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This Is Why You DON'T Need To Cut Sugar From Your Diet | Nutritionist Explains | Myprotein
Jan 30, 2025
Is sugar really that bad for you? Could sugar even be toxic? Our expert nutritionist is back to separate the fact from the fiction.
Our favourite nutrition researcher (and nutrition myth-buster), Richie Kirwan, is back with a brand new video all about everyone's favourite sweet temptation. That's right, he's here to set things straight about sugar.
When it comes to dieting, it seems like people love to demonise and cancel foods — sometimes whole food groups — right? Well, Richie is on hand to explain why that isn't actually the solution that some might think it is.
Find out why you DON'T need to cut sugar from your life completely. You're welcome.
Find Richie on Instagram: @be_more_nutrition
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Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction & disclaimer
00:40 - What is sugar?
01:41 - Common myths about sugar
02:18 - Why is sugar essential for the body?
03:02 - What happens when we eat sugar?
03:56 - Does sugar make you gain weight?
05:30 - Is fructose the worst type of sugar?
06:33 - What's the problem with sugar?
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
sugar probably has one of the worst
0:01
reputations in nutrition and if you
0:03
listen to some extremists it's
0:05
apparently nothing short of toxic but is
0:08
our favorite sweetener really that bad
0:11
let's talk about that
0:12
[Music]
0:15
how's it going guys my name is richie
0:16
carwin and today we're going to talk all
0:18
about sugar what it is what effects it
0:21
has in your body and how it can affect
0:23
your body weight as always i want to
0:25
point out that i'm not telling you that
0:26
you should or shouldn't eat sugar
0:29
that's entirely your choice what i am
0:32
going to do is help you understand what
0:34
the research says about eating sugar and
0:35
you can use that information to help you
0:37
make your own informed choices let's get
0:39
started first and foremost we need to
0:41
talk about what sugar is
0:43
sugars are carbohydrates and carbs are
0:46
one of the principal macronutrients we
0:48
get from plant foods the most basic
0:50
carbohydrates are simple sugars also
0:52
known as monosaccharides because they
0:54
consist of only one molecule the three
0:57
most common monosaccharides are glucose
1:00
fructose and galactose these
1:02
monosaccharides can combine together to
1:04
form disaccharides because they're made
1:06
up of a combination of two
1:08
monosaccharides so two glucose molecules
1:11
join together and give you maltose which
1:13
is found in grains like wheat and barley
1:15
and some fruit a glucose and a galactose
1:17
molecule together will give you lactose
1:19
which is the sugar found in milk and
1:21
finally a molecule of glucose combined
1:24
with a molecule of fructose gives you
1:26
sucrose otherwise known as table sugar
1:28
and one of the most popular food
1:30
ingredients on the face of the earth so
1:32
popular in fact that its overuse has
1:35
probably significantly contributed to
1:37
the rise in body weight that we've seen
1:39
in the developed world since at least
1:41
the 1970s i said overuse for a reason
1:44
because just like anything in nutrition
1:47
eating a small amount of something isn't
1:49
necessarily going to have an effect on
1:51
your body weight and the devil is
1:53
certainly in the dose i also want to
1:56
touch on a very common fallacy that i
1:58
hear about sugars and that's the idea
2:01
that they're toxic that's just absolute
2:05
sugar is absolutely essential in the
2:07
human body and for all the people who
2:09
are jumping out of their seats screaming
2:11
at the screen shouting sugar isn't an
2:13
essential nutrient or your body has no
2:15
minimum necessity for carbohydrates sit
2:17
back down
2:18
pay attention i didn't say you need to
2:19
eat sugar or carbs but they are
2:22
essential in your body why
2:24
well
2:25
your blood is a solution of glucose and
2:28
many other substances and your body
2:30
fights really hard to maintain your
2:33
blood sugar levels in a very tight range
2:36
some of our organs such as the brain
2:38
need a continuous supply of glucose to
2:40
stay alive
2:41
and even if we don't eat any glucose or
2:44
any carbohydrates for that matter in our
2:45
diet our body is still able to make
2:48
glucose from components of protein and
2:50
fats in a process called gluconeogenesis
2:53
so if glucose a sugar was so toxic
2:57
why is it so essential that our body
2:59
needs to make it to survive
3:01
what happens when we eat sugar if you
3:03
eat some carbohydrates and that can be
3:05
anything from some fruit or honey or
3:08
chocolate bar to a slice of bread or a
3:10
potato
3:11
your body will digest it quickly
3:13
absorb the glucose and your blood
3:15
glucose will rise
3:17
that's completely normal and as long as
3:19
you're healthy your body can bring that
3:21
glucose down to normal levels quite
3:23
quickly spikes in blood sugar are normal
3:26
when you eat and if you haven't eaten in
3:28
a while like in between meals or while
3:30
you're sleeping and your blood glucose
3:31
levels are too low your body can
3:33
increase your blood sugar level to a
3:34
healthy range that's part of a process
3:36
called homeostasis where your body can
3:39
keep all of its systems in balance again
3:42
as long as you're healthy you don't need
3:44
to eat carbohydrate to bring your blood
3:46
sugar back up your body can make all you
3:49
need another reason that sugar is so
3:51
controversial is because a lot of people
3:53
assume sugar makes you immediately gain
3:56
fat as soon as you eat it
3:59
this idea has a lot to do with insulin
4:01
and a poor understanding of how insulin
4:03
works you see when you eat anything with
