One of the comments we hear a lot on social media is: “How can you quit sugar when you need some sugar to survive?!”.
But is there any truth to this statement? Well, it depends on which angle you’re coming from.
If you’re considering our I Quit Sugar: 8-Week Program and worried about eating “too little” sugar, here’s a breakdown of the science.
Our bodies don’t need “sugar” for energy.
When most people talk about “sugar”, they’re referring to the white powdered stuff that’s often added to processed foods. This is sucrose, half glucose and half fructose.
“Glucose is a simple sugar which cells use to get short-term energy,” says nutritionist and IQS Expert Emily Seddon. “In fact, it’s the preferred fuel source for almost all the cells in our body.”
But here’s the thing – your body can generate glucose from whole foods, even from protein. There’s definitely no need to eat sugary foods to keep your energy up!
Not to mention that the fructose half of sucrose (which is what we aim to avoid on the Program), is entirely problematic!
“Like alcohol, fructose is almost exclusively processed by the liver. While small amounts of fructose from fruit and vegetables will be used for fuel, excess amounts will be stored as fat,” says dietitian and IQS Expert Natalie Bourke.
Sugar is not a nutrient or a food group.
For the record, the food groups are vegetables, fruit, grains, lean proteins and dairy (or equivalent). And there is no daily dietary requirement for added sugar, just a limit (six teaspoons or less).
Esteemed cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra even goes as far to say that “sugar has no nutritional value, has no biological requirement and therefore cannot be a ‘nutrient.’”
We couldn’t have put it better!
In any case, we still eat a small amount of sugar.
Even if sugar were a nutrient, we wouldn’t be missing out on it at all. Why? Well, we eat small amounts of fructose daily, through natural sources like fresh, whole fruit and sweet vegetables.
But these foods are packaged with just the right amount of fibre, water and nutrients to help our bodies process the fructose inside, so our liver doesn’t totally freak out. Thanks, Mother Nature!
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