it's true you actually do not need sugar to live how can that be i thought sugar was a carbohydrate
and we need carbohydrates to live let's discuss there are three macronutrients we have fat we
have protein and we have carbohydrates carbs are made of carbon hydrogen and oxygen most people eat
mostly carbs then fat then protein we live in a world with all sorts of conflicting
nutrition advice and carbohydrates are at the front and center of that controversy
so we need to start with what is indisputable the facts the actual science and for most people
on the planet who are not experts in understanding the scientific studies and statistics and so forth
it's easy for people to be led astray and they can believe in things that are just simply not true
you can't handle the truth so let's break down the complexities of the science and serve that
on a nice platter nice and easy for you to digest not all carbohydrates or all carbohydrate-rich
foods are equal they're not equal in terms of how the body uses them so some are good some are
bad and then somewhere in between there's different types of carbohydrates that do
different things there's differences in how they're digested and absorbed and how they're
used by the body now this is a molecule called glucose it's a carbohydrate meaning it's a string
of carbon that is hydrated with hydrogen and oxygen and when it forms a ring-like structure
it's classified as a monosaccharide meaning one sugar other monosaccharides are fructose
and galactose when you put two monosaccharides together you get a disaccharide for example when
you bite into an apple this is the main sugar that you're eating you're eating
that disaccharide called sucrose which is made of glucose and fructose sucrose is a type of
simple carbohydrate called sugar specifically sucrose is a disaccharide meaning it's made of
two monosaccharides so in the case of sucrose it's made of monosaccharide glucose and monosaccharide
fructose other disaccharides include maltose which is two glucose molecules fused together and
another example would be lactose which is glucose and galactose fused together individual sugar
units can combine into much more complex often branched structures called polysaccharides which
typically consist of hundreds or even thousands of glucose molecules fused together these
carbohydrates are found in grains and vegetables and can be broadly categorized into digestible
and indigestible types digestible polysaccharides those include starch and glycogen now starch is
the storage form of glucose found in plant tissues and glycogen is the storage form of glucose in the
muscle and liver in both humans and animals but a fun fact about glycogen when you eat meat you
don't actually consume that glycogen because it's already been broken down when the animal died now
indigestible polysaccharides mostly consist of fiber which only comes from plants cellulose
is an example of a fiber that is composed entirely of glucose molecules but unlike the glucose that's
found in starch or glycogen the glucose molecules that are in cellulose those are fused together in
a special way that makes it impossible for our gut enzymes to break them down so certain foods
contain two types of fiber there's insoluble fiber which is a type of polysaccharide that cannot be
broken down by our body and it can't be absorbed into your bloodstream so it provides zero calories
to you and this actually passes unchanged through our digestive tracts and i'll explain that later
why this is so important now the other fiber is soluble fiber this fiber actually dissolves during
digestion and it turns into a gel like substance it's not digestible just like insoluble fiber is
not digestible but some components of it can be broken down by our gut bacteria that's in the
colon and what those bacteria do with it becomes very important for example soluble fiber is
metabolized by the gut bacteria into short chain fatty acids one of those being butyrate which gets
absorbed into the bloodstream and that's great because butyrate has anti-inflammatory properties
but let's for a second say you eat a carrot which is yeah it contains fiber but also contains starch
you're crunching on that carrot and the saliva in your mouth it starts to break down that
starch molecule or all those starch molecules into smaller and smaller starch molecules and
that's because of an enzyme in your mouth or in the saliva called salivary imylase this is
why if you eat a cracker and you chew on it long enough before swallowing it tastes sweet on your
tongue because that starch is getting broken down into the very small disaccharide maltose now once
that chewed up carrot reaches your stomach it comes into contact with the stomach acid which
deactivates the salivary amylase enzyme that is mixed in with those little carrot chunks then
it makes its way to the first section of your small intestine called the duodenum most of
the starch is broken down into the disaccharides maltose there why because the pancreas secretes
an enzyme called pancreatic amylase now you also have other enzymes located in the small intestine
that break down those disaccharides into sugar's most simplest form monosaccharides mainly glucose
and fructose and if you consume lactose and milk that's going to be broken down into galactose and
glucose so the monosaccharides get absorbed from the intestine into the blood which immediately
goes to your liver by way of your portal vein the liver will convert fructose in galactose
into glucose in fact the body doesn't actually need fructose to live so when fructose is dumped
into your liver from that food you just ate it says well i have to do something about it so i'll
turn that into glucose and when there's too much of that that's when it ends up being stored as
fat glycogen as well i'll get to that a little bit and unfortunately at least from this perspective
the human body is very efficient when it comes to absorbing sugars the body uses glucose to provide
energy for all sorts of functions and that's why the body carefully monitors blood glucose levels
it's called a glucose homeostasis and it's controlled by the pancreas and the liver now
when it comes to controlling blood glucose levels the pancreas secretes two very important hormones
