Getting to the truth

There are so many different anti-sugar tribes and weightloss messages that even knowing which foods contain sugar has become confusing. “There are 46 different words for fructose and 17 words for glucose that are used on food labels, and the average person knows about three of them,” says Dr Popovic.

That’s why she likes to start with the basics. “Sugar is a subset of carbohydrates,” she explains. Also known as table sugar and sucrose, cane sugar consists of 50% fructose and 50% glucose. Glucose is the main source of your body’s fuel, while fructose is not used by any organ.

“As soon as glucose is absorbed by your body, it stimulates a release of insulin and – if you overdo it – you may become insulin resistant.”

This can lead to health issues such as metabolic syndrome, pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes.