You may have heard people in your life say that they are “gluten intolerant” or dairy or soy intolerant. Many people avoid these foods due to inflammation or the health problems they cause, while others feel fine eating them. There is one food however, that is universally inflammatory, sugar. Dr. Heidi Tumer, a medical nutrition therapist who specializes in anti-inflammatory diets to reduce pain and symptoms related to autoimmune conditions and inflammatory arthritis, says that “everyone is sugar intolerant.”
There are some stipulations to that though. For example, if you eat an apple with naturally occurring sugar, you’re not only consuming sugar, but also vitamins, minerals, fiber and phytonutrients—all things that feed our healthy gut bacteria to help our bodies metabolize the sugar that is found in the apple. The problem with processed foods with added sugar is that we don’t typically get the added nutrients in those foods and we’re typically eating sugar in its pure form—something that we’re not evolved to do.