We've all heard that sugar is pretty bad for us. Most of us relate sugar to what it does for our waistlines. But it's so much more than this!

Many nutritionists - myself included - now think added sugar is the worst ingredient of any modern diet.

At best it is addictive and devoid of nutrients our body actually needs. At worst it can contribute to autoimmune conditions, dementia, metabolic disorders and diabetes.

When it comes to sugar, it’s about much more than physical appearance. High sugar consumption can lead to fatty liver and type two diabetes - even in individuals who are not overweight.

In 2015 the World Health Organisation issued revised guidelines for sugar consumption.

The World Health Organisation advises that men eat no more than 9 teaspoons of sugar per day, women 6 and children 3.

Naturally occurring sugar found in fruit - when it is kept in its whole form - does not count towards this total.

However free sugars, added sugars and even natural sweeteners, such as honey, rice malt syrup, maple syrup, fruit juice and coconut sugar, as well as juice and dried fruit will all count toward your daily total. In this concentrated form without the fibre to slow absorption, natural sweeteners still release pure sugar into your bloodstream resulting in an insulin spike.

Kiwi's are consuming, on average, 37 teaspoons of the sugar daily!

That's four times the WHO guidelines of 6-9 teaspoons. And 34 teaspoons over the amount I recommend.

In this article, I'll be discussing sugar in all its forms, where it's hidden and what it really does to your body - and of course, how you can avoid those nasty cravings and cut back on the sweet stuff.

The problem with the white stuff

It all boils down to a naturally occurring carbohydrate called fructose. Added sugar is high in fructose, which can overload your liver. In order to understand what is so bad about sugar, we need to understand what it is made of.

Before sugar enters the bloodstream from the digestive tract, it is broken down into two simple sugars: glucose and fructose. Glucose is found in every living cell on the planet. If we don’t get it from our diet, our bodies produce it.

Fructose is different. Our bodies do not produce it in any significant amount and there is no physiological need for it. The thing with fructose is that it can only be metabolised by the liver in insignificant amounts.

This is not a problem if we eat a little bit (such as from fruit) or after we have just finished an exercise session. In this case, the fructose will be turned into glycogen and stored in the liver until we need it.

The problem comes in the amounts we are eating and the fact our liver can only store a certain amount. Anything extra, our liver will dump into our bloodstream as fatty acids. These fatty acids react with triglycerides and form the hard dense "bad LDL" cholesterol that can clog our arteries and contribute to cardiovascular disease.

Added sugar also stimulates appetite control centres in your brain. Kathleen Page from the University of Southern California looked at the effects of fructose on the hypothalamus - or appetite control centre - of our brains.

She found that subjects fed a high fructose diet did not report to being full after eating a meal. The hypothalamus responds to hunger hormones - in particular leptin - and sends a signal to our bodies that we are full. When the brains of this test group were studied, their hypothalamus gland was highly active. Meaning they hadn't received the message yet that they were satisfied.

Similarly, Dr Robert Lustig, says when eating a high fructose diet, our hunger hormones are blocked by the overproduction of insulin. This means our hypothalamus never gets the message to stop eating.

Now for some gobsmacking facts.

Recently a report from the British Journal of Sports Medicine looked into whether the current global obesity epidemic was the result of insufficient nutrition or exercise.

Their findings found that exercise is great for supporting mood and the right exercise can affect longevity and body composition BUT, a person’s nutrition habits (in particular over consumption of refined grains and sugar) contributed far more to the incidence of obesity.

The researchers also showed that the prevalence of diabetes increases 11-fold for every 150 additional sugar calories consumed daily. This equates to an extra 9 teaspoons of sugar per day.