Posts Tagged ‘Heart Disease’
What Harm Does Sugar Cause?
What Harm Does Sugar Cause?
As for sugar’s reputed adverse health effects, the following can be said on the basis of available evidence:
Obesity. Sugar supplies 4 calories per gram (113 per ounce) – the same as protein and less than half that of fat, which provides 9 calories per gram. Excess calorie intake, not sugar, causes obesity. But since calories can be highly concentrated in sugar-sweetened foods, you may eat many more calories than you need of such foods before you feel full or even realize how much you have consumed. Compare the satiety value of, say, three bananas with that of a two-ounce candy bar; both have about the same carbohydrate content. Fructose, the primary sugar in fruits, is 50 percent sweeter than sucrose, and so fewer fructose calories are needed to obtain the same degree of sweetness. However, the use of fructose in nutritionally deficient sweet foods does little to improve their health value.