Is sugar the real problem?

Is sugar really to blame for everything it is blamed for? 

Have a look at these foods which contain added sugar. 

So Good Almond milk: filtered water, cane sugar, almonds (2.5%), mineral (calcium), emulsifier (sunflower lecithin), natural flavour, salt, mineral salt (sodium bicarbonate), vegetable gum (gellan), antioxidant (Ascorbic acid), vitamins (B12, B2, B1). 

Mars Bar: Sugar, Glucose Syrup (Sources Include Wheat), Milk Solids, Vegetable Fat, Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Mass, Barley Malt Extract, Cocoa Powder, Emulsifier (Soy Lecithin), Salt, Egg White, Natural Flavours (Vanilla Extract)

Connoisseur Cookies & Cream ice cream: Cream (28%), Skim Milk (Concentrate or Solids), Water, Sugar, Wheat Flour, Glucose Syrup (Wheat and or Corn), Vegetable Oil, Cocoa (1%), Dextrose Monohydrate, High Fructose Syrup, Vegetable Origin Emulsifiers [471 (Soy), 322 (Soy)], Mineral Salts (500, 503), Salt, Vegetable Gum (410), Corn Starch, Flavours, Colour (160b), Antioxidant (319).

You get the idea. 

Pure Sugar is made up of 50% fructose and 50% glucose molecules. 

Glucose is what our body runs on- it is our fuel. Starchy foods like rice and wheat are very high in glucose, and it tends to get absorbed quickly.

Fructose is found in many plants, especially fruit but also, for example, root vegetables. It is processed through the liver and is release slowly. 

These are not inherently harmful. We have been eating them in various forms as staple foods for thousands of years. 

Your body needs sugar, and it will have to get it somehow. 

This is a confusion because the problem is not the sugar, it is all the processed foods it is eaten in, the toxic oils which inhibit proper sugar metabolisation, and the lack of a balanced, high nutrient density diet. 

Eating natural sugars in nutrient dense foods such as orange juice, raw honey and root vegetables is giving your body the energy and nutrition it needs to thrive. These foods have been eaten for hundreds if not thousands of years- how did they suddenly become evil? 

Eating some refined sugar in home made ice cream, baked treats with wholesome ingredients, fruit desserts etc as a part of a balanced and nutrient dense diet is giving your body easy to access nutrition and energy. It is what our bodies thrive on. 

Like our grandmothers and great grandmothers used to make. 

The problem isn’t sugar. It’s the advertising industry, the processed food industry, the toxic processed vegetable oil industry. When the blood is full of toxic, oxidised fats, yes, sugar may not be processed well, hence the problem with junk foods with poor quality fats. However, when a wholefood diet is eaten and minimal to no junk food fats, sugar can be included in various forms, as it has been historically with no problem, before the refined oil industry came in.

See some of the articles below for more information around this, because sugar phobia sucks the joy out of life!
You don’t need to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Glycemia, starch, and sugar in context

Free fatty acids and insulin resistance

The glucose-fatty acid cycle: a physiological perspective

www.susandeeley.com.au