What’s good about sugar? Essentially, it’s a quick source of energy. However, this good thing can go bad when you consume too much. So for good health a bit of sugar is best taken in slowly during times of need. When is that? During high intensity physical or mental activity. (Movement, thinking and remembering require extra energy!) Otherwise in times of plenty, a diet overflowing in sugar goes to storage. The following is a blurb of explanation.
Sugar, aka glucose, fuels your cells. An ongoing source for this is in your blood. As this sugar is drawn for activity, the liver and muscles have a quick, yet limited, supply for replenishment (glycogen). After that’s depleted, the “next in line” energy resource is stored in adipose tissue, but the process of getting it out is significantly slower. A good supplement is eating a sugary food to help avert sluggishness.
However, a bad outcome might occur if you over do sugar because an excess in your blood causes insulin release. Insulin sends any extra blood sugar into storage. On goes the pounds, as well as an increased risk of resistance.
Unfortunately, the American diet is laden with sugar because many of our meals consist predominantly of processed foods. An inordinate amount of this stuff has added sugar. May taste good, but that great taste often comes with fewer nutrients than foods that naturally contain sugar. Sugar is naturally present in many foods, for instance fruit. Eating a piece of fruit when you feel your energy waning offers up a relatively quick source and valuable nutrients too.
When depleted, carbohydrates are not best for a quick turnaround because they involve digesting to break them down into sugar. When time is not of the essence, then starches provide an ongoing good and healthy source of energy.
For good health, sugar is not bad in those times when an immediate energy boost is needed. And in the foods that are brought to you by nature and not a factory.
