Getting real about sugar
Sugar has been a popular topic in the media for a number of years now, and we are often hearing about the negative implications for our health and wellbeing, and how it can play havoc with blood glucose levels and promote inflammation. So, you might be wondering about your own sugar levels, and whether you need to need give up all sweet things.
Well, before you commit to never to having cake again, read on to learn more about sugar, and to understand the real key to getting in charge of your sugar intake - developing nutritional awareness whilst maintaining healthy relationship with food, sugar included - so that when you do consume it, it is in a conscious and balanced way.
Where sugar RESIDES
Let’s start with understanding where the major sources of sugar lie in the standard Western diet. At large, these include fizzy drinks, concentrated fruit juices, processed cereals, some low-fat ready meals, packaged cakes, desserts, biscuits, sweets and flavoured yoghurts, plus the sugar we add to teas and coffees.
Most of these foods sit in the ultra processed category and typically feature sugar in a highly concentrated form, or contain a refined form of sugar ie. table sugar. When sugar is added by the manufacture, we call these ‘free sugars’.
Even with food industry steps to regulate or minimise free sugars, if a person’s daily diet is predominantly comprised of these kinds of foods, their sugar consumption is likely to be significant, and way above official recommendations.
We have likely got the message that consuming large amounts of refined or added sugar overtime may be linked to a number of health concerns. However, to add perspective - infrequent or even small-moderate amounts regularly, are unlikely to be harmful to most people.
So, whilst you may look at the big picture of your diet and decide it could be be helpful to reduce your intake, you may not necessarily need to cut it out completely - and in fact, I encourage you not to write-off all the foods containing sugar as ‘bad’ (see my later point for more on this).
The second major category of sugars are the naturally occurring kind. Think about the sugars that are found in ‘whole foods’ such as fruits, dairy, starchy vegetables and wholegrains.
When people connect with media headlines about sugar or start following advocates of extreme diets, there is a risk they can become disproportionately fearful of all types of sugars, perhaps even including those in natural foods. Tropical fruits in particular - such as bananas, grapes, pineapple - can all get a bad wrap.
However, what you need to know is that the natural sugars in most whole foods are delivered in a volume and format that our bodies are well versed in metabolising. Plus the sugars in these food come with a host of other beneficial nutrients. For example, fresh fruits contain fructose, as well as plenty of Vitamin C and fibre. This means that any possible negative health implications linked to natural sugars from whole foods are likely negligible for most people.
Keeping it real
You might be wondering where things like yogurts, dried fruit, jams, honey, baked beans, bottled sauces, condiments or ready-made protein balls, fit in the ‘sugar picture’.
As they are less obvious sources than some other foods, they are often described as containing ‘hidden’ sugars (do you notice how that makes them sound pretty sneaky and a bit sinister?!). There is no doubt that learning about the sugars added to foods can be surprising - but we also need to keep perspective and realise that going to the extremes of avoiding these foods is not necessary and they can happily form part of an overall balanced daily diet. Nor would trying to avoid them completely be practical for most of us, or constructive to maintaining a healthy relationship with food.
A helpful strategy when thinking about these foods is to consider how much of them you would typically eat and what else you might pair it with whilst you eat it. Take honey as the example here - eating it pure by the tablespoon is one thing - but how many of us likely to do that? Most of us are likely to consume it on a slice of toast with butter for taste, or combined with protein-rich greek yoghurt and berries, or to sweeten up our parsnips.
The overall nutritional quality of the overall meal or snack usually looks very different when you take it a whole, as compared to the single ingredients. And so can the potential impact on blood sugar levels too - another area of concern people have when it comes to sweet foods. When you combine sugar (or the types of carbs that breakdown to sugar very quickly) with protein, fibre-rich foods or fat-rich foods (of any type), you will help ‘blunt’ the blood sugar response naturally.
Take dairy products such as milk, yoghurts and cheeses an another example. Yes, the processing methods vary widely between products which means that the nutritional profile of a brie will look different to cheese strings, and kefir will look different to a Muller Corner. But ultimately they all contain some of the sugar lactose along with calcium, protein and natural fats (unless you’ve picked a low fat option) - meaning that each could, in theory (if you like them), contribute in some way to your overall nutritional intake.
Lightening the sugar load naturally?
Today, numerous diet plans exist that are focussed on quitting sugar or involving strict rules around its avoidance but ironically this can often heighten interest in sweet foods. Therefore, rather than focus on restriction, a more helpful focus might look like placing the emphasis on the overall balance and nutrient value of our daily diets.
This might include improving people’s base-line of ‘whole foods’ with the potential health benefits that they bring. Whole foods are essentially foods in their simplest forms - the raw ingredients we have cooked with for centuries and include fruits, vegetables, wholegrains, dairy, meats, fish, eggs, beans, legumes, nuts and seeds. These are nutrient-dense as well as being free or naturally low in sugar and/or providing sugar in forms the body is happy to take advantage of.
Encouraging people to focus on small additions to enhance nutritional value in this way may be one helpful strategy to generally support them in keeping dietary intake of sugar within sensible levels for health.
DE-CHARMING SWEET FOODS
If you have challenges with your relationship with sugary sweet foods and struggle with strong cravings or binge eating, then getting real about the role it plays for you sugar can be a challenging task.
This is not your fault - you have likely got caught up in unhelpful beliefs about how ‘bad’ sugar is, which has ironically fuelled your desire for sweet foods. Understandably you may associate sugary foods with the enjoyment or comfort they bring, or the quick energy hit. And, even if you have concerns about your health, you may feel resistant to changing your habits. Therefore cutting them out completely (as is often unhelpfully recommended by many professionals), could backfire and result in food obsession or binge eating.
But there is a way to more gently ‘de-charm’ sweet sugary foods. Here are a few tips to get you started:
Begin by understanding your pattern by bringing awareness to your urges and cravings and understanding your personal triggers for turning to sugary foods. For example, hunger, thirst, lack of regularity around meal times, tiredness, stress or other emotions are all very common triggers.
Once you notice and name what is actually going on for you, it is far easier to work on your self-care accordingly and reset your mind and body responses.Be mindful of the big picture of your daily diet and how the overall balance is shaping up. Be aware of nutrition, but be pragmatic. Eat enough food! Incorporate plenty of colourful whole foods and combine proteins in meals and snacks. And when you’re thinking about what to eat, think about nourishment, satisfaction and fullness whilst eating and after eating - rather than simply getting a quick ‘hit’.
This might sound counter intuitive but if you give yourself full permission to eat sugar as part of your daily diet, you can effectively take it off that pedestal you’ve put it on - and essentially level up with it. Many people assume control or willpower will get them through sugar cravings but the human brain doesn’t work like that - if you tell it not to think about something specific, it will think about it.
Exposure (albeit managed very carefully at first) is one potential ‘remedy’ to this that can help sweet foods to lose some of their allure and help you reclaim your power to choose them when you really want them.Put a little more time and thought into your snack options. If you choose to have a high sugar snack, what else could you pair it with to help keep your energy balanced e.g. fruits, yoghurts, nuts and seeds. Or, reflect on what else you would enjoy that could you easily make available to yourself e.g. cheese, oatcakes or hummus?
As you can see, this is all about awareness and balance and there is so much more to this topic than I’ve covered in this blog. Keep learning from your own experiences and stay curious about what your body is telling you.
Take a nourishing step forward today
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