How bad is sugar really for our health?

[Tarifa]

And what have you done to reduce the amount you take in through food or drink?

[thegreenyogi]

I don't know if sugar is really bad as far as I'm concerned but I can give you a few facts on how my body reacts to sugar and how I consume it. For the past 8 years I have slowly reduced the consumption of refined sugar in my diet and I only have natural sugar that you find in fruit and other foods. What's more my body doesn't seem to hold onto sugar. I once had a blood test and they took a blood sample before and after sugar consumption and it turned out that after eating something sweet my sugar levels went even lower to when I hadn't eaten anything sweet. Lastly I will however eat sweets and cakes that have refined sugar during the holidays and I can assure you I really feel it as my body fights to deal with all the sugar I have injected into it because I get palpitations. This said most of the year I have a very clean diet free of artificial sugars including drinks.

[thegreenyogi]

Thank you!

[Nikki1989]

The only sugar I have is in my coffee. Apart from that, I never touch the stuff, no sugary drinks, no junk food, no desserts.

[Astarlessnightsky]

Its really easy to eat too much of it.

There are recommendations out there, eg. WHO recommends not more than 50g of sugar per day.

One Litre of Coke already has twice that amount of 100g.

A 100g Bar of Chocolate has 50g sugar.

And thats not accounting for hidden sugar thats added to 80% of the food.

So on a regular day, unless you watch out for it, you probably eat enough sugar for the whole week.

Thats the dangerous and unhealthy part.

[Sonorous]

It's as bad as someone's body responds to it. Some people can have greater levels than others & be relatively okay. For instance, performance athletes eat lots of sugar because their muscles require fast energy sources. But if our muscles don't require fast energy sources & we consume them, we're just inching ourselves closer & closer to insulin resistance which is invariably bad.

[Abbycado]

Can be really bad if you have a lot. I don’t eat a lot of food that has sugar. I don’t drink things like Coke and whatnot.

I do have occasional desert but it is really only around holidays.

[Tarifa]

I hardly ever consume fruit juice, soda drinks, iced tea or breakfast cereal. These things are packed with sugar. Even some protein bars contain added sugar. I have my coffee, if any, without sugar. With time, you get used to the less-than-sweet taste.

But it’s especially the hidden sugar that worries me. If you consider that a mere 100 grams of white bread contains 5 grams of sugar, who knows how much our total intake is per day?

[Abbycado]

I don’t know what it is, but it is low. I eat mostly lean meats and vegetables.

[Beckybooboo]

It contributes to a lot of health problems, either directly or indirectly. Just like salt, it's very important to consume some but too much will cause problems.

[On_cloud_wine]

My skin is super clear, I never get acne unless I consume something with sugar, so there’s that. I haven’t drank soda in over 15 years and I avoid junk food..

[PBandJ_Nerd]

Probably really bad. But hey, we have lots of sodium filled foods too, so what's the difference? Either one is going to kill us one day.

[DryGermanGuy]

I reduced all sugar in my coffee or tea to zero, many years ago. I don’t even have sugar at home.

[DrPepper12]

Diabetes has exploded. Sugar is partly to blame. It's BAD!

I don't eat that much processed food anymore

[genericname85]

sugar is necessary for health. it's good for you. your metabolism needs sugars. the dosis makes the poison just like with most things in life.

[TheStaleMarshmellow]

I lost weight by doing nothing else with my life other than dropping soda.

[douride2]

My doctor told me sugar is worse for you then salt.

[jahaims]

Terrible in most cases. It's not bad if you consume the whole fruit or have real honey.