Fat vs. Sugar: Which is worse for your health?
When it comes to weight management, both fats and sugars can be your worst enemy. Fats contain more than twice as many calories as carbs and proteins, so you’re far more likely to gain weight if you eat a high-fat diet. Sugar is high in carbs and low in fiber, meaning it’s absorbed and used more quickly. In the end, sugar turns into new fat cells for storage just like fat does.
But which is worse for your health? Are you better off eating fat than sugar, or should you make it a point to avoid fats and eat more carbs and sugars?
In recent years, science has discovered an increasing amount of evidence that points to sugar as being the greater danger. Saturated fat, once believed to be the greatest cause of heart disease, has been discovered to be a contributor to good health. It can boost immunity, raise your hormone levels, encourage healthy liver function, and even promote weight loss. Too much fat is still bad for you, but in moderation, fat is a good thing.
Sugar, on the other hand, is looking more and more like the villain of the piece. Sugar raises your blood sugar levels, increases your risk of diabetes, and can lead to weight gain as surely as fat will. To make things worse, sugar is far more addictive than fat. You can cut fat out of your diet a lot more easily than you can eliminate sugar. Plus, when you actually do eliminate all sugar from your diet, you get symptoms of withdrawal and cravings–a problem that doesn’t happen with fats.
According to a study published in the journal Cell Chemical Biology, it’s even worse than you’d think!
READ MORE: Sugar Feeds Cancer: Why Cutting Back May Help Cut Your Risk
Cancer cells use up a lot of glucose to multiply, which they do at an extremely accelerated rate. The more glucose there is in your body, the easier it is for those cancer cells to multiply–meaning the faster your cancer will grow.
Cancer cells use glucose to make lipids (fatty acids), which make up the cell membranes. However, this study found that cancer cells may be able to use fatty acids in your bloodstream and body to multiply. Perhaps both fats and sugar are dangerous, especially in the cases of cancer…
Many people trying to fight cancer will go on a reduced-sugar diet in an effort to control their glucose uptake. It was believed the controlling glucose levels essentially deprived the cancer cells of their primary food source, reducing the risk of tumor growth or spread. But, if this study is anything to go on, fatty acids may also be a cause of the problem. Glucose alone won’t cause the spread or growth of tumors, but too much fat can be just as bad.
So, while sugar may be the worse of the two in most cases, it’s not the only thing that can cause health problems. Overconsumption of fats (saturated, unsaturated, and trans fats are all made up of lipids that can feed cancer cells) may be almost as harmful as eating too much sugar.
That’s why it’s so vital to make healthy food choices NOW while you’re still healthy. If you get in the habit of making the right choice, it will be easier to keep making the right choice if/when health problems (like cancer) develop. If not, it will be much harder to totally overhaul your diet in an effort to eat healthy. Start eating right now, and you’ll be better off in the long run.
