Groundwork: Sugar

So before I go into specific foods/issues, I need to lay a foundation on which I will build a lot of my future posts.  This is where the giant science nerd with no friends comes out.  Sorry I will keep it basic and interesting (or try).

Many people understand that if you eat fat, the nutrients that your body absorb are the building blocks of fat.  That's easy.  What a lot of people don't understand that if you eat sugar, you get the building blocks of sugar AND fat.  Sugar has a ton of pathways in the body after it is broken down into its simplest form (glucose).  I won't even start to go into them.  But the main pathway typically takes glucose and produces energy for our cells to function.  This is good.  The problem occurs when we ingest too much sugar.  The enzymes that normally break it down into energy get shut off, and they start to divert the process to produce more of a building molecule for fat (acetyl-CoA).  This is bad.

Another thing that happens when we eat sugar is we release a hormone to push that sugar into our cells.  This is called Insulin.  I dare you to ask any diabetic what they think of Insulin...and don't take their response personally.  What Insulin also does is cause the body to take fat and store it in fat cells.

So lets recap: we eat too much sugar, and we make fat.  Then our body takes that fat and stores it in fat cells.  Then we get fat.  Awesome.

Some red flags that something has too much sugar in it: High Fructose Corn Syrup (concentrated sugar), high carbohydrate count (with low fiber), and sugar as one of the first few ingredients on the list (yes, they list them in order of content, highest being first)

So what does this have to do with the myths I am supposed to reveal to you about 'nutritious food'?  It revolves around the sometimes manipulative words "FAT FREE".  Next time you're in the grocery store, grab a product that has a normal version and a fat free version.  I will give you an example.  Let's do Ranch Dressing.  Kraft™ regular ranch has the following:

Its Fat Free version looks like this:

So yes, there is a lot less fat (never 0, there can be less than 0.5g and they are allowed to still put 0).  And yes there are fewer calories.  However take a look at the carb count.  1.3g in the regular, and 10.7 in the Fat Free!!!!!  That's over 8x the carbs per serving.  Not to mention nearly twice the added sugar, and the fact that they BOTH have corn syrup.  So while you think you are doing well by reducing the calories significantly, there are hidden consequences going on in your body that you don't see.

This is not a very extreme example, I'll be honest.  So let's look at one.  Hershey™ boasts their low-fat candy (0 Sat Fat), Twizzlers™. Zero Saturated Fat! GREAT! Not so much:

It is interesting to think that your body will make fat from this, even though the label showed none.  Now not all fat free foods are like this. Some really do take the fat away without trying to add sugar to mask the flavor.  Next time you go for fat free, make sure you check the label.


In my next post I will tell you why high fat isn't necessarily bad.  Then we will get down to bashing specific foods : )

DISLAIMER: Now...I am not encouraging a high fat diet, nor am I saying that reducing calories does not matter.  We all know that calories in < calories burned = weight loss. Calories simply tell you how much energy your body uses to break food down.  But remember my focus is not always calorie based, it is nutrition based (which sometimes will involve calories).  However, if the amount of calories (big or small) you are eating are unhealthy, you are doing no good for your body.