Refined sugar is one of the most fattening things you can eat and it can be addictive. With that in mind how much sugar per day is ok to eat?
Where Does Sugar Come From?
Most of the sugar produced in the UK is from sugar beet, which is a root vegetable with a high amount of sucrose.
You can see from the pictures how it starts off – unrecognizable from what goes in your coffee!
These vegetables go off to the sugar mill and are mashed up to a pulpy mass with water. Chemicals are added to extract the sugar, and the water is evaporated to leave the sugar.
All of the fiber and the protein are removed, along with all the other nutrition. Empty calories with no nutrients from the original plant are left.
This process isn’t hugely dissimilar to the production of cocaine! Cocaine is harmful to health and addictive, is that why it’s illegal?
Isn’t it a good job sugar isn’t harmful to health and addictive too…. hmm…
How Much Sugar Per Day Is OK?
Refined sugar is something not found in nature, therefore it is not normal.
So how much of this ‘not normal’ substance is ok to eat?
I find the guidelines stupid about this because they don’t tell the most important thing – sugar is not a natural thing to put in your body.
Unnatural things have consequences – the most obvious is weight gain. Less obvious are addiction and cancer but there is plenty of evidence proving this if you care to look.
So the guidelines are inadequate because sugar doesn’t come with a ‘red flag warning’ like it should. That said if you actually look at them you’ll see we’re not supposed to have very much of it, and if people took this on board there wouldn’t necessarily be the problems with obesity that there are.
Guidelines
Let’s ignore the fact sugar is massively fattening, addictive in some people, and contributes to cancer. How much sugar per day is ok?
In the UK it’s recommended that adults have no more than 30gm per day. That’s about 7 sugar cubes. There at 9 in one can of Coke!
Most people take in loads more than this and the biggest offenders are:
- Confectionery – especially milk chocolate
- Non-alcoholic drinks – cola, cordials, fruit juice
- Biscuits and cakes
- Alcohol
Do I ever have sugar – yes I do, however I treat it with total respect as I know it’s got the power to ***k me up!
In my opinion eating should be less about what you ‘can’t have’ and much more about what you can have.
If you haven’t got my daily check list for losing weight yet – get it here.
Have a great week!
Dr Julie
PS This may be useful if you have a problem with sugar – How To Stop Craving Sugar