I see both sides. On the one hand, sugar is pure energy, on the other, it’s a concentrated form we never evolved to deal with in nature.

Like chewing a coca leaf is a nice stimulant that gave people in the Andres energy, extracting and refining the essence is cocaine.

Same with high-fructose corn syrup. It’s not corn, it’s not even the corn we’ve bred to be extra sweet, it’s the extracted sugar from the extra sweet corn.

So what about honey — that’s concentrated sugar, extracted from flowers by bees. But honey has been around forever, and the concentrating process happens naturally.

Not trying to provide an answer so much as how I see the question.