Swearing off sugar has become almost a religion in the last few years, as sugar has started copping the blame for everything from obesity to autoimmune disease.

There’s no doubt that, in general, we’re eating (and drinking) far too much sugar. But sugar is nothing new, humans have been eating it for as long as we’ve existed as a species, on the whole with no major issues. That’s because sugar, in it’s natural state, is not the problem – it comes with other nutrients such as fibre, vitamins and minerals and is generally found in fairly small amounts. The problem is that somewhere along the line we figured out how to extract the sugar from the plants it is naturally present in. This meant that we could enjoy just the delicious sweet stuff without having to worry about dealing with other nutrients getting in the way. And because we also figured out how to have food available to us 24/7, we can now indulge our sweet tooths anytime we like. In fact, thanks to the invention of soft drink, we don’t even have to chew anymore, we can literally just pour sugar straight down our throats!

But is demonising sugar really necessary? Is swearing off it entirely really the best solution or could this actually leave us worse of in the long run? Here are 5 reasons why I don’t recommend quitting sugar: [Read more…]