"New Smoking": Should We Give Up Sugar
It seems that giving up sugar is the new black one. Increasingly, sugar is called the cause of all diseases, and at the same time they attribute narcotic properties to it - allegedly it causes a real dependence. And although these statements are somewhat exaggerated, scientists and representatives of health systems are also concerned about the excess sugar in the diet. We understand in what quantities it is really harmful and whether it is necessary to abandon it completely.
Text: Masha Budrita
What is sugar
In a broad sense, sugars mean small carbohydrate crystals that make food sweet. They are divided into two groups: monosaccharides and disaccharides. Monosaccharides include glucose, fructose and galactose. Disaccharide is a molecule of two monosaccharides. The most common of these are sucrose, consisting of glucose and fructose molecules and known as common table sugar, lactose, consisting of glucose and galactose, which is the main sugar in milk, and maltose, consisting of two glucose molecules. Mono- and disaccharides are easily digested and can be immediately used as an energy source — faster than longer carbohydrate chains, such as starch.
Sugar is found in the tissues of many plants — vegetables, fruits, nuts, cereals, and others. Sugar is produced industrially from sugar cane and sugar beet, while in the USA, high fructose corn syrup is used in the food industry.
How did your attitude to sugar change?
Attitudes toward sugar have long been positive or neutral, almost until the end of the last century, sugar (primarily sucrose) was considered a useful type of carbohydrate that suppresses hunger and brings energy. Until the 1950s, people ate little sweets - including because during the two world wars and some time after the availability of sugar in the world was limited. But by the fifties, sugar consumption had grown rapidly, and this was not the only change in people's diets. The agricultural industry has changed, the quantity and quality of food available to humanity began to grow. At about the same time, the first fast-food chains appeared and more calories became available to people.
In the middle of the 20th century, mortality from cardiovascular diseases rose sharply in the United States, primarily among men, and with different incomes and education levels. Doctors and scientists paid attention to this, and then a lot of work began on the study of the connection between nutrition and health. Experts were divided into two camps: some claimed that the problem was a sharp increase in fat consumption, and others - that the reason should be sought in sugar.
What is worse - sugar or fat
One of the main opponents of fat in the diet was the American physiologist Ansel Case. His main work is a study of how people of seven countries eat in four parts of the world, with very different rations. Case pointed out that in countries with a high content of animal fat in the diet, mortality from cardiovascular diseases was higher. The most "healthy" were the countries of the Mediterranean basin, in regions where people ate little animal fats. Case concluded that a high content of saturated fats in the diet leads to an increase in cholesterol levels, which in turn causes inflammation in the vessels and a narrowing of their lumen. If this process occurs in the coronary vessels of the heart, the result may be a myocardial infarction.
Cayce's ideas quickly became popular, he wrote several books about the Mediterranean diet, which became bestsellers, and in 1961 even got on the cover of Time magazine. His recommendations on saturated fats became mainstream: on the one hand, they fit into modern ideas of the science of health, and on the other, they gave representatives of the health care system the opportunity to voice at least some answers to the public. As a result, saturated fats for a long time became the main enemy of a healthy diet, and the fight against butter developed in other countries. Demand for foods low in saturated fat began to grow, and the food industry adjusted to the "fashion" in the fight against fat. However, in order to preserve the attractiveness of products, manufacturers began to replace fat with sugar.
Not everyone agreed with Case's ideas - for example, John Yudkin, one of the British leading experts in the field of nutrition, saw the problem in sugar. Yudkin's hypothesis linked increased sugar intake with metabolic disorders, including changes in insulin secretion, which, in his opinion, led to diabetes mellitus and vascular diseases. But at that time Yudkin was not supported: his ideas contradicted the current state of science. The British sugar industry saw it as a threat - according to the specialist himself, the sweet producers interfered with the decisions related to the grants and support for his research. Until the moment when his ideas were heeded, the scientist did not live.
