Sugar, artificial sweeteners, and "natural" sweeteners
It's time for a wee rant!
So, as I've mentioned before, we know that sugar is everywhere. It's not just in cake and cookies and candy: it's in barbeque sauce and salad dressing and tea and coffee whitener and yogurt and granola bars and breakfast cereal. If it comes in a box or a package, it probably has sugar. We know that there are over 61 different legal names for sugar, too, so you have to do your homework if you're trying to avoid this stuff! Just speaking of sugar, let's talk about the different categories.
There are the ones most people know: sucrose (aka table sugar), glucose, fructose (occurs in fruit), lactose (occurs in dairy products).
There are the sugar alcohols: xylitol, sorbitol, erythritol, etc. These are super chemical, mostly found in food-adjacent products not found in nature. Think gummy candy, etc. And just for fun, if you haven't already read any of the multiple hilarious accounts of people who have eaten too many gummy bears sweetened with maltitol, do yourselves a favour and have a read.
There are the ones people don't realize count as sugar, because they're naturally-occurring substances, such as honey, coconut sugar, agave syrup, fruit juice, cane sugar, palm sugar, molasses. These are still very much sugars, natural or otherwise.
"But wait a second," you say. "The label said it was sugar free!" Yes. Yes it did. And that label lied to you. Due to the many loopholes in food labelling laws, food companies are allowed to call a product which is packed with sugar "sugar free" when it is sucrose free. That doesn't mean that it won't still be full of other sugars, though! Sometimes they get around it by saying "no added sugar", which generally means that there was already a naturally-occurring sugar in there; they just didn't add MORE.
Now let's talk about other sweeteners. Here I'm talking about aspartame, sucralose, acesulfame potassium, and stevia. "But wait!" you protest. "Stevia is natural!" So are hurricanes, but I digress: stevia in its leaf form is natural, yes. But by the time you've bought it, it comes in a powder or a liquid, and has undergone many, many chemical processes and really can't fairly be called "natural" anymore.
Here's the problem with all of the above: they raise our insulin. "But wait!" you cry. "Erythritol has a 0 score on the Glycemic Index! Therefore it can't raise my blood sugar!" True. This is true. However, it's a fallacy to believe that things which don't raise blood sugar can't still produce an insulin response. In fact, some sweeteners, both natural and otherwise, raise insulin levels even higher than sugar itself, and stevia is one of the big culprits here! This comes directly from my beloved Dr. Jason Fung's The Obesity Code (give it a read!). It's unfortunate, but true. Our tongues detect sweetness; our bodies respond with inulin in preparation. Insulin is the hormone that signals the body to take whatever food is coming in and store it as fat. Keeping our insulin levels low is super important for controlling or losing weight.
I used to be someone who took three spoonfuls of sugar in her coffee. My taste palate has adjusted. I'll probably always have a sweet tooth, but it can be controlled! If I can do it, anyone can. :)
So, as I've mentioned before, we know that sugar is everywhere. It's not just in cake and cookies and candy: it's in barbeque sauce and salad dressing and tea and coffee whitener and yogurt and granola bars and breakfast cereal. If it comes in a box or a package, it probably has sugar. We know that there are over 61 different legal names for sugar, too, so you have to do your homework if you're trying to avoid this stuff! Just speaking of sugar, let's talk about the different categories.
There are the ones most people know: sucrose (aka table sugar), glucose, fructose (occurs in fruit), lactose (occurs in dairy products).
There are the sugar alcohols: xylitol, sorbitol, erythritol, etc. These are super chemical, mostly found in food-adjacent products not found in nature. Think gummy candy, etc. And just for fun, if you haven't already read any of the multiple hilarious accounts of people who have eaten too many gummy bears sweetened with maltitol, do yourselves a favour and have a read.
There are the ones people don't realize count as sugar, because they're naturally-occurring substances, such as honey, coconut sugar, agave syrup, fruit juice, cane sugar, palm sugar, molasses. These are still very much sugars, natural or otherwise.
"But wait a second," you say. "The label said it was sugar free!" Yes. Yes it did. And that label lied to you. Due to the many loopholes in food labelling laws, food companies are allowed to call a product which is packed with sugar "sugar free" when it is sucrose free. That doesn't mean that it won't still be full of other sugars, though! Sometimes they get around it by saying "no added sugar", which generally means that there was already a naturally-occurring sugar in there; they just didn't add MORE.
Now let's talk about other sweeteners. Here I'm talking about aspartame, sucralose, acesulfame potassium, and stevia. "But wait!" you protest. "Stevia is natural!" So are hurricanes, but I digress: stevia in its leaf form is natural, yes. But by the time you've bought it, it comes in a powder or a liquid, and has undergone many, many chemical processes and really can't fairly be called "natural" anymore.
Here's the problem with all of the above: they raise our insulin. "But wait!" you cry. "Erythritol has a 0 score on the Glycemic Index! Therefore it can't raise my blood sugar!" True. This is true. However, it's a fallacy to believe that things which don't raise blood sugar can't still produce an insulin response. In fact, some sweeteners, both natural and otherwise, raise insulin levels even higher than sugar itself, and stevia is one of the big culprits here! This comes directly from my beloved Dr. Jason Fung's The Obesity Code (give it a read!). It's unfortunate, but true. Our tongues detect sweetness; our bodies respond with inulin in preparation. Insulin is the hormone that signals the body to take whatever food is coming in and store it as fat. Keeping our insulin levels low is super important for controlling or losing weight.
I used to be someone who took three spoonfuls of sugar in her coffee. My taste palate has adjusted. I'll probably always have a sweet tooth, but it can be controlled! If I can do it, anyone can. :)
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