That kind of implies added sugars are officially something it’s crucial that you be wary of.
But what does added sugar even mean?
Is it somehow inherently worse for us than naturally occurring sugar?
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We have a lot of questions, so we went digging for answers.
Heres what we mean when we say naturally occurring versus added sugars.
Basically, they are an inherent part of the foods theyre found innobody put them there.
Added sugars, on the other hand, are the kinds created or put in during the manufacturing process.
They are not composed of sugar molecules and contain zero or very few calories.
Were also not talking about sugar alcohols (like sorbitol or xylitol) for the same reasons.
So, do different sugars impact our body differently?
From a nutrition science standpoint, we really view them as basically the same, Tewksbury says.
The first is monosaccharides, or single sugar molecules, which include fructose, galactose, and glucose.
These go pretty much directly into the bloodstream after you eat them.
All of the naturally occurring and added sugars we eat are simply some combination of these molecules.
What we call naturally occurring sugars arent more natural, per se, than added sugars, Tewksbury says.
We digest them all in generally the same way.
What aboutnaturaladded sugars, you ask?
Like honey and agave syrup.
While natural might sound inherently good or better, it doesnt really mean anything in this case.
Chemically, [natural sugars] affect you exactly the same as table sugar, Tewksbury says.
Even powdered sugar, for example, has just been refined from the sugarcane plant.
So the term natural sugar sounds nice but doesnt mean much.
Should we care, then, about added sugar in packaged foods?
Well, thats a good question.
It would seem that since, to our bodies, sugar is sugar, it wouldnt really matter.
But that doesnt mean calling out added sugars is necessarily useless.
Andthosecostarring nutrientscanaffect how your body reacts to the sugar in that food.
Consider a piece of fruit-flavored candy compared to a pear, each with 10 grams of sugar.
Fruit juice is a great example of this.
(Although, it is worth noting, you will get some vitamins out of the apple juice.)
(See what we did there?)
No, a cup of yogurt does not equal a donut.
But sugar is sugar is sugar, as Tewksbury puts it.