Conflict of interest
By the beginning of the XXI century, it was found that although people began to eat less saturated fat, problems with diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular diseases did not decrease. There are more and more studies about the possible harm of high-carb diets and added sugar. With fats, everything turned out to be not so simple either: it turned out that there are also "healthy" fats; Scientists began to conclude that saturated fat can be a risk factor, but not the only cause of vascular disease.
Standards for writing scientific papers have also changed: it is now more difficult to hide a conflict of interest. This was not always the case, and in the twentieth century, the food industry was involved in research and in the development of nutritional guidelines. A fresh look at past research shows that when scientists were associated with representatives of the sugar industry, they are more likely to “prove” that sugar is not associated with obesity or metabolic disorders. In 2016, a study was published, according to which the food industry took a considerable part in shaping health policy in the 1960s and 1970s - this led to demonization of fat and almost completely ignoring the effects of sucrose.
What scientists say now
Today it is believed that excess sugar in the diet can be a risk factor for metabolic disorders, obesity and problems with the cardiovascular system. A large amount of sugar supports subclinical (that is, no manifesting itself) inflammation - and this contributes to the development of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, dementia, depression and increased mortality. It’s impossible to talk about direct connection of sugar with oncological diseases (sometimes you can hear that “cancer cells feed on glucose”, that is, giving up sugar will supposedly help prevent or even cure cancer - but not everything is so simple). True, there is still an indirect connection: an excess of calories in food contributes to weight gain and obesity, and this is proven to increase the risk of thirteen different types of malignant tumors.
WHO divides sugars into "free" and "natural" - the latter are found in fruits and vegetables, and free means mono- and disaccharides added to food, as well as components of honey, syrups and fruit juices. WHO strongly recommends limiting the intake of free sugars to ten percent of the total caloric intake (about 60 grams of sugar per day on average), for extra benefit, it is recommended to halve this amount so that no more than 5% of energy comes from sugars.
It is difficult to measure the amount of sugar that people eat, because it is added literally everywhere. It is estimated that the average US resident consumes seventeen teaspoons of sugar per day. According to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation from 2017, in the daily ration of the average Russian there are about 100 grams of sugar - this also exceeds the WHO recommendations. Sources of sugar - not only sweets, cakes and sweet soda. It is in fruit juices, cornflakes, bread, fruit yoghurts, ketchup-like sauces, and even chips and sausages.
Is there a sugar addiction
You can often hear about the "dependence" on sugar - sometimes it is even compared to cocaine and heroin. Indeed, sugar stimulates the production of dopamine and brings a sharp sensation of pleasure - once this mechanism helped to survive, however, fruits and vegetables were the sweetest for our ancestors. Cocaine, nicotine and other narcotic substances also affect the mechanisms of dopamine production and cause pleasure that I want to repeat - so some experts put sugar on a par with drugs. A 2007 study is often given, where experimental mice were tried to be “planted” on cocaine and on sugar - and their dependence on sugar was stronger. Nevertheless, today there are no studies that would demonstrate a dependence on sugar, comparable to the drug in humans.
However, frequent and high sugar intake can be addictive — when a higher dose is needed for a comparable "pleasure". Sweet brings physical satisfaction - and it is precisely chocolate and ice cream that one often wants to seize conflict at work or quarrel with loved ones. Of course, if the situation is not otrefleksirovat, it can lead to an excess of sugar in the diet with all its negative consequences.
Total failure or balance
Nutritionists do not get tired of reminding that the main thing in the diet is balance and diversity. A complete rejection of sugar or a switch to sugar substitutes does not necessarily mean that the quality of the diet will improve - and vice versa, sugar may well be part of a balanced diet that brings joy. Sweeteners themselves are not harmful, but they interfere with rebuilding habits, when instead of replacing the sweet with fruit or nuts, a person replaces the sweet with the sweet.
It is worth working on changing habits, introducing more vegetables, fruits and berries into the diet, eating less industrial products such as ready-made sauces, bread or protein bars - in such food, it seems, there can be a lot of added sugar with unsweetened taste. As with trans fats or salt, to know how much sugar you eat, you need to cook at home more often and read food labels. Gradually, the sweet taste will feel stronger - and the food as a whole may seem more delicious.
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