How to Be a Conscious Eater

brown sugar, corn syrup, evaporated cane juice, agave nectar, and

so on. One exception—what you might call a slightly less bad

option, which is relevant only if you’re replacing table sugar

as opposed to consuming it in addition—is honey. The main

reason is its antioxidant content. Though higher in calories by

tablespoon than table sugar, honey’s goopy consistency and

higher concentration of sweetness means you may be inclined

to use less of it.

What we know about added sugar: Consuming too much over the long

run can lead to weight gain. Eating sugar raises blood sugar

levels, which prompts the pancreas to release insulin; raised

insulin levels prompt the body to store more of our calories

from food as fat. There are also hormonal changes. Leptin, our

“I’m-full” hormone, gets essentially drowned out by insulin

levels that are out of whack, so we eat more and potentially

gain weight. Some studies suggest that sugar has an addictive

effect on us, much like a drug, in which our brain chemistry

changes; we crave sugar, need it in our minds as a reward, and

experience withdrawal-type symptoms without it. Finally, it’s

more than just weight gain and hormone changes at stake:

Over time, overconsuming added sugar has been linked to

numerous metabolic problems, which together have been

dubbed “metabolic syndrome.” These chronic conditions can

greatly increase the likelihood of heart disease and diabetes,

and they top the list of common causes of death. Oh, and cav-

ities. Remember those?

What we don’t know about added sugar: We don’t know whether con-

suming too much over the long run is also tied to accelerated

aging of our cells (which appears most visibly as wrinkles),

memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease, and the increased

incidence of some cancers, including rates of survival and

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