Sugar rush

If I had a dollar for every time someone has said to me “I’m off sugar,” I would probably be able to fund the podcast for a few years…

Why oh why do we feel the need to be extreme about food and eating? I mean obsessively or compulsively not eating is as bad as obsessively or compulsively eating.

It might just be something innate to human nature, but I also think it has a lot to do with the way we fetishise certain things in modern society — “self-control,” “deprivation” and “virtue” being three — and also demonise others — surprise, surprise, fat. And so we do ridiculous things in the name of “health,” like the keto diet, which removes carbohydrates, which are what your body literally needs for energy, pushing it into a semi-famine state where it thinks it has to keep burning fat reserves. We cut out fat, which you need to literally lubricate your body and carry nutrients about. And we “cut out” sugar.

The sugar one really gets me though. Because most of the time people mean they are going to stop drinking soft drinks and adding sugar to their tea and coffee, cut out sweets and chocolate, and things like that. No harm in that, unless, of course, it becomes a compulsion to do so, and your mental health is affected. But also, there’s a lot of sugar still going into you, you know. Rice. Fruit. Bread. You really can’t cut out all sugar, and you really should not cut out all sugar — or all anything to be honest.*

And then, what really makes me laugh and cry is how people earnestly tell you they don’t use “processed” sugar, or have moved to honey only. Guys, if it works as a sweetener, it’s got sugar in it. While honey does have trace amounts of other things, you’re unlikely to eat enough of it for that to matter. And then of course there are artificial sweeteners. That Diet Coke you think you’re drinking because it’s a better choice? You’re wrong. These things don’t actually ensure you consume fewer calories. They also can teach your body to dissociate food and sweetness and thus crave it more.

You see, our bodies are lovely delicately balanced systems that have survived centuries. They know what they are doing. They know what to extract and where from and how and when. We can mess them up by distorting their signals and making them think they are at the threat of starvation. We can mess them up by overloading or trying to remove something completely from our diets. But, if you are balanced, eat everything in moderation, and listen to your body, it will probably be just fine.

So don’t go on crash diets of no sugar and no carbs and no whatever the fuck. How about we do no extremes? Instead of giving up sugar, limit how much you consume. Choose fruit over juice and try to say no to Coke in any form. And you know what? On the day you want to, drink all the Coke you want. But stop demonising perfectly normal nutrients in the quest for a scapegoat.

*Here’s a nice article on sugar and the balanced diet.