Sugar displaces more nutritious foods - Sugar satisfies a need for calories but eating more wholesome foods would mean vitamins, minerals, fibre, antioxidants and other micronutrients would also be gained - all of which encourage good health and a strong immune function. Artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, cyclamates and saccharin are equally undesirable. They may replace the calories of sugar, but they can also cause health problems. There is an alternative. The leaves of Stevia rebaudiana, a Brazilian plant, produce stevioside, a non-calorific natural sweetener, but lobbying by the manufacturers of other sweeteners has blocked its approval.
Thus, keeping blood sugar levels even is the key to preventing cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, tooth decay and cancer. But sugar is so genuinely addictive that many people struggle with their craving for it.
The safest way to eat sugar is in small quantities with foods that will delay its rapid assimilation and so reduce the extreme swings in blood sugar, energy level and mood: high-fibre foods, for example, such as wholemeal bread, pulses, vegetables and whole cereal products. Apple crumble will have a far milder impact than a glass of apple juice with the same level of sugars.
