by Dr Joanna McMillan
To me these arguments over the metabolic effects of sugar are minor and kind of missing the real point. Most sugars that we can buy to sweeten foods ourselves, or that are used in food manufacturing, are extracted from plant foods and refined so that only the sugar remains. When this refined sugar is then used in abundance in foods, it adds kilojoules without adding any nutrition. Now if you have exceptionally high energy needs you can probably get away with that as the vast quantity of food you eat is more likely to provide all your nutrients. However for most of us we don’t have room in our diets for this! So eat too much added sugar and you can be getting enough – and often too many – kilojoules but still be malnourished.
Secondly sugar is a nightmare for your teeth. In fact the impact on dental health is the strongest evidence base against sugar and the principle reason the World Health Organisation recommends limiting intake to less than 10% of total energy. Sugar sweetened drinks and sticky foods like lollies bathe the teeth in sugar and provides a perfect breeding ground for the bacteria that end up destroying your teeth.
Sugar Free September 