treat on that day.   It is not Binge Day; they do not receive dessert after every meal or candy for snack time.  However, they are allowed to choose a piece of candy or some other dessert after dinner.  Of course, mom and dad have a right to offer a treat at other times during the week but there is now no open expectation that sugar will be doled out whenever a child so desires.

8. Reward and comfort your children without using food.  Food can have strong emotional associations and it’s important to teach our children that food is for fuel, not for comfort and celebration.

9. Be aware that “natural” sugars are still sugars.  They should be counted toward your total sugar consumption.  Agave nectar, sucanat, rapadura, evaporated cane juice, honey, maple syrup…they all contain 40-55% fructose.  While they may have some healthier added benefits compared to refined sugar, your body metabolizes them the same way and they, too, need to be used in moderation.

10. Do not replace sugar with artificial sweeteners.  These sweeteners can be more damaging to your body than sugar (which we’ve already established is pretty bad)!   Aspartame has been shown to be a neurotoxin, saccharin is a carcinogen and research on artificial sweeteners has shown that they actually increase the chance of metabolic syndrome by confusing your brain chemistry with regard to sweets.  Unless you prefer all-natural stevia or are able to use xylitol without digestive issues, do yourself a favor and steer clear of sweeteners.

If you want to conquer the sugar monster but you live under the dictatorial rule of a tyrannical sweet tooth, unfortunately, you don’t have many options other than evicting it from your life one piece of food at a time.  Look, moms, I’m not trying to rain on your Candyland and I am still working on most of these, myself.  I understand that this devious crystalline ninja lurks everywhere and to erase it from our lives would take monumental effort and would suck the enjoyment right out of holidays, birthdays and every dessert-filled special occasion in between.  But, maybe we need a paradigm shift.  Maybe we need to change our mindset.  Only you can decide what is right for your family.  Take some time to think about how much sugar you will allow into your home and how it affects your life.  What changes, big or small, are you willing to make to improve your health and the health of your family?

¹ Johnson RJ and Gower T. (2009) The Sugar Fix: The High-Fructose Fallout That Is Making You Fat and Sick , Pocket, 416 pp

² Taubes, Gary.  Is Sugar Toxic?  The New York Times, April 13, 2011.  

³ Sugar Can Be Addictive: Animal Studies Show Sugar Dependence.  Science Daily.  December 11, 2008.

Kim is a Worship Pastor’s wife and full-time mom to four crazy and beautiful kids. Toss in a part-time job, housework, a blog (http://www.fishbowlliving.com ) and what passes for a social life these days and she’s still wondering how she fits 32 hours into a 24 hour day.