And more specifically, what is it that makes processed sugar worse than consuming sugar from those products, is it blood sugar spike or something?
In: 311
they may be the same chemically, but the difference lies in potency and the process through which you obtain the sugar itself, a bottle of corn syrup contains the same sugar within the normal corn, but so potent that a bottle of corn syrup has the same amount of sugar you would find in a lot of corn cobs.
for example, A 400 gram bottle of corn syrup contains approximately 312 grams of sugar. One medium-sized ear of corn contains approximately 6.4 grams of natural sugars, usually hidden within a lot of fiber, protein, vitamin, fats, etc.
Yep. Artificially added sugar is chemically the same as natural sugar. But natural sugar is usually trapped with other proteins/fiber/organic matter and typically in lower quantities. So when we eat these foods, it takes time for these natural sugars to be released and absorbed by our gut. The result is slower and lower blood sugar spikes and levels that can be managed by our insulin levels in a reasonable way. This is all opposite for artifical sugar, leading to problems like diabetes and decreased satiety.
You also mentioned milk which does contain some sucrose (table sugar) but mostly lactose, which is digested by a different enzyme but ultimately becomes glucose in the end through metabolism. Lactose may do some different things brain chemistry wise and insulin levels wise but ultimately the amount of milk people consume is not usually a concern since most people have some level of lactose intolerance anyway.
These are two different types of sugar. Processed sugar is glucose. Fruits contain fructose. The glycemic index (GI) of glucose is 100 (by defintion). Fructose is 25. The higher the GI, the faster the sugar is processed and the bigger the blood sugar spike. The bigger spike you want to avoid.
Excessive amounts of either can be bad. For most people, the fructose you consume is via fruits which contain vitamins, minerals, fiber and are satiating. Glucose is often consume in in the form of something like soda which is basically glucose and water.
“Sugar” isn’t actually a singular thing. It’s a term we use to refer to a wide variety of molecules. That’s why you’ll sometimes hear them referred to as sugars (plural), rather than simply sugar (singular).
Some types of sugars are absorbed by our bodies more readily. Whether or not the sugars are combined with fiber also appears to make a difference in how our bodies process the sugars. Refined sugars are sugars that have been isolated from other forms of nutrition and fiber. So when we consume them, our bodies process to them very quickly.
This results in an increase in insulin, and insulin is actually pretty bad for our circulatory system. It makes the insides of your veins and arteries rough. This roughness causes fats to stick to them, which results in build up. So eating refined sugar and fat together is a really bad combination. Hello donuts.
When you eat something like fruit, you’re getting sugars that are processed more slowly by our bodies to begin with, plus the sugars are wrapped up with fiber that slows down their processing further. This is why sugars in food aren’t quite as bad.
It’s still not great to eat foods that are high in sugar though. You can absolutely consume too many calories by eating too much fruit, bread, or milk.
Health-wise, processed sugars and natural sugars are almost identical. Processed sugars may be slightly purer and thus absorb into the bloodstream faster, but the difference is pretty negligible. The difference between processed and natural sugars is largely a marketing tool, to convince consumers that buying foods with “no added sugar” is healthy, even when they may still contain plenty of sugar in the form of fruit products.
Even starches, which are chains of simple sugars bonded together, and which we used to think took longer to break down and absorb, are metabolized pretty much just as quickly. A jolly rancher, a glass of grape juice, a slice of white bread, they all just turn into glucose in our bloodstream almost immediately after we eat them.
What really matters is how much sugar you’re consuming at once. Processed sugars allow us to create foods with much higher sugar content than anything in nature, like candy bars and ice cream sandwiches. A fast spike in blood sugar puts strain on your pancreas, which produces insulin to regulate the flow of sugar in and out of your cells, and doing this too often or too extremely can lead to diabetes. Also, natural sugars typically come packaged with other important nutrients such as fiber, so to say that they’re generally healthier is somewhat true. A fruit smoothie with no added sugar might be just as sugary as one with added sugar, but it might have more other nutrients if they had to use more fruit to get that same sugar content. (That’s not always the case though.)
Most regular foods have other stuff with the sugar. A piece of fruit has fibre. Milk has fat and protein.
And apart from just the content of the food, some foods have some slightly time-consuming process to eat them (like peeling a mandarin, or even just chewing sugar cane).
Things with ‘added’ sugar tend to have just a lot of sugar compared to the other parts, and be convenient to eat quickly. Think of a sweet drink you could easily drink quickly, or a cookie that you can scarf down several of them without needing to peel or chop or even chew very much (because they have a very convenient texture).
So there isn’t really much chemical difference – the ‘added’ sugar came from something you could have eaten directly, but the practical difference tends to be that you get more sugar from these foods, and you tend to eat more of them, so you can easily get a lot of sugar.
–
e.g.
A large orange might have 14 grams of sugar. If I want a big snack, if I have 3 oranges I’ll feel like I can’t really have any more oranges, and I’ve spent a bucnh of time eating them.
So I typically just eat 2 oranges as a snack, and that’s 28 grams of sugar from that fruit snack, and I don’t feel like eating for a while.
If I eat chocolate, that is about 50% sugar, so ~50-60 grams of chocolate and I have the same amount of sugar.
And let me tell you, I can confortably eat *waaay* more than 50 grams of chocolate!
Sugar is a naturally occurring organic compound. Our bodies evolved to digest these for nutrition, but once you start refining and adding it to food you get to the point where a human body doesn’t handle it well. Alcohol occurs naturally, but hard liquor from controlled fermentation is unhealthy. Your body produces opiates and hormones for healing and growth, but steroids and pain killers can cause long-term health issues and dependencies.
Refined sugars are added to foods for taste, but the extra calories are too easy to digest and stress your ability to produce insulin in the long run. Too much sugar is bad regardless of the source, famously Steve Jobs had health issues because he tried a fruitatarian diet. The problem is that sugar, like salt and fat, sneaks into everything, and it becomes too large a portion of out daily calories.
I’ll offer this video by a food scientist as a supplement. While the video focuses on sugar and popular “healthy” sugar substitutes, it explains the common types of sugars in our food, how our bodies process them, their effect on blood sugar levels and what the glycemic index is. It does incidentally discuss a bit about the effect of eating processed sugars and our bodies’ absorption of sugars in food.
[How to Cook That by Ann Reardon](https://youtu.be/BU3bTBWnvT4?si=ldksPG1Ez2DZ7PcR)
Molecularly they are the same, yes. There’s zero difference between added sugars whether they’re “natural” or “processed”, the big issue is that they’re *added*. Fortifying anything with sugar just adds empty calories and increases insulin response. Doesn’t matter if what you add is white sugar out of a bag or honey or agave syrup, *added* sugars are generally just bad for you.
Different sugars are processed differently by the body, sure. But that’s really beside the point. If a food item has a ton of added sugar it’s generally less healthy than one that doesn’t. Doesn’t matter if that sugar is added in the form of straight isolated sucrose or whatever your favorite hippy dippy sugar syrup is.
I will add to what others said:
-yes, in fruits sugar is mixed with other things so its absorbed more slowly, but if you drink fresh squeezed juice its basically like eating pure sugar.
-there is nothing wrong with pure sugar, its just that most of the western world is comically obese and so physically inactive that quick and dense calories are demonetizes since there is no practical usage. Anybody that experienced 1-2h of intense training or a long few hours long chess match (or an exam) knows what a blessing sugar spiking can be. It has its usages.
Latest Answers