If you’ve followed me for a while, you likely know how much I hate inaccurate nomenclatures. The word “sugar” is one of these words. It means a lot of different things, and all of those things can be true. Is glucose a sugar? Yes. Is fructose a sugar? Yes. Are they the same? No.
Sugar is often delineated by “natural” sugars (found in fruit and vegetables) and “artificial” sugars (such as high fructose corn syrup). But these categories are not the most useful way to think about sugar and its effects.
By the time any type of sugar leaves the stomach, it’s basically a series of monomers of glucose and fructose. Instead, I prefer to think of sugar consumption through the lens of three variables: density, volume, and velocity.
The following is a collection of past content which dives deeper into this topic, exploring the various forms of “sugar,” how they impact the body, and how to think about sugar consumption.
“Fructose turns out to be used by animals as a mechanism to store fat.” — Rick Johnson
“Neurons like to be tickled, not bludgeoned.” —Rob Lustig
I remember one of my mentors in surgical residency made a very important distinction for me. He said, “Peter, never…
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