Why your body needs sugar

Our bodies all need sugar (or glucose) to function, which in my mind is why we all should eat sugar, or at least foods that convert into sugar. But before you get up in arms over this statement, let’s take a look at what sugar is, what form we need to take it in and how we should give it to our body for best physiological functioning.

What is sugar? 

Sugar is a simple carbohydrate that comes in many different forms. In its simplest form it is called a monosaccharide and includes: 

• Glucose (occurs naturally in fruits and plant juices)
• Fructose (occurs naturally in fruits, some root vegetables, cane sugar and honey)
• Galactose (combines with glucose to form lactose)  

The "table sugar" sucrose is a disaccharide (contains two monosaccharaides) made up of glucose and fructose. All carbohydrates, once eaten, are converted into glucose during digestion, which is the form of sugar that is used in our bodies.  

It is the added sugar that gives no beneficial nutrients (just energy) and in excess can impact on our health. The World Health Organization guideline is that "added sugar" should make up no more than 10% of our daily intake. However, with sugar being used in many of our foods these days it is easy to lose track of how much "added" sugar you are eating in a day!  

The important message that I want you to remember is that glucose is necessary for our health and all of the cells in our body need it to function, but too much will increase the risk of several diseases, so we need to find the balance.

Understanding the difference between natural sugar and added sugar 

Food labels only contain information on total sugars per serving ("of which sugars"), not added sugar. It therefore becomes almost impossible for us to work out how much added sugars are in the foods and drinks. 

This is where the ingredient list becomes important. The ingredients in a product are listed in order of weight. This means that the biggest (by weight) ingredient comes first on the list and the smallest ingredient is last. Therefore if sugar is listed in the top five ingredients then the "of which sugars" is added sugar. If however the "of which sugars" is high and the first ingredient is milk or fruit, then it is natural sugar in the product