We all know that sugar adds calories, empty non-nutritive calories that would be better if they came from more nutritious stuff. However, what many (including me) might not realize is that sugar is bad for you in more ways than one. It’s bad for you not only because of the calories that you are trying so hard to cut.
UCTV’s (University of California Television) documentary by Dr. Robert Lustig entitled “The Bitter Truth” was an eye opener. Although I do opt for sugar substitutes whenever possible, I never really realized just how big the negative effects of sugar are
on our health. For one, I have long subscribed to the belief that fats or bad cholesterol are more important to avoid than sugar. This is not to say that it is now ok to indulge in stuff full of saturated fats, but the fact is that even if you do skimp on fatty food yet eat too much sugary stuff, then you can bet that you’ll still have a hard time losing weight, and more importantly still be very much prone to heart disease. The documentary tells us that sugar might actually be the culprit when it comes to heart diseases and not the fat that we have blamed for so long. Poor fats!
Of course, the good news is that we have so many options these days when it comes to keeping our food
deliciously sweet. However, note that many artificial sweeteners lack the study to back them up as to the safety. So I say that it’s better to stick to non-processed, simple food, and fresh food as much as you can.
Image via At the Brown’s
Originally posted on May 30, 2012 @ 6:37 am