21st-century students, faced with a dazzling array of modern food products, are naturally tempted by their convenience and glitz. We would prefer not to worry about how our food is processed or what they contain. But the inevitable consequence of this ignorance is the host of the debilitating diseases now endemic in universities, and society at large, the most common one being stress.

Sugar is normally the first reaction to stress. Whenever we as students feel a little off balanced from too much studying the first thing we crave for is something sweet, normally a chocolate bar or a fizzy drink. Sugar is a major life force and our bodies need it as fuel to feed the ongoing processes. The two main problems with sugar are that it can add up quickly to a lot of calories and to low nutritional intake. People who replace their high nutrition carbohydrates (grains, beans, vegetables, fruits) with sugar are getting poorer nutrition. And, those who eat a lot of sugar containing foods, in addition to their healthy foods, will gain weight from the extra calories.

Most of us are aware that too much sugar is not particularly good for our health. It was this awareness that forced the drinks and foods industry to produce an alternative to sugar, so that they came up with Aspartame. Aspartame is a commercial sweetener 200 times sweeter than sugar. This now termed “chemical poison” has been known to cause dizziness, headaches/migraines, seizures, nausea, numbness, muscle spasms, weight gain, rashes, depression, fatigue, irritability, insomnia, vision problems, hearing loss, heart palpitations, breathing difficulties, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, loss of taste, vertigo, memory loss, and joint pain. How we as “consumers” are fooled into thinking that we are doing a good thing by lowering our sugar/calorie intake by switching to diet fizzy drinks, when in fact we could be doing more damage to our body and minds.

So what sugar is good for our bodies? Well, any sweetness that is naturally occurring, like that of fruit juice and fruits is all good. You can even buy fizzy drinks and chocolates that are made with natural sweeteners like agave and maple syrup in an organic section/shop. These are great alternatives. The best way to know what kind of sweetener you are ingesting is to check on the label, although the writing is sometimes very small. Sugar from unrefined or raw sugar cane will be clearly stated, if it is not it means it is refined white sugar. These natural products are also full of anti oxidants, phytonutrients, vitamins, and minerals which are all needed in abundance around exam times.

Eating too many sugary foods will leave students less hungry for more nutritious ones, and they may end up missing valuable vitamins and minerals. The brief energy boost that accompanies the intake of sugar is quickly replaced by a longer shortage of energy. Knowledge of the facts of sugar gives us the freedom to choose and change our diet if we want too. It is another fact that our bodies function smoothly on natural sugars found in fruits, vegetables, complex carbohydrates, honey, maple syrup, rice syrup, molasses, and agave. The main issue is to be aware of how sugar/sweeteners and their different types can affect our body and mind. Over consumption of fruit juice can unbalance the body, swapping one coke a week for 10 bottles of fruit juice is not the wisest decision. It is all about moderation and knowing when the functioning of the body starts to go off track caused by stress, or dis-ease, and then to do something about it that does not promote this unbalance further.