Search results
Jan 23, 2023 · Myth 4: You Should Swap Out Sugar for Low- or No-Calorie Sweeteners. Low- or no-calorie sweeteners like stevia, sucralose or aspartame may help you trim your total calorie intake, and in turn, support your weight-loss efforts. But the long-term benefits aren't conclusive, Bucci notes, and some of the sweeteners could potentially have negative ...
- How Much Weight Can I Lose If I Eliminate Sugar
Most people need fewer calories than they think — especially...
- Is Junk Food OK in Moderation
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015-2020, put forth by...
- How Much Weight Can I Lose If I Eliminate Sugar
- Sugar is naturally in lots of foods like fruit, vegetables, milk, cheese, and even grains. But manufacturers also add different forms of sugar and syrup to processed and prepackaged foods like ice cream, cookies, candy, and soda, as well as to less obvious products like ketchup, spaghetti sauce, yogurt, bread, and salad dressing.
- Natural sugars are in whole foods. An apple, for example, can have around 20 grams. But it also has vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients to nourish your body.
- Too many calories, no matter where they’re from, will cause weight gain. But lots of added sugar in your diet could make you more likely to eat too much over the course of the day.
- If your body weight is higher than it should be, you’re more likely to have high cholesterol numbers, including triglycerides, a type of fat in your blood.
- 1. High in empty calories
- 2. Impacts blood sugar and hormone levels
- 3. Foods high in added sugar tend to be less filling
- 4. Displaces healthy foods
- 5. May cause you to overeat
- 6. Linked to obesity and chronic disease
- The bottom line
Added sugars are sweeteners added to foods and beverages to improved taste. Some common types include fructose, corn syrup, cane sugar, and agave.
Excess sugar may cause you to pack on weight because it’s high in calories while offering few other nutrients.
For example, 2 tablespoons (30 ml) of the common sweetener corn syrup contain 120 calories — exclusively from carbs (3).
Added sugars are often referred to as empty calories, as they’re relatively high in calories yet void of nutrients like vitamins, minerals, protein, fat, and fiber, which your body needs to function optimally (4).
Plus, foods and beverages that typically contain a lot of added sugars, such as ice cream, candy, soda, and cookies, tend to be loaded with calories as well.
Though using small amounts of added sugar is unlikely to cause weight gain, regularly indulging in foods high in added sugars may cause you to gain excess body fat quicker and more drastically.
It’s well known that eating sugary foods significantly raises your blood sugar levels.
Though enjoying a sweet food infrequently isn’t likely to harm health, daily consumption of large amounts of added sugar can lead to chronically elevated blood sugar levels.
Prolonged elevated blood sugar — known as hyperglycemia — can cause serious harm to your body, including weight gain (5).
One way hyperglycemia leads to weight gain is through promoting insulin resistance.
Insulin is a hormone produced by your pancreas that moves sugar from your blood into cells, where it can be used for energy. Insulin is also involved in energy storage, telling your cells when to store energy as either fat or glycogen, the storage form of glucose.
Insulin resistance is when your cells stop responding properly to insulin, which leads to elevated sugar and insulin levels.
Foods and beverages that are packed with added sugar, such as cakes, cookies, ice cream, candy, and soda, tend to be low in or completely lacking in protein, a nutrient essential for blood sugar control that promotes feelings of fullness.
In fact, protein is the most filling macronutrient. It does this by slowing digestion, keeping blood sugar levels stable, and regulating hunger hormones (14).
For example, protein helps reduce levels of ghrelin, a hormone that drives appetite and increases calorie intake (15).
Conversely, eating protein stimulates the production of peptide YY (PYY) and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), hormones associated with feelings of fullness that help reduce food intake (15).
Eating foods rich in carbs — particularly refined carbs high in added sugars — yet low in protein can negatively impact fullness and may lead to weight gain by causing you to eat more at subsequent meals throughout the day (16, 17, 18).
High-sugar foods also tend to be low in fiber, a nutrient that can increase feelings of fullness and reduce appetite — though not as much as protein (19).
If most of your diet revolves around foods high in added sugars, chances are you’re missing out on important nutrients.
Protein, healthy fats, fiber, vitamins, and minerals are all nutrients found in whole, nutritious foods that your body needs to function optimally and stay healthy. They’re usually lacking in sugary products.
