how does sugar affect your diet

Sugar's effects on weight management and your health aren't as cut and dried as you might think. Here's what the research really has to say!

•  Research has associated high sugar intake with increased rates of obesity, heart disease, and cancer. [1-3] Many fitness and research professionals suggest reducing or eliminating sugar intake to optimize health and body composition.
• This seems logical at first. But the next question is the big one: Is it the sugar that does the damage, or the extra calories it brings? Because those calories can definitely be significant. A typical can of soda contains around 40-50 grams of sugar, and drinking two cans per day could increase your daily calories by a whopping 300-400.
• What's worst about these calories is that they're basically empty. By this I mean that sugar has been shown to have very little effect on satiety, or how full you feel from the calories you eat. Taking in lots of extra calories but not getting full? You'd better believe that's a recipe for weight gain.
• But beyond the satiety argument, many people also believe that sugar in and of itself is more lipogenic (causes an increase in fatty-acid production and ultimately fat storage) than comparable calories from other types of carbohydrates. By this logic, some people recommend avoiding sugar by any means necessary.
• However, the data suggests that sugar isn't the demon many of us have been led to believe. It can be incorporated into a healthy diet, and you can still lose fat and progress towards your goals
• After all, healthy foods like fruits and vegetables contain sugar, and they're still good for you. And eating a reasonably sized slice of that ridiculously good red velvet cake can help satisfy your sweet tooth and keep you from bingeing later on.