Episode Transcript
Interviewer: You hear it all the time, avoid sugar like the plague. But is it really that bad for our body? Find out if sugar free is really the way to be - next on The Scope.
Announcer: Medical news and research of University of Utah physicians and specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. You're listening to The Scope.
Interviewer: We have Ashley Quadros, a health educator from University of Utah Department of Health, here to help explain if sugar is really the enemy. All right, so is it true? Is sugar really that bad for us, Ashley?
Ashley: Well, no it's not actually. It's sort of been vilified, like you say, but it's very more complex. There are so many more things that can be classified as sugar. So, to say that all around that sugar is bad is actually very misleading.
Interviewer: Why do you think sugar is vilified?
Ashley: Well, it's vilified for good reasons. It's the main culprit of what's causing obesity today in the United States. It's added calories but not a lot of nutrition and it creeps up in a lot of foods. It's in some things that you might not expect them to be, things like salad dressing and pasta sauce, so we're getting a lot but we're not necessarily realizing that we're eating all that extra sugar.
Interviewer: Sneaky sugars, I see what you're saying. Do you need sugar to function properly?
Ashley: Yes, you do need sugar. You can think of sugar as added white sugar that you put in things to make them sweet but also, sugar can come in the form of carbohydrate, which we know we definitely need. Our body breaks down carbohydrates pretty quickly into sugar, and those are definitely necessary for function, for our body's functions. So, you do need sugar.
Interviewer: If you do need sugar, what is considered too much sugar?
Ashley: The best way to start is to make a distinction. Natural sugar, sugar that occurs naturally in food, that is good for us and that there really is no limit. That would come from things like fruit and milk. But other sorts of sugar, things like added sugar that come from sodas, or sweets, pastries, that sort of thing, you generally want to limit that to six teaspoons for women, if that's a good way to visualize it, and nine teaspoons for men. So, that would include your dessert after dinner and also your soda with lunch. All of that is in that six to nine teaspoon range.
Interviewer: When you do eat too much sugar - say that you just went to a party and you had at it with all the candy and cakes and cookies that were there - what happens to your body?
Ashley: When you eat a lot of sugar at one time, what it does is it raises your blood sugar - the level of sugar in your blood - very quickly. And for most people, that's not a really big problem, especially if it's only around the holidays. But, when you start to do that regularly, day after day, it's sort of an assault on your body and it can be a real problem if you are struggling with something like type II diabetes and that can cause damage to your body - that high level of sugar in your blood. So, a little bit occasionally is fine, but when you're starting to do it day after day, that's when the real problem comes.
Interviewer: Okay, so I guess I'll have to scale back a little bit. Any tips on how to keep an eye out on your sugar intake to make sure that you're not taking in too much?
Ashley: Generally what I like to say is, when you're at the store, and you're buying things, if it doesn't have a label, generally it's probably fine. So, things that don't have labels, like fruits and vegetables, poultry, all of that is fine and you can eat that really without worrying about sugar. The problem comes when you're getting something that's packaged or somewhat processed. In that case you want to look at the label and you want to look at sugars.
Interviewer: I've heard something about this new food label that's going to be coming out. Can you tell us a little bit more about that and how it will help us figure out which things have good or bad sugars in them?
Ashley: Yes. So, I'm really happy about this because it can be tricky to determine, when you're buying a product at the store, if it's good for you and doesn't have a lot of added sugar or if it has a lot of added sugar. But, it's sometimes confusing. The new food label will hopefully distinguish between what's naturally occurring in the product and what's added. That will be great, because as a consumer you'll be able to decide if you want to buy that product, because you'll know it's either coming from a natural source or that it's not and it's coming from something that they added to it.
Interviewer: Great. That's definitely something to look forward to and will help out a lot.
Ashley: Yes, we hope it passes. We're not sure if it will.
Interviewer: Cross fingers.
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