Yes, there are ways to eat sugar healthfully. Experts explain how

Yes, there are ways to eat sugar healthfully. Experts explain how

Sugar has a bad rep for good reason: It’s a major guilty party in our country’s biggest health problems. Too much of the stuff is linked to everything from root canals and mood swings to diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.

In fact, in March, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended we reduce our intake of free sugars (meaning sugar added to food and drinks, as well as sugar naturally present in fruit juices, honey, and syrups) to less than 10 percent of our total energy intake. And reducing intake to below 5 percent — about 25 grams (or six teaspoons) a day — would be even better for our health.

What is sugar, to begin with? It’s one of three main types of carbohydrate (the other two being fiber and starches, or complex carbohydrates). The types of sugar include glucose (an energy source that fuels the brain and body, and is made when the body processes most carbohydrate foods), fructose (which is naturally found in fruits and vegetables, and can also be added to foods), and sucrose (also known as table sugar, and is made from fructose and glucose).

“We don’t need sugar to function, but we need complex carbohydrates — through whole grains, some vegetables, and legumes — in order to fuel our brain,” Kristin Kirkpatrick, manager of nutrition services at Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute, tells Yahoo Health. Without carbs, negative effects — such as fatigue, difficulty concentrating, and even a life-threatening condition called ketoacidosis — can occur.

But sugar, when consumed in the form of “bad for you” food, is not a necessary part of our diet at all, she says.

Sugar can be found naturally in foods — like fructose in fruit and lactose in milk — or it can be added when food is prepared or processed (hence the term “added sugar”). Food manufacturers may add natural sugars, like fructose and lactose (but these are not naturally occurring), and processed sugars, such as high-fructose corn syrup, to foods, explains nutritionist Keri Glassman, founder of Nutritious Life.