Additionally, refined foods and beverages that are high in added sugar don’t have beneficial compounds like antioxidants, which are concentrated in foods like olive oil, nuts, beans, egg yolks, and brightly colored vegetables and fruits (20, 21).
Antioxidants help protect your cells from damage caused by highly reactive molecules called free radicals.
Oxidative stress — an imbalance between antioxidants and free radicals — has been linked to a variety of chronic conditions, such as heart disease and certain cancers (22).
Unsurprisingly, diets high in added sugars increase your risk of the same chronic diseases linked to oxidative stress, as well as your risk of obesity and weight gain (1, 23, 24, 25, 26).
Eating too much added sugar — particularly foods rich in a type of sugar called fructose — can significantly increase levels of the hunger-promoting hormone ghrelin while decreasing levels of the appetite-suppressing hormone peptide YY (PYY) (27).
Fructose may also increase appetite by affecting a part of your brain called the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is responsible for many functions, including appetite regulation, calories burned, as well as carb and fat metabolism (28).
Animal studies indicate that fructose impacts signaling systems in your hypothalamus, increasing levels of hunger-stimulating neuropeptides — molecules that communicate with one another, influencing brain activity — while decreasing fullness signals (29).
What’s more, your body is predisposed to crave sweetness. In fact, research shows that sugar consumption is driven by the pleasure derived from the sweet taste of sugary drinks and foods.
Studies suggest that sweet-tasting foods activate certain parts of your brain that are responsible for pleasure and reward, which may enhance your craving for sweet food (30, 31).
Additionally, sugar may increase your desire for highly palatable, calorie-rich foods.
Numerous studies have linked high intake of added sugars to weight gain and chronic conditions, such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.
This effect has been seen in both adults and children.
A recent review of 30 studies in more than 242,000 adults and children found a significant association between sugar-sweetened beverages and obesity (34).
Countless studies link sugary foods and beverages to weight gain in different populations, including pregnant women and teens (35, 36, 37).
Another study in 6,929 children demonstrated that those between the ages of 6 and 10 who consumed more added sugars had significantly more body fat than children who consumed less added sugar (38).
Studies show that diets high in added sugar can increase your risk of chronic health conditions as well.
Interfering with your hormones, increasing hunger, and displacing healthy foods are just a few of the ways that added sugars can lead to weight gain.
Aside from causing you to put on excess body fat, eating too much added sugar can significantly increase your risk of chronic conditions, such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.
- Jillian Kubala, MS, RD
- You'll Reach Your Weight Loss Goals. Eating the same foods but without the added sugars normally in them means your total caloric intake decreases which could make it easier to lose weight and keep it off.
- You'll Decrease Your Diabetes Risk. Studies have shown that high sugar consumption—especially of sweetened beverages—can increase the odds of developing Type 2 diabetes.
- Your Skin's Aging Process Will Slow. Cutting out excess added sugar and keeping blood glucose within healthy parameters may slow the rate at which skin ages.
- You'll Be Less Likely to Get Sick. Chronic, low-grade inflammation has been linked to nearly every major disease of lifestyle and aging, including arthritis, G.I.
Oct 18, 2024 · Summary. Natural or naturally occurring sugars are those naturally present in many foods and beverages (such as milk, fruits, and vegetables). In contrast, sugars are added during food processing (such as syrups and concentrated fruit or vegetable juices). Added sugars pose no significant harm to the health if consumed in the recommended ...
How added sugars promote obesity through energy/nutrient depletion. Displaces nutritionally superior foods. 2. Decreases appetite for more nutritious food. 2. Depletes nutrients within the body (in order to liberate the calories from sugar, as well as from an increase in bacterial and yeast overgrowth). 2.
People also ask
Can adding sugar help you lose weight?
Do added sugars cause weight gain?
Do sweeteners make you lose weight?
Do sugary foods cause weight gain?
Should you cut added sugars if you're already healthy?
Is added sugar more healthy than natural sugar?
Aug 22, 2022 · High sugar consumption can increase your blood sugar, which signals your body to release insulin, a hormone that helps your cells use and store glucose for energy. If your blood sugar is consistently high, your body will release more and more insulin. Eventually, this will make your body less responsive to insulin, which is one of the main risk ...
