Patrick Dempsey · July 30, 2026 · 4 min read
A couple of weeks ago I dug into what the evidence really says about sugar — and why the instinct to swear it off is only half right. That instinct is an old one for me: on a business trip years ago I read an article comparing the health toll of sugar to cigarettes, and I quietly stopped eating added sugar. Right instinct, oversold headline. This week, the mechanism that makes the good half work: fiber.
Below: how fiber actually does it, what the guidelines actually cap, and the three swaps I'd start with.