How Bad is Sugar?

Sugar is sweet – so far, so clear. But what is the maximum amount you should eat per day? And how much does it harm the body? The facts.

What actually is sugar?

Anyone who confronts a scientist with the keyword “sugar” is immediately asked a counter-question: What exactly is it supposed to be about? There isn’t just one type of sugar. The term hides different types, for example glucose (dextrose), fructose (fruit sugar) or lactose (milk sugar). There are also starches, for example in potatoes, or sucrose (typical table sugar).

What the types of sugar have in common is that they are all carbohydrates and have a similar structure. Its basic components: carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. However, the specific molecular structure is different.

Polysaccharides do not taste sweet at all

Glucose and fructose are the simplest sugars, so-called simple sugars or monosaccharides. If two such monosaccharides combine, a disaccharide is formed – a double sugar. This includes, for example, sucrose. It is made up of glucose and fructose in a 1:1 ratio.

The polysaccharides contained in starch, i.e. multiple sugars, are also important for nutrition. They consist of long chains of sugar molecules and, unlike mono- and disaccharides, do not taste sweet at first.

What is the daily requirement of sugar?

One thing is clear: the body does not need free sugar to survive – i.e. household sugar or sugar that is added to industrially produced foods and contained in juices. Nevertheless , we consume too much of it: per person on average over 30 kilograms per year . Since 1950, this value has increased by around 10 kilograms.

WHO recommendation: 25 grams per day

That is why institutions such as the World Health Organization (WHO) or the German Society for Nutrition (DGE) only issue recommendations for maximum sugar intake. According to the WHO, free sugars should account for less than five percent of total energy intake per day, which is about 25 grams (six teaspoons). The DGE has set this upper limit too strictly – it would not correspond to the current scientific status. The DGE recommends covering a maximum of ten percent of the total energy intake with free sugar.

However, there is apparently no need to limit the amount of sugar that is naturally found in fruit, vegetables and milk. Instead, the ten nutritional rules of the DGE apply here: Five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, supplemented by smaller portions of dairy products.

What happens to sugar in the body?

When we eat something, a multi-stage digestive process begins immediately in the body. The sugar chains contained in carbohydrates are broken down into their components until only simple sugars such as glucose or fructose remain.

These enter the bloodstream directly from the intestine. When glucose is absorbed into the blood , what is known as blood sugar rises. The body then releases more of the hormone insulin, which transports the glucose to different cells.

In contrast to glucose, fructose is processed in the liver largely independently of insulin. The sugar molecules serve as energy suppliers and provide the brain with the fuel it needs, for example.

What is refined sugar?

Refined sugar is the king of white sugars and is of the highest quality. Chemically, it is sucrose, which is obtained from sugar beet and sugar cane .

In the manufacturing process, the well-known crystalline sugar is created from these raw materials by crushing, boiling, cleaning and crystallizing. Depending on the desired degree of purity, the process is repeated several times.

The various quality levels and their requirements are laid down by law in the Sugar Types Ordinance. But regardless of whether it is white sugar, semi-white sugar or refined sugar – in the end it is all sucrose.

Is fructose better than regular sugar?

The WHO or DGE do not recommend an upper limit for daily consumption of sugar that is naturally found in fruit or vegetables – in contrast to free sugars in industrially produced foods and beverages. Against this background, the answer could be: Yes, fructose is better than “normal” sugar.

However, when we focus on the monosaccharide fructose, things get a bit more complicated. Some animal experiments have shown that using fructose as the sole source of sugar can have negative consequences. This is because it is broken down in the liver. If more fructose gets into the body than is needed, the excess accumulates in the liver and is converted into fat.

Doubts about fructose studies

Studies in recent years indicate that excessive fructose consumption can lead not only to fatty liver but also to an increase in blood lipid levels and insulin resistance.

However, the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture has expressed doubts about these criticisms of fructose: In the underlying studies, mainly animals were examined, the transferability to humans is not given 1:1.

In addition, in their investigations, the scientists administered more than 25 percent of the nutritional energy via fructose – a value that hardly ever occurs in human nutrition.

Is Sugar Really Bad?

Sugar is not harmful per se. As in so many cases, the dose makes the poison here: Compared to the recommendations of the WHO and DGE , Germans simply consume too much sugar.

The development of overweight and obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases and certain types of cancer correlate with excessive sugar consumption.

That means: If you snack too much and hang around lazily, you may develop one of the diseases mentioned. However, it is difficult to attribute this to free sugar or carbohydrates alone – too many other factors usually play a role, such as exercise or the overall composition of the diet.

