In the grand scheme of what’s good for you and what’s not, sugar has taken up residence in the pantheon of unhealthy substances.
While unprocessed forms, like raw honey, maple syrup and fruit, can easily be integrated into a balanced diet, the sweet white stuff that pops up in everything from your morning latte to chips to pasta sauce is becoming more and more troublesome.
All sugars, but especially the very refined stuff in processed food, cause major spikes in blood sugar, which makes us feel energized and happy. While this might sound like a good thing, it is short lived, and when blood sugar inevitably plummets, we become tired and moody and reach for more sugar, thus creating an addictive cycle.
This infographic has a few facts about sugar that might have you second guessing that extra scoop in your coffee.
So the health-conscious are slowly shunning sugar, and reaching instead for sweeteners. Plain old sugar is still top of the global sweetener market, with 81 percent market share, but the Global Sweetener Market is growing at a CAGR of 4.72 percent from 2013-2018 mostly due to the growing popularity of non-sugar sweeteners.
Non-sugar sweeteners are typically non-nutritive, low-calorie substances, like stevia, aspartame and sucralose. Other sugar substitutes like maple syrup and agave nectar also fall under the sweetener category, but are classed are nutritive and caloric sweeteners.
Increased Demand for Sugar-Free Products Boosting Sweetener Sales
Alarming rates of obesity, especially in the US are leading to more and more cases of cardiovascular disease, osteoarthritis, high cholesterol, respiratory problems and a host of other obesity-related ailments.
To try and curb health problems, food processing companies and consumers alike are seeking healthy food options with fewer calories, less fat and less high fructose corn syrup.
Even governments are getting on the low-sugar bandwagon, as concerns over obesity and its impact on the medical system crop up. Agencies are developing policies and regulations to penalize unhealthy food manufacturers and initiatives are being undertaken to ban soft drinks in schools and colleges as they contain excessive amounts of sugar.
Lifestyle Changes, Not Quick Fixes, the Way to Better Health
But artificial sweeteners aren’t necessarily the answer to the obesity problem, or the way to overall wellbeing.
You’d be hard pressed to find a doctor or nutritionist who would claim that aspartame or sucralose are good for you, and some would go as far as saying that they can be linked to diabetes, weight gain, and other health problems (although these claims have yet to be fully substantiated).
Replacing refined sugar with sugar substitutes, even supposedly healthy ones like stevia or agave isn’t necessarily the way to go for optimal health. Most nutritionists agree that simply replacing full-fat, full-sugar foods with their ‘diet’ counterpart isn’t the way to be healthy.
A bad diet is a bad diet, and artificial sweeteners are a band aid on a much bigger problem. To really combat obesity, diabetes and other related diseases, major lifestyle changes need to take place, and consumers need to wise-up to the sneaky sources of sugar in their faily diets.
For tips on how to kick sugar for good, check out Mind Body Green. And for more market projections from TechNavio, view our site at www.technavio.com.
