Since we are children we learn to associate dessert with gratification, with a prize. Then, as we grow up, our relationship with sugar often becomes more conflictual, full of guilt and confusion. In recent decades, sugar has gone from being considered an indispensable source of “pure energy” to the most ferocious demonization.
But what is the truth? Is sugar bad for you? As the main global health institutions remind us, first of all theWorld Health Organization (WHO) with its guidelines, the answer is never a simple “yes” or “no.” It all depends on the quantities, the context and, above all, what we really mean when we use the word “sugar”.
History of sugar: from its origins to the food industry lobbies
Until five hundred years ago, sugar extracted from cane in tropical climates was an extreme luxury, as expensive as a rare spice, flaunted on the tables of kings or prescribed by doctors as a medicine. Then came colonization and history took a dramatic turn: to satisfy the Western greed for sweetness, sugar cane plantations in the Americas became the main driver of the slave trade, even more than cotton or tobacco. With industrialization, production fell in cost and sugar became a mass commodity.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the food industry narrative was clear: fats were bad for the heart, while sugar was considered harmless and vital. In 2016, a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine However, it revealed a disturbing background: in the 1960s the Sugar Research Foundation (the main pressure group of the US sugar industry) had financed Harvard researchers to guide the scientific studies of the time, pushing them to place all the blame for cardiovascular diseases on fats and to “absolve” sugar.
Difference between sugars: glucose, fructose and the problem of “free sugars”
The first mistake we make is enclosing everything in one word. From a chemical and nutritional point of view, the differences are enormous:
- Glucose: it is the basic molecule, the primary source of energy for all the cells in our body. Our brain consumes it continuously. Sugar, in its basic form, is fundamental to human physiology.
- Fructose: it is the natural sugar of fruit. This is also a simple sugar, but when we eat a whole fruit we ingest it together with fibre, vitamins and water, elements which greatly slow down its absorption into the blood, making it healthy and manageable for the body.
- Sucrose: it is the classic white cooking sugar (formed by the union of glucose and fructose).
The real critical issue identified by modern science concerns the so-called “free sugars”. With this term, international guidelines (such as those of the WHO in 2015) indicate simple sugars added to foods by industry, chefs or consumers, to which are added the sugars naturally present in honey, syrups and fruit juices (in which the pulp has been altered and the sugar is no longer trapped in the fibres, being absorbed as quickly as that of a carbonated soft drink).
Hidden sugars in foods: where they are found and how to find them on the label
The real problem is not the teaspoon in the coffee or the piece of cake on a birthday, occasions when we know we are eating sugar. The problem is the sugar hidden in unsuspected products.
We find it, for example, in considerable quantities in ketchup (up to 20 grams per 100), in industrial sandwich bread (added to promote browning and leavening), in fruit yoghurts, in many breakfast cereals advertised as “healthy” or “wholemeal”, and even in ready-made sauces, where it is inserted to cover the acidity of the tomato. It doesn’t mean that these foods should be avoided entirely, but the quantities add up without our knowledge during the day, causing us to exceed the recommended limits.
How to defend yourself? More than the list of ingredients (where sugar is disguised under 40 different names, such as corn syrup, dextrose or maltodextrin), you need to look at the nutritional table. Under the heading “Carbohydrates” you will always find the wording “of which sugars”: that is the value that tells you exactly how many simple sugars there are in 100 grams of product.
How much sugar to eat per day: WHO guidelines
The World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines are clear: free sugars should not exceed 10% of your daily calorie intake. For an average adult (2,000 kcal diet), we’re talking about 50 grams per day (just over the amount contained in a single can of carbonated drink). However, the WHO adds that falling below the 5% (about 25 grams per day) brings additional health benefits.
Sugar consumption is often pointed out as the sole and direct cause of diabetes, a disease with a very high personal and social cost. The numbers are alarming: according to data fromeleventh edition of the IDF Diabetes Atlasthis disease currently affects 589 million adults in the world (one in nine). By 2050, the number will reach 853 million people, a growth rate nearly double that of the global population. In 2024 alone, the Atlas highlights, diabetes caused 3.4 million deaths and absorbed over 12% of all global healthcare spending. Yet, scientifically, the disease is not generated by the single dessert consumed. Diabetes has multiple causes: genetics, sedentary lifestyle, obesity, socioeconomic factors and poor access to care. There is no direct cause-effect relationship (I eat too many sweets = I get diabetes), but there is one very strong scientific correlation between excessive and prolonged consumption of added sugars and a clear increase in the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes, especially if combined with other risk factors.
Sugar is a natural element that only becomes problematic when the doses are beyond our control due to a food industry that, over time, has inserted sweeteners everywhere and designed supermarkets to maximize impulse purchases. There’s no point in eliminating sugar from your life or living in fear of dessert. You can live peacefully and healthy by consuming free sugars even every day. The real secret, for the umpteenth time, lies in awareness of what we are eating and respecting the daily doses.