Clearer case: sugar-sweetened drinks

Because supposed soft drinks such as lemonades or fruit juices quench thirst, but do not quench hunger – even though they would actually provide enough calories for it. Proven consequence: an increased risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes, especially in children and adolescents.

Also: Sugar attacks the teeth by providing the caries bacteria with the food they need. But every child knows what to do about it: Don’t forget to brush your teeth after eating!

Is Sugar Addictive?

When you eat a piece of chocolate, you usually want more. Sometimes a whole billboard goes on it – but is that addictive behavior? Scientists certify sugar at least a possible addiction potential. In studies with rats, they found evidence that the little animals can develop a kind of dependency under certain circumstances. The extent to which this can be transferred to humans is questionable.

Habituation effect with sweet foods

There is better evidence that sweets, especially in combination with fatty foods, activate the reward system in the brain. For example, as soon as we bite into a donut, signals are sent to the brain. The organ then causes an increased release of dopamine – also known as the happiness hormone. Anyone who eats donuts too much and too often will get used to it after a while. With the same sweetness and fat content, less dopamine is produced.

The result: It takes more donuts to feel as good as before. However, this (especially the sole) consumption of sugar does not meet the criteria of a full-fledged addiction.

What happens if I give up sugar?

Self-help books that advocate saying goodbye to sugar and, ideally, giving it up forever are all the rage right now. People who dare to make such dietary changes report in blogs about initial withdrawal symptoms: food cravings, headaches, tiredness, problems concentrating, mood swings and irritability. After that, however, they would feel great, from a better feeling of satiety to greater well-being.

Stefan Kabisch, study doctor at the German Institute for Human Nutrition, says: “Such feel-good factors cannot be well documented in studies.” However, he confirms: If you regularly eat a lot of sugar and then suddenly stop eating it, you could feel bad at first. “Initially, the sudden drop in sugar intake creates an increased feeling of hunger, but this quickly subsides.”

First thing happens: nothing

The fact is that when you give up sugar, there are always several factors that matter: weight, previous diet, disposition and, above all, which sugar is avoided – and how it is replaced. When in doubt, nothing happens at first, because the body simply gets the energy it needs from other components of the diet.

Whether it’s a low carb diet (i.e. less carbohydrates) or avoiding sweets, foods and drinks that have added sugar, the result is often: We simply take in fewer calories than we need – and the body gets its energy from fat reserves instead of sugar. Many studies show that this leads to weight loss. As a result, the risk of type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease decreases.

If you reduce or stop consuming sugary soft drinks, you can do even more for your body: Excessive drinking of soda & co. is linked to bad skin and high blood pressure.

What alternatives are there to sugar?

Agave syrup, honey, maple and sugar beet syrup or stevia – in addition to table sugar, there are a few other ways to sweeten food as a substitute for sugar. However, the first four are not really alternatives for losing weight. On average, their energy content is slightly lower than that of granulated sugar, but still similarly high.

If you want to reduce your weight, you should pay attention to low-calorie foods and, if necessary, replace sugar with sweeteners. The DGE calculates that just by sweetening coffee or tea with sweeteners instead of sugar, 23,360 kilocalories can be saved per year. That would correspond to a fatty tissue mass of three kilograms.

Otherwise, some scientists point out that natural sweeteners are “better” than household sugar in that they contain other components in addition to fructose and glucose, such as vitamins, amino acids and antioxidants. These would make it easier for the body to deal with the sugars it also contains. Whether this actually has a health benefit is debatable.

How do I know the sugar content of food?

75 percent of all packaged foods in the US are said to contain hidden sugars. In Germany, too, we don’t see all the sugar that we consume every day. It is quite obviously hidden in sweets such as chocolate and ice cream, but also in staple foods: bread, fruit yoghurt, breakfast cereals.

Since 2016, the total sugar content per 100 grams or milliliters must appear on the packaging of finished products. The problem: You don’t realize how much of it is natural and what is added sweetness. But it is precisely this difference that is important. Because sugar, which is found in fruit or milk, does not harm the body. The nutritional recommendations for sugar intake from the WHO and DGE also only refer to artificially added sugar.

Food groups want to introduce a traffic light system for their products on their own responsibility. A red to green signal would therefore provide information about the sugar, fat and salt content. In order for this information to really help consumers, it would have to be calculated in the same way for all products and refer to the same quantity.

Problem: There is cheating

Currently, there are often percentages on packaged foods that are intended to represent the proportion of the daily nutrient requirement. For example, a serving of breakfast cereal would provide 16 percent of your daily calorie requirement. But companies cheat with this information. By using smaller portion sizes in the calculation, you can make your products appear healthier than they are, Stiftung Warentest warns.

One way to avoid all those hidden sugars is to eat less processed foods and cook more from scratch.