Will Eating Sugar Make You Fat?

Will Eating Sugar Make You Fat?

Does eating sugar make you fat?  Just like any other food, eating too much will make you fat.  Unfortunately, that is quite easy to do with sugar.

We get fat from eating too much sugar because it is in nearly every food that we consume these days.  Food with sugar added accounts for 16% of total calories in our diet.  So a good portion of our daily calories comes from completely useless calories that have no nutritional value.  Sugar goes by many names which makes it difficult to find on a nutrition label.  The body stores the sugar it does not need for energy so it can be used later.  But, we keep adding in more sugar so the stored energy is never tapped.

The Many Names for Sugar

A few main types of sugar exist.  Sucrose is table sugar, the "white granular stuff" that comes from sugar cane and sugar beets.  Lactose is a sugar in milk products.  Fructose is the sugar found in fruits.  All of these sugars are broken down in the body into Glucose which is the form of energy that our bodies prefer.  Sugar has many names making it easy to hide it in an ingredient list or make it sound healthy for us.  Here is a short list of some of the names for sugar which may you may encounter. The words "syrup", "sweetener", and any ingredient ending in "ose" is almost always sugar.

Agave nectarBarley malt syrupCorn sweetenerCorn syrupDehydrated cane juiceDextroseFruit juice concentrateHigh-fructose corn syrup (HFCS)HoneyMaltodextrinMalt syrupMaltoseMaple syrupMolassesRice syrupTurbinado sugarXylose

While some foods have natural sugar in them, such as if fruit is in the product, manufacturers add sugar to many of our foods because we love to buy/eat sweet food and it is more cost effective to produce.  To avoid the appearance of high sugar content, a manufacturer will use 3 or 4 of the different sugar names so they will not be in the first 3-4 ingredients on a label.  The sugars are hidden so the consumer assumes they are natural sugars or not even in the product.

How Sugar Can Become Fat

Carbohydrates consist of sugars, starches, and fiber.  The sugars and starches are broken down by the body into glucose.  Glucose circulates in the bloodstream, supplying our cells with fuel when needed.  Any extra glucose from a meal is converted into glycogen, which is then stored in muscles and the liver.  But, if the body already has enough glycogen stored in the muscles and liver, the glucose is converted into fat and stored for later use.  Without exercise to use up the glycogen stored in the muscles, the body will continually store excess sugar as fat.  The liver also converts extra glucose to triglycerides which increases your cholesterol level.  So, the extra sugar in our foods is stored as fat and converted to unhealthy cholesterol.

What Can We Do About It?

Reducing sugar intake and doing some exercise will make you less fat.  The total added sugar we consume daily can be broken into these contributions:

36% from Soda, Energy Drinks, Sports Drinks13% from Cakes, Cookies, Pies10.5% from Fruit Drinks and "ades" (like Lemonade) that are not 100% fruit juice

Your body prefers to burn glucose for energy, so if you do not add to the reserves and then use exercise to create a glucose deficit, the body draws on fat, our stored fuel, for energy.  Recommended sugar intake for women is 24 grams (100 calories) which is 6 teaspoons.  Men should have 36 grams (150 calories) which is 9 teaspoons.  The average American consumes over 22 teaspoons or 350 calories of added sugar per day.  To reduce intake, your sugar should come from natural sources such as fruit.  They are the perfect portion size of sugar that our body needs.  Watch out for foods with added sugars as they create unneeded excess.

Unfortunately, we cannot completely avoid these foods as they are everywhere so we need to balance our meal with other foods such as proteins and fibers to slow sugar absorption.  A complete meal that has a balance of protein, fiber and natural sugars from fruit is the Herbalife Formula 1 nutritional shake mix.  The mixes are available in several flavors including French Vanilla, Dutch Chocolate and Wild Berry.  You can add fruit, peanut butter or oatmeal to create different flavors.  Plus, the shake mix contains 19 vitamins and minerals along with antioxidants.  Everything you need for a fulfilling meal with long-lasting energy from just the right type and amount of sugar.

Eating balanced meals and getting the right amount of vitamins is a must if you want to stop storing sugar as fat.  A quick start to help you make this process easy can be found HERE!

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