What does sugar do in your body? Layman's terms please!

Sarauk2sf

Anything over 40g of sugar a day is stored as bodyfat.

lolwut?

doublelulwut!

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

Anything over 40g of sugar a day is stored as bodyfat.

lolwut?

My body must be defective

_SABOTEUR_

Sugar does good things to your body if you let him. He goes deep inside, making your body secrete insulin, and gently takes you to the stars and back. You get a happy feeling until sugar is finished, causing you to get sleepy.

aigoooooo

Sugar hits your blood steam, your pancreas sends out insulin. Then insulin brings it to the liver (i think) where glycogin forms and is stored for energy. You're supposed to have enough saved for the day, when excess glycogin builds, it forms as fat storage instead. Too much unused energy =fat storage.

mahanaibu

Oh, another thing about sugar (and refined, processed carbs)--the burned burns them very efficiently. It burns every last calorie very easily. that's not true of all foods. For example, we don't burn the calories in almonds very efficiently at all, so we're not actually taking in all the calories that are listed on the labels.

The labels are based on calorimeters, which burn every calorie. We're not calorimeters.

Studies find that not all calories are equal. A high glycemic diet--i.e. sugars, refined carbs--leads to less weight loss. here's an article about one of the studies on this:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304458604577490943279845790.html

neanderthin

I just attended an MIT conference on food, and we were presented with the evidence on sugar. It DOES do things to blood glucose that affect weight loss.. By spiking blood sugar levels and then suddenly dropping them, it creates a feeling of hunger. Foods that keep blood sugar stable are more satisfying over a long time, so you eat less. y the way, the same is try of refined carbs. anything that thye body can quickly convert to glucose.

It is a myth that fruit sugars are somehow metabolized differently from table sugar. What is different is that when the hsugar is within the matrix of the fruit, which its complex structure and fiber, the body gets at the sugar more slowly and evenly. That's why fruit is a good choice. But if you drink fruit juice, with the fiber gone, that benefit is lost. Fruit juice, you might as well be drinking sugar water.

same for whole grains. Within the structure of a whole grain (we're not talking bread here, but the grain itself). the body gets at the sugars more slowly and blood sugar stays more stable. There is a huge difference between instant oatmeal and steal-cut oats, even though they're both whole grains! The processing in instant oatmeal makes the metabolism to sugars much faster...in factm, the curve of spike and drop looked almost identical to just sugar. Steel-cut oats had a slow, even burn.

GI means nothing really. For example if I consume whole wheat and sugar, no big spike, so sugar is fine to consume if one was to believe that sugar on it's own is problematic (context and dosage). If you want to understand better how sugar or carbs effect insulin, look at Glycemic Load. And it's the repeated and frequent insulin spikes (overconsumption) that is problematic. Also the spike removes sugar quickly then comes down to baseline while low glycemic foods stay in the blood longer, with elevated insulin over a longer period of time......which is worse. Look to the glycemic load.

neanderthin

Oh, another thing about sugar (and refined, processed carbs)--the burned burns them very efficiently. It burns every last calorie very easily. that's not true of all foods. For example, we don't burn the calories in almonds very efficiently at all, so we're not actually taking in all the calories that are listed on the labels.

The labels are based on calorimeters, which burn every calorie. We're not calorimeters.

Studies find that not all calories are equal. A high glycemic diet--i.e. sugars, refined carbs--leads to less weight loss. here's an article about one of the studies on this:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304458604577490943279845790.html

We don't burn the calories in almonds and other nuts well because we don't fully digest them well and calories are left in the stool......chew better, burn more.

Charlottesometimes23

Some scientists believe that sugar is similar to drugs of addiction in its ability to stimulate the brain's reward pathway. Cocaine addiction rats will choose sugar syrup over cocaine. Rats just love it.

I feel like a rat sometimes.

Edited to add some more info for the OP.

Sugar increases serotonin levels in the region of the brain that controls food intake. Serotonin is believed to increase satiety however sugar also blunts the activity of another system that stimulates satiety so sugar may not provide satisfaction or reduce hunger after we have eaten it.

Sugar is believed to stimulate the brain's 'hedonic hot spot' and considered (by some researchers) to be the most important driver for eating for pleasure.

It has been suggested that people who consume a lower protein diet (which usually means high carb), might overeat to compensate (called the protein leverage hypothesis).

These are a few of the interesting theories out there about our high refined carb sugar dense western style diet.

I have plenty of references if anyone is interested.

julialdr

jennifershoo

Yes, I've heard that too. Thanks. Too much does make your blood sugar rise and then drop really low, which can affect you emotionally and physically though, I think....that much I know!

This is an issue if you're diabetic or hyper or hypoglycemic. Most people metabolize sugar just fine.

And how do you know that most people metabolize sugar just fine?

Because most people's bodies function as they were intended. The inability to properly metabolize sugar is an anomaly. Not the norm.

Oh really? You think having a population where 65% are overweight and 35% are obese means people's bodies function as they were intended?

Wait a minute... ummm... check your math buddy. 65% plus 35% = 100%. 100% of us aren't fat or overweight by any means. I love it when people pull random numbers out of their azz.

He probably meant 65 % are overweight and that includes 35 % of obese. So, 30% have a BMI of 25-30 and another 35% have a BMI of 30 and up.

jennifershoo

Anything over 40g of sugar a day is stored as bodyfat.

WTF?