Added sugar vs. “Regular” sugar

Answer

That’s a good question which invites a deeper look into what sugar is. Health agencies officially recommend limiting added sugar, and do not suggest any limit for natural sugars. It’s obviously confusing because they are the exact same sugars (fructose, glucose, etc.) - technically they should be interchangeable, so how comes only one kind should be limited? Basically, because sugars themselves are not harmful. They’re simple carbs that your body can easily convert to energy. It’s the context you consume them in that often makes added sugar unhealthy. To my understanding there are two main problems with added sugars:

1. Added sugars don’t come with any additional nutrients. Carbs of any kind are essentially a source for energy/calories, and by themselves they are just that. In the developed world most people consume too many calories as it is and should try to get their energy alongside other essential nutrients - it’s hard enough to get everything you need within 1800-2000 calories so it’s likely that anyone who consumes too much added sugars is either lacking nutrients in his diet or eating too much calories, and will put up weight. In theory, if you got everything you needed and still had some calories to fill, a proper amount of added sugars wouldn’t be terrible for you. Also, of course, people who don’t have the privilege to eat a healthy diet sometimes use simple carbs like bread and sugar just to get energy - although it’s less and less common, with poor populations actually showing higher obesity rates in many cases.
2. Fiber. Natural sugars don’t dissolve immediately into your blood, but do so gradually as your body breaks the food apart. This way you can sustain your energy throughout the day instead of spiking and falling (and craving more food). Not relevant for everyone, but neither only for diabetics: your blood insulin also goes through a sharper spike when you consume easily available sugars. It’s not just fiber btw, even the fats in whole milk go a long way in delaying the release of lactose to the body.

Depending on personal conditions, the rest of your diet, your goals and your nutritional philosophy - carbs will have a different place in your menu, and in the end of the day sugars of any form are just simple carbs. I’d get sugar-free oat milk or whole dairy milk personally. Don’t stress over a few grams more\less, milk is healthy in moderation.

Answer

You have sugar that’s naturally present in a food, for example all plain yoghurt has about 5 grams of sugar per 100 g.

If they intentionally add more sugar to enhance flavour it’s added sugar.

Naturally present sugar is usually a lot better than added one.

Answer

added sugar is like when you eat processed foods. it’s just pure calories and doesn’t come with any micro nutrients. it’s usually more calorie dense too meaning that per volume of weight it’s going to have more calories since it’s just pure calories, which makes over consuming really easy. eating whole foods like fruit are going to contain sugars yes, but also a lot of fiber and water content to help slow down the amount of sugar that is going into your body as well as digesting it properly, along with vitamins and minerals that will contribute to good health. This is why you will feel better and have an easier time eating less calories consuming fruit vs say candy or something that’s just overloading your system with pure sugar and completely lacks a lot of other essential nutrients that actually helps your body operate like it’s supposed to.

Answer

Sugar is a form of carbohydrates. Can be sucrose (added sugar), lactose (natural milk sugar) or maltose. None added sugar is best because too much of this just add unnecessary calories with no nutrients. While naturally occurring ones are fine, like fruits sugar usually bind with fiber where you wouldn’t able to absorb (or little).

However, talking about milk vs almond. I’d say you go for almond, but compare between different almond brands for nutrients. Like higher protein content, less fat, and more vit and minerals.

There are research saying milk don’t actually help your bones, but weakens them. Epidemiology studies shows countries with higher milk consumption also has the highest hip fracture. Also for the sake of animal abuse and environment.

Edit: added more info

Answer

It depends on what sugar you are talking about as different sugars are metabolized differently.

The sugar in milk is lactose, which is a disaccharide that breaks down into the simple sugars glucose and galactose.

The added sugar is sucrose, which is also a disaccharide, and it breaks down into the simple sugars glucose and fructose.

My opinion is that fructose is much more of an issue metabolically because humans are “designed” to be good to convert fructose to fat, and it’s well linked with NAFLD.

Galactose has a more normal metabolism, so I would consider it a better choice than fructose.

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