Humans have a natural fondness for sugar. We have special receptors on our tongue that respond only to sugar. It’s a survival mechanism. For prehistoric hunter-gatherers a hint of sweetness in a piece of vegetation was a sign it contained calories and was safe to eat.
All fruits and vegetables contain sugar. Most of us get more sugar from starchy grains like wheat, potatoes and rice than from sugar added to things to sweeten them up. You don’t realize how much sugar you get from eating starch because the sugar molecules are linked together so you can’t taste them. Your saliva contains an enzyme that acts on starch to release about 2 percent of the sugar in it so you can detect a hint of sweetness, but the other 98 percent is tasteless. If you don’t believe that, try eating a spoonful of flour. It’s largely tasteless. As one researcher put it, you can sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar on a bowl of Wheaties or a teaspoon of Wheaties on a bowl of sugar. Once it hits your stomach, it’s all the same.
What’s the problems with sugar–the kind added to things to sweeten them up? Like starch, sugar is rapidly absorbed into your bloodstream. When we add it to things like baked goods and soft drinks, it increases the amount they raise blood sugar levels–their glycemic load. For example, while the starch in cereal will raise your blood sugar even if you don’t add sugar, if you do add sugar, it raises your blood sugar even more.
Here’s the key to enjoying sugar. Adding a little is not a problem. The carbohydrate content of a teaspoon of sugar is 4 grams. Compare that to a slice of white bread, which releases 13 grams of sugar once it gets to your digestive tract.
The problem with sugar is that you mix it with starch or with water it loses its sweetness. Consequently, you have to add of sugar to taste the sweetness. For example, a typical cookie contains 5 teaspoons of added sugar; it’s almost 50 percent sugar. A 12 ounce can of Coca-Cola contains 10 teaspoons. Pure sugar is sickenly sweet. However, dissolving it in water or diluting it with starch takes away its sweetness, which allows us to consume more of those foods than we otherwise would. This is why cookies, cakes and sugar-sweetened soft drinks are among foods (if you call soda a food) with the highest glycemic loads.
Sugar Is Not a Problem If You Can Taste It
You can enjoy sweets without overloading your system with sugar if you can really taste the sugar. For example, it doesn’t take much sugar to sweeten chocolate. Two squares of Ghiradelli’s dark chocolate contains 1-1/2 teaspoons of added sugar. A handful of JellyBeans, a notoriously sweet indulgence, contains 1-1/2 teaspoons. You can sweeten up a bowl of berries just fine with a half-teaspoon of sugar. Compare that to a 12-ounce Coke that contains 10 teaspoons of sugar or a cookie with 5 teaspoons of added sugar along with the flour in it that quickly turns to sugar in your stomach.
Bottom line: sugar is not a problem if it’s not dissolved in water or mixed with flour.
A Rule of “Thumb“
How much sweet stuff can you eat without spiking your blood sugar? No matter what you eat–a piece of chocolate, some JellyBeans, a cookie, whatever–an amount you could hold in the palm of hand and wrap your thumb and fingers around isn’t going to add significantly to your daily glycemic load.
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