4:05
carbohydrates it gets digested to sugar
4:08
and that enters your bloodstream which
4:09
causes your body to produce insulin
4:12
insulin's job is to lower blood glucose
4:14
and it does that in a number of ways one
4:17
is it increases the burning of sugar for
4:19
energy and it reduces the burning of fat
4:22
for energy
4:23
it also causes your body to store more
4:25
carbohydrate either as glycogen in your
4:27
muscles or by converting it to fat and
4:30
storing it in fat cells this is why so
4:32
many people are almost terrified of
4:34
sugar and carbs in general and
4:36
especially of insulin
4:38
they think that if they eat any at all
4:39
it'll make them gain weight immediately
4:42
this simply isn't true you see insulin
4:45
only has those effects that i mentioned
4:47
earlier when its levels are high and for
4:49
a short period of time after someone
4:51
eats so after a couple of hours insulin
4:54
drops and you go back to burning fat
4:57
especially your body fat we have a lot
5:00
of evidence that people can still lose
5:01
weight even when their insulin levels
5:03
are high in fact there was a diet in the
5:05
1940s and 50s called the rice diet and
5:08
over 90 of the calories came from rice
5:11
and fruit which gets digested down to
5:13
sugars and spice insulin and you know
5:14
what
5:15
people on the diet all lost weight
5:17
despite all that dangerous sugar and
5:19
insulin why because they ended up eating
5:22
fewer overall calories and at the end of
5:24
the day it's calories that are key for
5:27
weight loss there are also some people
5:29
that argue that it's the fructose in
5:31
sugar that's the problem you see
5:32
fructose is metabolized a little bit
5:34
differently from glucose one thing that
5:36
is different is that fructose may be
5:38
more easily converts to fat in the liver
5:40
a process called de novo lipogenesis
5:42
however that's not going to cause weight
5:44
gain unless someone is eating more
5:47
calories than they need in fact we also
5:49
have a lot of evidence that people on
5:50
high fructose diets don't gain weight as
5:53
long as they don't eat excess calories
5:55
it's because of fructose that people
5:57
assume high fructose corn syrup is even
6:00
worse for your health than regular sugar
6:02
high fructose corn syrup is made
6:04
industrially by fermenting corn it's
6:06
super cheap and that's why it's become
6:08
so popular as an ingredient
6:10
so much so you can see it in the
6:11
ingredients list of many processed foods
6:14
these days the thing is high fructose
6:16
corn syrup doesn't really contain that
6:18
much more fructose than table sugar
6:20
table sugar is already 50 fructose
6:23
corn syrup on the other hand usually has
6:25
a maximum fructose content of 55 percent
6:28
not exactly a big enough difference to
6:30
have a major health effect so if someone
6:32
is healthy and insulin isn't a problem
6:35
and fructose isn't a problem what's the
6:37
issue with sugar the real issue with
6:39
sugar has to do with how people eat
6:40
today earlier in the video i mentioned
6:42
the overuse of sugar since the 1970s you
6:45
see since then the world has become a
6:48
lot more food secure and we have a lot
6:50
more food available we also have a lot
6:52
more processed foods now there's nothing
6:54
inherently wrong with processed foods
6:56
and in fact they have a lot of
6:57
advantages
6:58
but many processed foods especially
7:01
ultra processed snack foods have four
7:03
properties that can contribute to weight
7:05
gain firstly they're calorie dense which
7:08
means they have a lot of calories in a
7:11
small portion size besides that they
7:13
aren't very filling because they often
7:15
lack fiber and protein which means you
7:17
can get a lot of them into you without
7:19
feeling full besides that they're hyper
7:22
palatable which is just a fancy way of
7:24
saying that they're really really tasty
7:27
and that encourages you to eat even more
7:29
and finally they're often really cheap
7:31
which means you can afford to eat them a
7:34
lot all these together mean processed
7:36
foods which often contain a lot of sugar
7:38
are very
7:40
very easy to overeat then there's a very
7:43
specific type of ultra processed food
7:45
and that's sugar sweetened beverages or
7:48
soft drinks soft drinks are just
7:50
mixtures of water
7:52
flavoring and sugar or high fructose
7:54
corn syrup
7:55
they make getting a whole lot of
7:56
calories into your body super easy this
7:59
is why the intake of ultra processed
8:01
foods and sugar sweetened beverages is
8:03
very tightly related to increases in
8:06
food intake and body fat because they
8:08
make eating excess calories easier sugar
8:12
is just a perfect ingredient in
8:14
ultra-processed food it's delicious it's
8:17
cheap and you can fit a lot of it into a
8:19
small portion of food
8:21
but there's no weird biochemical reason
8:24
or magic that makes sugar fattening we
8:26
just tend to eat way too much of it if
8:29
you have a healthy diet and don't eat
8:31
too many calories
8:32
it's absolutely fine to have a little
8:34
sugar in your diet
8:35
it won't automatically cause weight gain
8:37
problem is we live in a world where
8:39
highly processed foods that are often
8:41
high in sugar and fat are everywhere
8:44
that makes avoiding them a lot harder
8:46
like i said i'm not here to tell anyone
8:48
to use sugar or not i just don't want
8:50
people making decisions based on
8:52
sensationalist stories and poorly
8:54
interpreted science so did that answer
8:56
your sugar questions
8:58
as always if you have any more let me
8:59
know in the comments below and remember
9:00
to like and subscribe to the my protein
9:02
youtube channel for more great
9:04
evidence-based nutrition information
9:07
[Music]
9:15
you
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