Sugar & carbs

It's "empty calories".. ....ie. all it provides is glucose, other carbs (for example brown rice) provides your body with other nutrients as well as glucose.

There is also the whole GI factor - ie. how quickly is the glucose released into the bloodstream.
Sugar is medium GI (not too bad)
Honey happens to be low GI (good)
Potato is HIGH GI (bad, it will cause your blood sugar levels to spike, then there will be a drop in blood sugar levels which could result in cravings) this in the long run will make you insulin resistant (a major contributor to being overweight & to diabetes)

BUT. . .(and this is the part most people don't realize)
if for instance you have a potato (high GI) and a piece of steak (low GI) you will probably end up with a medium GI meal....because the meat will slow down the release of glucose from the potato.

Sorry I got off-track for a minute....main reason sugar is not good for dieting?
It's empty calories, it does not provide you with nutrition (other than glucose, which needs to be used up or stored) and does not make you feel full.

Just for a bit more info if you're interested in exactly how it all works.

Its down to differences in how they're processed.

You have Sucrose (Normal sugar) & Fructose (Found in fruit).


Sucrose is a 50-50 combination of Glucose & Fructose. Glucose is what our bodies run on, your brain, muscles etc everything is converted into that in the end. The problem is, Glucose is absorbed very quickly into the blood stream. When the level of glucose in our blood stream rises to quickly our bodies reaction is for our pancreas to release a hormone called insulin & mop it all up where it will then store it in our muscles and Liver for energy to use later.

When our blood sugar level rises to quickly though, our body overeacts. It sends out to much insulin & mops up to much sugar from our blood. To little sugar in the blood = hunger very quickly.

So the problem with Normal sugar is simply the fact that it makes people to hungry. People dont feel satisfied after they eat it...so they eat more..and more..= to many calories & their bodies dont really need the energy. Its just overeacting because of getting to much at one time.


Fructose however is different. Because our bodies do not run on Fructose, it has to be converted into Glucose in the liver before we can use it. That way the speed its released into the blood stream (If its needed) is much more controlled...the pancreas wont overeact...it wont release to much insulin & you wont get hungry straight away.

For reducing and maintaining your weight, the absolute BEST thing you can do is find a way to eat that you enjoy and lets you stay at or below your calorie target. Sometimes it worries me how many people here are dieting but not ENJOYING their food !

That said, there are good reasons to shift your preferences away from refined sugar and carbs if you can. As mentioned, sugar and carbs make the glucose level in your blood go up. The more processed or refined ones make this happen very quickly and the glucose concentration in the blood goes even higher. One problem with this for dieters is that the sugar gets used up (and converted to fat) very quickly, and you are left feeling hungry again.

But there's another, more serious problem. The normal response of your body when it sees sugar in the blood is to release insulin. This is the signal to various parts of the body, telling it to use up (or store) that sugar right away. But the quantities of concentrated sugar and refined carbs that have been added to the modern diet in the past 100 (especially 50) years is unprecedented in human history. So we are constantly hitting our bodies with these huge recurring blasts of insulin that the body doesn't know what to do with. As a response to all this excess insulin activity, the rest of the body adapts. Soon, an insulin level that once seemed like a 5-alarm fire bell becomes just like a telephone ringing. The phenomenon is called "insulin resistance" and is a stepping stone towards type II diabetes.

But insulin is not just a signal to process sugar. Other parts of the body use it for other purposes. And they, too get confused by the crazy high insulin levels. In particular, the brain uses insulin, and recent research is finding links between high insulin levels and Alzheimers. And the (very complex) processes which tell your brain whether you are hungry or full are influenced by insulin. If that feedback system gets skewed out of balance, you are looking at seriously difficult obesity problems.

So, the short answer is that to lose weight, its fine to find ways of eating that let you meet your net calorie target without pain and struggle. And that is going to be different for every individual. But in the longer term, since you are paying attention to your diet and learning about nutrition and health, its a really, really good idea to cultivate a taste for foods that are low carbs, especially sugar and processed carbs.

And the other great thing about cutting down on carbs : you stop feeling like cr^p and the other food you eat starts to taste better !