insulin and glucagon when blood glucose levels increase such as after eating carbohydrates
the insulin is released from the pancreas now insulin lowers that blood glucose by stimulating
the uptake of glucose by tissues including the process of converting extra glucose into glycogen
in the liver and in your muscles what about when blood glucose levels are low well what happens the
pancreas starts to secrete glucagon which has the complete opposite effects of insulin it's going to
raise blood glucose levels this includes breaking up that glycogen in order to free up more glucose
remember you don't actually need sugar to live carbohydrates other than sugar yes but not sugar
so what happens when you do eat it not only does it get converted to glycogen it also gets
converted to fat another form of energy storage the carbohydrates that exist in your body at the
cellular level the biochemical level they have other functions besides serving as fuel for your
body like they also form structural components of dna in rna they can also be converted into
materials for other structures too like when the fragments are used as building blocks of amino
acids remember proteins are composed of amino acids when sugar attaches to the protein molecule
it actually alters the properties of those proteins changing the way that that glycoprotein
functions for example let's say you have a cold or bronchitis or pneumonia or the flu and you start
coughing up all this nasty crap and it's this thick slimy slippery grime that's the work of
glycoproteins but by far the biggest role for carbohydrates is fuel for your body in order to
turn that carbohydrate into fuel and to use that fuel as energy you have to inhale oxygen in order
to burn that fuel and then you exhale carbon dioxide which is like the exhaust fumes coming
from the body so you burn these carbohydrates right and at the biochemical level their bonds
are exploding and they release energy and that energy is used to make the molecule
atp now atp is the energy molecule of your body that's the molecule that allows your heart to pump
your muscles to move and for your brain to work all that good stuff carbohydrates are found in
all sorts of food it can come in both good and bad forms it comes in the form of whole intact grains
fruits vegetables legumes in the dairy things like milk yogurt and cheese it can also come
in the form of added sugar and refined grains when you look at the nutrition facts label you'll see a
list of ingredients there including carbohydrates and under carbohydrates you'll see fiber and
added sugar you can have all sorts of ingredients that are sugars that come in different forms for
example high fructose corn syrup molasses honey dextrose and many more all in all there are 262
names for different sugars now ingredients they're supposed to be listed in order of their weight
starting with the heaviest and then down to the smallest for many foods you'll often see
that sugar ends up being the dominant ingredient even though it's not the first ingredient listed
why because the food labels intentionally break it up into many different forms of sugar
so that it seems like sugar is not the main ingredient but when you add them all together
oftentimes sugar ends up being the main ingredient for many food products so for example let's take a
look at honey nut cheerios supposed to be healthy for you right not so fast because added sugar is
far from healthy per serving there are total of 30 grams of carbohydrates and 12 of those grams
are added sugar notice that the first ingredient listed is whole grain oats and then oat bran good
but then keep going down the list and you see honey and brown sugar syrup which are the added
sugars of course if you're dealing with fruits or vegetables you don't have an ingredient label
because those are not packaged processed food they're mainly carbs either in the form of sucrose
glucose and starch in addition to the fiber that they have so the healthiest carbohydrates to eat
are the unprocessed or minimally processed things like whole intact grains steel cut oats quinoa
fruits vegetables legumes aka pulses technically quinoa is a seed but let's roll with it generally
speaking the recommended amount of carbohydrates people should eat in a day for optimal health is
anywhere from 25 to 60 percent of calories but it does depend on different factors especially
the type of carbohydrates that you're eating but specifically added sugar how much added sugar
should be in someone's diet now in the us the average person consumes about 100 grams of added
sugar per day way more than what we should be consuming ideally it would be as close to zero as
possible but most adults would be fine if they eat less than 30 grams per day and for children less
than 10 grams per day most people truly don't realize how much added sugar they're actually
consuming because it's hidden in the ingredients it could be in barbecue sauce ketchup all these
sorts of things even salad dressing now what about the keto diet a lot of people want to know about
that especially because it can be helpful for those with seizures and for improving or even
reversing type 2 diabetes and of course for weight loss the keto diet entails eating less than 20 of
the calories from carbohydrates or about 20 to 50 grams of carbohydrates per day there's a lot
of things that you should be aware of with the keto diet for one you don't want your blood ph
to be too acidic meaning too low for too long of a time it's actually hard to sustain that for more
than two months also for ideal health you want to consume mostly unprocessed or minimally processed
foods so this means no bacon or sausage or hot dogs if you're doing keto and you need to find
a way to eat real foods that have both soluble and insoluble fiber things like avocado seeds and nuts
people who stay on a keto diet for too long they tend to be low in selenium magnesium phosphorus
and vitamin b and vitamin c unless they eat foods that have leafy greens things like spinach kale
but getting back to sugar ideally if you're going to eat sugar it's best to eat it in the form of
whole fruit and not from anything that contains added sugar remember you don't actually need
sugar to live and too much causes all sorts of health issues and it also ages you faster