Why is added sugar bad?

Much more dangerous than you think …

Sugar is so present in common consumer products that we have tripled the amount we take in recent years without being aware of it and it is not good for our health …

25 g is the daily amount of sugar recommended by the WHO. In Spain we exceed 71 g, and it makes us fat.
60.9% of Spaniards are overweight, 21.6% suffer from obesity, and 40% of children have weight problems.
20% of all cancers are caused by excess weight.

The good news is that you can 'unhook' from this substance, considered one of the causes of anxiety to eat, and it is easier than you think. We tell you what are the dangers of added sugar and how to get away from it.

20 sugar cubes for a snack?

Take for example the case of Carlos, a happy and smiling 10-year-old boy. Eat milk with sugary cocoa and sugary cereals for breakfast every day. For recess, he brings his juice carton and an individual packet of cookies. At home, today he eats stew with potatoes and tomorrow rice with vegetables. For a snack, a strawberry milkshake and bread with cocoa cream. At 9, he has sausage and potatoes for dinner and his mother offers him fruit. Before going to sleep, he takes a mini foray into the pantry and has some pastries.

What does little Carlos eat?

What little Carlos eats mostly throughout the day is sugar. And not directly. No parent would give their child 20 sugar cubes for a snack … but there they are, in the form of added sugar in juice, cocoa … But also in sausages, in pretzels and in all the ultra-processed ones that are usually found in our pantries, as explained by dietitian-nutritionist and CLARA blogger Carlos Ríos in his book Eat real food (Ed. Paidós).

Eye to the data:

A fast food hamburger can have up to four sugar cubes.
Two crackers can have up to a sugar cube.
A serving of sushi can contain three sugar cubes.

The data is there (and it is alarming)

Added sugar is so present in our diet that today an 8-year-old boy has already taken more sugar at this age than his grandfather in his entire life, according to the ANIBES Study. And it is that before the consumption of sugar was sporadic. It was taken on special dates (birthdays, Christmas …) and in homemade preparations. Today we have tripled this consumption.

Hidden sugar. According to this study, we take 71.5 grams of sugar a day, and we are not even aware of it because it is present in products that we would never say.

Sugar makes you fat and makes you overweight

Excess sugar causes more fat to accumulate in the body. The more sugar you eat, the more fat you accumulate. At first, the body places fat where it does not bother (on the ass, cartridge belts, inner thighs, arms, double chin …), but then it puts fat where it can: abdomen, around the heart, around the kidneys … everywhere.

Consequences? Fatty liver, risk of cardiovascular diseases … and obesity.

Sugar raises (and a lot) the risk of cancer

Sugar raises (a lot) the risk of cancer

Obesity is related to an increased risk of contracting many types of cancer (breast, colon, kidney, pancreas …).

Eye to the data. It is estimated that behind 20% of all types of cancer is excess weight. But it has also been seen that consuming an excess of added sugar is related to an increased risk of cancer also in non-obese and non-overweight people.

It also increases the chances of suffering from diabetes

When we eat large amounts of sugar over and over again, we over-stimulate the production of insulin, a hormone that removes excess sugar from the blood and carries it to the tissues, where it accumulates as fat.

Insulin is not something we can "spend" freely. Over the years, if we continually overindulge, insulin can stop working and blood sugar will always be high and won't drop even with insulin secretion. We call this type 2 diabetes.
“Every day more than a thousand people start to have diabetes in Spain. And of all these cases, almost 90% have obesity ”, says José López Alba, endocrinologist and communication director of the Spanish Diabetes Society. Think that if type 2 diabetes disappeared, a third of heart attacks and 1 in 7 strokes could be avoided.

It can spoil our memory and it ages us

A diet rich in sugar, in the long term, produces changes in the nervous system that cause cognitive deterioration and the appearance of memory problems. As Ríos explains, “it is a myth that the brain needs sugar. What you need is glucose, which you can get from fruits, legumes, whole grains …

Furthermore, "sugar is the natural enemy of collagen", the famous dermatologist Nicholas Perricone never tires of repeating. If there is an excess of sugar molecules, they adhere to the collagen fibers and cause them to lose elasticity. The skin becomes saggy and premature aging is accelerated. So if you want to stop wrinkles on your face and body, in addition to putting on anti-aging creams every day, leave the sugar.
It is also shown that fluctuations in blood sugar leave us without energy, which takes away the desire to perform any physical activity. The more ultra-processed we eat with added sugars, the greater the feeling of lethargy we feel. And with this, the less sport we practice, and the more sedentary lifestyle, the more the risk of overweight and obesity increases … And we start over with this vicious circle.

