Obesity myth

We Get Fat Because of Sugar

The sugar theory states we get fat because of added sugar.  According to the theory, added sugar spikes insulin and causes weight gain.

Numerous studies show that eating excess amounts of added sugar can have harmful effects on metabolism, leading to insulin resistance, belly fat gain, high triglycerides and small, dense LDL cholesterol (R, R2).

There is also a plethora of observational studies showing that the people who eat the most sugar are at a much greater risk of getting type 2 diabetes, heart disease and even cancer (R, R2, R3).

Excess sugar is harmful to our health, but the question is if excess sugar causes more weight gain than an excess of some other food with the same caloric value and if it does if the difference is significant.

Many studies show that excess fructose has adverse effects on hormones related to obesity (R, R2, R3, R4) and we know glucose can spike insulin.

Studies show that people who eat the most sugar are at a high risk of future weight gain and obesity (R).

Given these studies, we might jump to the conclusion that sugar is a significant source of our weight troubles. However, few of us eat the amount of fructose in these studies and if we do it’s because we’re eating too much in general.

When we eat within our caloric needs, these problems don’t occur.  If we ate less, we’d naturally reduce our level of fructose because we’d preferentially crave protein.   I don’t know about you, but eating sugar or sweet foods all day isn’t appealing.  I like foods that satisfy other gustatory desires like chicken, beef, etc…

Also, it’s no surprise that people who eat the most sugar are the most obese because they’re also eating the most calories.

If we see the picture below we will see that France’s sugar content isn’t much different than America’s, yet they are pretty thin there (1/3 of the obesity rate compared to us).  And while Japan eats 40% less sugar, they also eat 25% fewer calories.  Australia consumes more sugar and has a lower obesity rate than the USA.

The fact is that the Japanese are still consuming more sugar than many of us would think of as healthy.  In addition, if we were to map out the history of their sugar consumption from the 1950’s, it almost certainly would show a marked increase, without an accompanying rise in obesity.

I can only conclude that sugar isn’t a very significant factor in our obesity epidemic (although it’s probably a minor factor).

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