Are Some Forms of Sugar Better Than Others?

Families are stronger when they are healthy, and healthy families strengthen their communities, states, and nations. According to Lois M. Collins at The Deseret News, a group of researchers from Brigham Young University have published the results of a study on ingesting sugar. Collins noted three key points from the study: 

1. Sugar-sweetened beverages raise the risk of type 2 diabetes.

2. Drinking sugar is drastically riskier than eating sugar due to its impact on the liver.

3. Not all sugars are equally risky, according to BYU study involving half a million people.

The study found that the type of sugar as well as the form of sugar is important to understand. Eating sugar is not as dangerous to the body as drinking sugar. For example, it is better to eat fruit than to drink fruit juice because of the effect that liquid sugar has on the liver. Also, the form and the amount of sugar consumed, not sugar itself, is what influences the risk of type 2 diabetes.

The researchers suggest that eating sugar and drinking it have different metabolic effects that may account for the difference in risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Sugar-sweetened drinks provide isolated sugars that kick off greater glycemic impact. That can overwhelm the liver’s metabolic process and cause fatty liver and insulin resistance.

Dietary sugars, though, when consumed in or added to nutrient-dense foods like fruit, dairy products and whole grains, don’t overwhelm the liver. “These embedded sugars elicit slower blood glucose responses due to accompanying fiber, fats, proteins and other beneficial nutrients,” per the research.

So sugars eaten with whole foods are much less harmful than those consumed in liquid form… [because] the human body is not accustomed to processing and metabolizing the very high amounts of sugars found in sugar-sweetened beverages…. Sugar has always been a part of the human diet….

The bottom line is that sugar on its own is not a “nutritional villain.” The thing that matters is the amount and form of sugar and if it is being consumed with “macronutrients that can slow down its digestion.” When sugar is consumed in excess, it can overwhelm the liver. Fructose, but not glucose, is mainly metabolized in the liver where it becomes fat – contributing to the “development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which is associated with insulin resistance … [and] risk of developing type 2 diabetes … an unhealthy cycle.”

Collins indicated that fruit juices contain about “the same level of sugar as sodas have” but is less harmful but still “a poor substitute for whole fruits.” Also, “high glycemic index foods directly raise the risk of type 2 diabetes, while dietary sugar does not except in liquid form.”

Wise parents will limit the total amount of sugar consumed by their children. They will also eliminate most, if not all, liquid sugar. One way to limit liquid sugar consumption is to give children fruit-juice-flavored water. By keeping their children healthy, parents can strengthen their family, community, state, and nation.