You've convinced me, how do I quit?

We are surrounded by ultra-processed products that combine sugar with flours, oils, salt, and flavor enhancers. They are true works of engineering created to be appetizing and irresistible. So when we consume them, we cannot stop. We are hooked but … just satiating.

Why? "Manufacturers want the products to be very tasty and to make it hard for us to stop eating them. That is why when we talk about sugar we usually talk about 'addiction', as if it were a drug. It is not, but the way in which we teach to re-educate patients' palate is as if it were a drug, reducing its consumption little by little ”, remarks the nutritionist Ángela Quintas, author of Adelgaza para siempre (Ed. Planeta ).

Discover with our test if you are hooked on sugar and then learn what the alternatives to sugar are and how you can get off the hook little by little.

How many sugars do you have at home?

Open the fridge and check the ingredients of everything you have. You'll be surprised.

Refreshments. A can of cola contains 35 g of sugar (8.7 cubes).
Smoothies and nectars. An individual carton can hold up to 36.7 g of sugar (9 cubes).
Milk with cocoa. A glass of cocoa milk has 29 g of sugar.
Cereals. Some of those that are sold as healthy contain 20 g of sugar in 100 g.
Chocolate. Half a tablet can be sugar. Choose the ones with more than 80% cocoa.
Tomato. A 300 g jar of tomato sauce contains 37.5 g.
Dressings. Caesar sauce usually has about 7 g.
Oriental sauces. Some can be up to 52% sugar.
Ketchup. One tablespoon of sauce contains one tablespoon of sugar.

To give up sugar you have to know where it is

The truth is that it is everywhere. Too much sugar is added to hundreds of processed products and this is not healthy. And it is done because it is a cheap ingredient, which acts as a preservative and on top of that it makes the product like more and that whoever tries it wants to repeat it. “The industry uses it in huge quantities and in a multitude of products, without us knowing how to recognize them, to obtain a quick acceptance and a longer expiration time. Sugar is not a poison either, as many claim, that is, a teaspoon in coffee does not kill anyone, but as it is not necessary, because the advice to take as little as possible is not bad advice ”, explains the doctor with great success. Carlos Casabona, author of You choose what you eat (Ed. Paidós).

To take care of our health, we have to know how to read labels: "We have to be increasingly aware that our hope and quality of life depend, to a large extent, on our choices," adds the endocrinologist López Alba.

Take note of what you have to look for to make good decisions about the products you are going to take.

If the product has sugar among the ingredients, we can review the nutritional amount that appears in the section where it says "of which sugars".
The amount is usually specified per 100 g / ml of product.
Do lump calculations. Each lump is 4 g. Divide the grams of sugar by 4. Doesn't the resulting amount seem small?

What if it says that it does not have added sugar?

If the package indicates that it does not have added sugar, do not be fooled, it does not mean that it does not contain sugar, since this can also come from other ingredients. That is why it is important to look at the nutritional composition but also the list of ingredients.

Hidden sugar. On the label, in the list of ingredients, sugar can appear by another of its many names, such as sucrose, fructose, dextrose, glucose, molasses, maple syrup, corn …

And so that you have no doubt about how much sugar is in what you eat, it is always easier to know if you cook it than if you buy it.

Sweeteners, are they healthy or a problem?

Sweeteners are present in most processed foods that are advertised as 0% sugar. Despite being safe, “it is better not to abuse them. They can create a need for sweets that is very difficult to satisfy ”, explains María Astudillo, director of ALEA Consulta Dietética. "If throughout the day we consume sweetened beverages and low-calorie or skimmed products that have many sweeteners, we are not treating the addiction to sweet taste, but rather we are 'patching' the problem with an easy solution," warns Angela Quintas.

Furthermore, the abuse of sweeteners is associated with alterations in the intestinal microbiota. "These alterations can be related to very different pathologies," adds Quintas.

Find out if substituting sugar for sweeteners helps you lose weight in our nutrition office.