Is Sugar Hamful?

Welcome to my first nutrition post, this is about the actual science and evidence we have about sugar and its influence on our health.

First of all, I'd like to define (clarify) what I mean for a substance to be harmful: a substance is harmful when under normal circumstances (normal dosing and normal health) it poses a threat to the user/consumer.

Now, let’s define what a normal dosing of sugar is: for men it’s around 36 grams (150 calories) and for women it’s around 24 grams (100 calories); Source: American Heart Association.

Sugar under these circumstances isn’t harmful, there are zero studies that prove the opposite, I invite you to prove me wrong.

So now we have to agree by looking at the definition that we’ve given of harmful, that sugar isn’t inherently harmful.

Sugar isn’t harmful? are you sure?

Yes but let’s look at the main claims being made against sugar!

DOES SUGAR MAKE YOU FAT?

No, it doesn’t.

You get fat by consuming more calories than the ones you use, not by consuming a specific food.

This said, sugar doesn’t satiate you, so eating sugar isn’t going to stop you from eating more.

IS SUGAR ADDICTIVE?

No, it’s not.

Most of the studies on sugar addiction were done on animals and “on no occasion was the behaviour predicted by an animal model of sucrose addiction supported by human studies.” [1]

Some claim that it’s 8 times more addicting than cocaine but that's bullshit.

Sugar is not physically addictive, eating sugar does not cause a structural change in the brain, it doesn’t manipulate the brain like some drugs do.

Don’t let sentences like “sugar lights up the same areas of the brain as hard drugs” fool you, I'm sure those areas light up even when you are with the person you love.

IS FRUCTOSE A CAUSE OF NON-ALCOHOLIC FATTY LIVER?

No, it’s not.

“We found it [fructose] behaves no differently than glucose or refined starches. It is only when you consume excess calories in the form of fructose that you see a signal for harm but no more harm than if you consume excess calories as glucose.”[2]

The disease is linked to obesity and type 2 diabetes, so obviously with an increase in cases of obesity and diabetes, there will be an increase of cases of fatty liver too.

SUGAR AND HEART DISEASE

“Participants who took in 25% or more of their daily calories as sugar were more than twice as likely to die from heart disease as those whose diets included less than 10% added sugar”[3]

“Overall, the odds of dying from heart disease rose in tandem with the percentage of sugar in the diet—and that was true regardless of a person’s age, sex, physical activity level, and body-mass index (a measure of weight).”[3]

The risks of dying by heart disease caused by over consumption of sugar is apparently a problem, this still doesn’t make sugar harmful by itself, 25% of your daily calories coming from sugar is way above the recommended dosage.

But there’s also to be said that “Exactly how excess sugar might harm the heart isn’t clear.”[3]

So even with an excess consumption, we don’t have any proof of direct causation, other factors could be influencing the results of these studies.

IS SUGAR THE CAUSE OF DIABETES?

No, it’s not.

This is a myth.

In type 1 diabetes, the insulin producing cells in your pancreas are destroyed by your immune system, it’s caused by genetics and unknown factors, no amount of sugar can cause you to have type 1 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is cause by genetics and lifestyle factors.

“Research has shown that drinking sugary drinks is linked to type 2 diabetes”, this is correlation, not causation.

Not moving, being unhealthy and fat are the causes of diabetes, not sugar.

SUGAR IS EMPTY CALORIES

Empty calories are calories unaccompanied by fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients

Nothing inherently bad about this.

We have to keep in mind that “sugar is the generalized name for sweet, short-chain, soluble carbohydrates”4, sugar is a source of dietary energy.

CONCLUSION

The only points that still stand are correlated with a way higher than normal intake of sugar

The debate about sugar being harmful is pointless at this current time, there's no scientific evidence supporting the damages that sugar can directly provoke.

Most of the studies are based on correlation and not on causation, serious flaw when considering things from an objective perspective.

Most of the studies also don’t factor in unhealthy habits and weight problems.

It does not take a genius to understand that people who consume sugary foods and drinks are less healthy in general and probably eat more and thus get overweight and thus have health problems, pointing our fingers towards sugar has only distracted us from the real problem, that is overconsumption (not only of sugary foods)

Pointing our fingers towards sugar has only distracted us from the real problem, that is overconsumption

PS: I'd like to remind that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence so who knows if future research will prove this post wrong, or maybe confirm it.

(I'm no doctor so this is not medical advice but just the result of my research on the topic.)

Thanks for reading.

-Mabe

List of cited sources:

[1] : http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261561409002398?np=y&npKey=f197e279f44363ef6409684d17965800bbee167741da515c40430ac90cd29c5d

[2] : https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140226075021.htm

[3] : http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/eating-too-much-added-sugar-increases-the-risk-of-dying-with-heart-disease-201402067021