This isn’t about sugar

Telluride Daily Planet, Friday, October 24, 2025

“I love to eat — Kit Kats or cookies-and-cream ice cream. I need sugar like five times a day.” — Kim Kardashian

In college, about a million years ago, I distinctly remember a moment of flopping myself down on our senior house couch and peeling open a full-sized Baby Ruth candy bar, which at the time was 2.1 ounces of ingredients that have been under scrutiny for the last 25 years or so.

The first ingredient, of course, was sugar, following by peanuts, corn syrup, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, milk and high fructose corn syrup. Sorbitol was also listed, which had been around since the 1870s but was only approved by the FDA in the 1970s. The recipe has remained much the same for at least 60 years (it’s been around for 100).

At any rate, I inhaled the entire candy bar, all 290 calories, including the listed 36 grams of “carbohydrate,” as added sugars were yet required disclosures. Carbs in this sense would include starches and fiber, as well; but in the sense of this bar, almost all the carbs were (and are) from sugar. I don’t recall a sugar high, but I do remember falling into a sugar coma, fast asleep, actually. I shrugged it off as hormonal fluctuation aggravated by candy overdose.

Very likely, it was also a clue to my particular constitution and genetic history (my paternal grandmother had diabetes and my own blood sugar is on the high side), and I am working, with the help of an inexpensive temporary blood glucose monitor, to better understand my relationship to sugars and carbs, eating, fasting, exercise and rest. Why? Frequent blood sugar spikes accelerate telomere shortening (tiny caps that protect your DNA), which can negatively affect metabolic health and energy levels.

I’m not worried, I’m just interested. I’m interested in the general state of the food industry, processed foods, “diabesity,” “inflammaging,” seductive marketing and how all that affects me and you. How our longevity and health-span are affected by our food choices and quantities and how each of us is affected bio-individually. This is what makes the monitor so helpful. And the data is relevant. For example, what is relevant for me is the question of whether the dates I’ve been eating really affect blood sugar less because they are a whole unprocessed food, high in potassium and full of fiber. (Spoiler alert: no.)

How we process refined carbs and all manner of sugars has gotten a lot of attention in the last 10-15 years and for good reason. They’re addictive and we consume them in massive quantities, especially when compared to pre-industrial times, when we were also far less sedentary human beings. Often we forget to check in with ourselves on how we are feeling and why, or simply too consumed by our lives to consider making productive changes.

This little stick-on device that costs about $50 for a two week run, can help verify what our energy levels and lab reports are telling us. It corroborates that we may be unique in how we process sugars and guide us into feeling better, if we want.

In a recent reenactment of the Baby Ruth event, I ate a peanut butter-chocolate energy bar boasting 20 grams of protein in a soy base. Added sugars were listed at 11 grams, and first ingredients were soy protein isolate, tapioca syrup and peanut butter. In spite of eating it on an empty stomach, there was a spike, but nothing radical. Nothing at all like the enormous spike after a seemingly healthy breakfast of pumpkin chia pudding with pecans and banana that I made myself, using very little maple syrup. (Spoiler culprit alert: the humble banana.)

Thus, simple fixes can add energy to your day. I used to like to eat sweets mid-afternoon like the rest of humanity, when blood sugar levels were prone to tanking, and then reach for more carbs after the crash — probably not five times a day like Kim Kardashian, but a couple times. This simply does not work for me as I age.

If this pitch feels alarmist, I get it. You don’t want to know that frequent sugar spikes trigger insulin resistance and inflammation and that crashes cause fatigue, mood swings and cravings. That, over time, this rollercoaster can lead to metabolic disease. You may not want to be reminded that stable blood sugar improves energy, mental clarity and long-term health because you may not be willing to give up your carbs and sugars. In which case, just do this: Get exercise, stay hydrated, get enough sleep, don’t snack too much and buffer sugars by eating them after a few bites, at least, of fiber, good fats and/or protein.

That way, it’s not so much about sugar as it is about you.