The Who's Who of Sugars
An introduction to good sugars & bad sugars, and how to determine which are which - before you put them in your body
Introduction to "Sugars: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." The impact of sugars on our bodies depends on the degree of processing and a sweetener's glycemic index.
You and I know that sugar is harmful to our health. Diabetes, lowered immunity, obesity, ADD/ADHD, fatigue, hypersensitivity, headaches and allergies are modern epidemics that have been directly or indirectly linked to sugar consumption. "White death" runs rampant in North American and Western diets. But all hope is not lost! There are safer sugars, healthy sugars, and ways to modify sugar intake so that it doesn't have harmful effects on our health. Read ahead for several approaches to sugar, how we eat it, and how to break its seductive call.
When gauging the effect of sweets on your body, there are two factors we can use to determine how safe a sugar is to ingest:
- Is it a "natural" sugar? To what degree has it been processed from its original form? (more on this in the following article, Sugars: The Bad)
- Where does this sugar rank on the glycemic index?
Glycemic index is a method of analyzing foods that are high in carbohydrates based on how they affect the human body. A food with a high glycemic index breaks down very easily to simple sugars, rapidly raising (or "spiking") blood glucose levels and demanding an equally quick enzyme and insulin response from the pancreas so that the sugars can be metabolized and stored. Over time, consumption of a lot of high glycemic foods stresses the pancreas and the immune system, and can cause the blood sugar highs and lows endemic to diabetes and hypoglycemia.
Foods which are low glycemic, on the other hand, contain carbs that break down more slowly to simple sugars. The absorption of these foods is therefore more gradual and does not contribute to blood sugar highs and lows.
High glycemic foods:
- potatoes
- corn
- wheat flour
- any processed grains, particularly wheat and rice
- refined sugar (white, brown or turbinado are all more or less equal)
- oranges, bananas, mango, pineapple
Low glycemic carb foods:
- apples, pears
- wolfberries, blueberries
- yam
- nuts
- legumes: beans, lentils, chickpeas
- whole and unrefined grains, especially barley and oats
- agave
- stevia
More thorough lists of foods and of their glycemic index exist, and may be helpful if you're concerned about diabetes or the quality of the sugars in your diet.
For more information on a variety of different sweeteners, see Sugars: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
