As we become solely responsible for managing our own diets, we are faced with a long list of questions concerning food and nutrition that need answers. One word that likely features prominently on that list is sugar. Recent years have seen an increasing level of concern over this ingredient, and many of us have grown up hearing about it in connection with health risks and something that should be avoided in a proper diet. Much of the media coverage surrounding its negative effects has centered upon its seeming ubiquity in American food choices, and the difficulty in reducing our consumption of it. So, what exactly are the drawbacks of high sugar consumption? And how could we go about mitigating them in our diet? 

In order to answer these questions, it is first necessary to understand what exactly the food industry and nutrition experts mean when they say “sugar”. In the broadest sense of the word, it encompasses both monosaccharides (i.e. glucose and fructose) and disaccharides (sucrose, lactose, and maltose) - the “saccharide” referring to the simplest form of a carbohydrate, or fully hydrated carbon molecule. In practice, however, when most people say “sugar” they are referring to sucrose - a disaccharide composed of one part glucose and one part fructose. This is the white crystalline substance in the kitchen that you would put in coffee or a batch of cookies, and it is found in all green plants but most commonly extracted from sugar beets and sugar cane.

 If you remember high-school bio, you might recognize glucose as an integral ingredient in the production of ATP - the main energy currency of the cell. This should tell you that some amount of sugar is necessary for human bodily functions. Too much sugar, however, is a factor in many common short-term and long-term ailments including obesity and cardiovascular disease. The important question, then, is how much sugar should we consume, and in what form? 

If you’ve looked at a nutrition label recently you might have noticed that beneath the sugar content of most foods there is a column listing the added sugar. The FDA defines added sugar as 

“...sugars that are added during the processing of foods, or are packaged as such, and include sugars (free, mono- and disaccharides), sugars from syrups and honey, and sugars from concentrated fruit or vegetable juices that are in excess of what would be expected from the same volume of 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice of the same type.”

From breads and cereals to ketchup, virtually all processed food products include some added sweetness in the forms aforementioned. The most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that added sugars be kept below 10% of our daily caloric intake in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. The distinction is made between added sugars and naturally occurring sugars like the aforementioned sucrose in green plants, fructose in fruits, and lactose present in milk and dairy products. 

It is also important to keep an eye on the regular sugar content, however, because many manufacturers stealthily exclude the natural sugars which may have been rendered more harmful as a result of processing - this often breaks down the cell walls in plant sugars and removes fiber, both of which result in much faster metabolism and less satiation - which keeps us reaching for that next swig of soda or bite of candied pineapple and consequently increasing the amount of sugar ultimately consumed.

With this in mind, if you’re looking to curb your sugar consumption, the baseline strategy to keep in mind is to minimize consumption of it in all forms and make sure that wherever it does enter your diet, it is accompanied by fiber and proper nutrients.

As college students, it is extremely important that we begin practicing healthy eating habits now so that they may carry on into our later years. Increasing numbers of people in the US suffer from preventable health problems as a consequence of poor nutrition, and excess sugar consumption is a frequent culprit. By keeping ourselves informed, remaining mindful of what we consume, and maintaining responsible nutritional habits, we can stave off poor health both in the short-term and long-term.