Whether it’s chocolate, a bag of candy or a Pepsi, all contain the same ingredient – sugar.
It doesn’t take a health junkie to tell you that sugar dominates most foods that we consume.
“I think we’re programmed to like sweet things,” said Ross Akiyama, fitness manager at 24 Hour Fitness in Hawai‘i Kai. “All the foods we have, have sugar.”
Sugar can create all kinds of health problems with overconsumption. Chemically, sugar sparks the rewards center in the brain, said Akiyama.
Sugar is highly addictive and can be equaled out to a drug addict’s addiction to any type of drug.
Sugar addiction and tolerance go hand in hand. Once somebody gets into the cycle of consuming sugar, like a drug, the body needs higher amounts of sugar to trigger the same pleasure feelings.
Effects of sugar on the body mainly affect it negatively whether it’s processed sugar or a sugar alternative. When the body senses something sweet then it releases insulin. The more sugar consumed, more insulin is released to accommodate the sugar in the body.
With too much sugar in the body, people become obese and develop diabetes, Akiyama said.
Cutting back on sugar is different,.Sometimes it’s best to slowly reduce the amount of sugar consumed, if someone is interested in eating a cleaner, less sugary diet.
“I wouldn’t say to go cold turkey,” Akiyama said.
Though some people do react differently to any cutback on sugar, people can get grumpy if they don’t have sugar.
One of the first steps in cutting out sugar would be to consume more natural sugars from fruits and whole wheats.
And to hold back on the processed sugars, the kind of sugar found in energy drinks and sodas.
The consumer should then read the labels on foods they are purchasing and try to stay away from anything that includes corn syrup, sucrose and high fructose corn syrup.
Also, ingredients that have food coloring signal that food may not be “real” food.
“Mainly go to a whole foods diet,” Akiyama said. “Cut out carbohydrates (and) look out for food intake.”
Consumers need to be sure they are not getting their majority of the caloric intake from carbs.
“If you’re eating a sweet potato, it spikes blood sugar levels and (the body) releases insulin,” Akiyama said.
Eating protein and fats help to slow the process of carbs into the intestines.
When fats are taken away, the food tastes like cardboard, Akiyama said. Then, sugar is added to get the taste back.
“Everyone is super scared of fat and that’s why people get fat,” Akiyama said.
There are a variety of foods that contain good fats: almonds, walnuts, seeds, avocados. Omega 3s, available sometimes as capsules, are also ways to get their good fats.
Whether it’s sugar from a fruit, from candy, or even an artificial sweetner, sugar is sugar in the body. Once it gets into the blood stream, it will behave the same way, regardless of where it came from.
“Corn syrup is no different than table sugar,” Akiyama said.
In addition, brown and white sugar are the same thing, only the white sugar is more processed.
Although there are negative effects of sugar on the body, sugar, or glucose is needed to help our brains function, said Cynthia Kahalewale, nutrition lecturer at KCC.
“Glucose is primary fuel for the brain, we need it,” she said. “Generally people that don’t eat breakfast, they don’t perform as well in the morning.”
All forms of sugar, are carbohydrates and convert to glucose in the body, Kahalewale explained.
As students are on the go in the morning for early classes, Kahalewale suggested having something as simple as a muffin or some cereal with soy milk to eat quickly in the morning, items they are more “grab and go.”
Eating breakfast will help students to be fully alert, she said.