Facts about Sugar

1. What Are Sugars

The followings are most commonly known sugars:

Glucose (dextrose): a simple sugar (monosaccharide)
Fructose: a simple sugar (monosaccharide)
Galactose: a simple sugar (monosaccharide)

Sucrose (saccharose): a disaccharide with glucose and fructose
Maltose: a disaccharide with two unit of glucose
Lactose: a disaccharide with galactose and glucose, mostly found in dairy products

The followings get turned into sugar (glucose) in our body:

Starch: a polysaccharide with a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds. Depending on the plant, starch generally contains 20 to 25% amylose and 75 to 80% amylopectin.

Maltodextrin: a polysaccharide produced from starch by partial hydrolysis, which will break down to glucose

2. What Are Refined Sugars and What Are Natural Sugars

Sugar belongs to carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are divided into 4 groups, monosaccharides (one simple sugar), disaccharides (2 simple sugars), oligosaccharides (more than 3-9 simple sugars), polysaccarides (more than 10 simple sugars).

Table sugar is a refined sugar; it is sucrose extracted from sugar cane or beet. Brown sugar, raw sugar etc. are all refined sugar.

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a refined sugar; it is 42% fructose and 58% glucose and manufactured from corn.

Manufactured galactose used in commercial bakeries is a refined sugar. It is also used to tone down overly acidic or tart flavors in foods.

Maltose found in high maltose corn syrup (HMCS), also referred to as maltodextrin, is a refined sugar. Maltose can also be made from barley, rice, potato etc.

Honey is almost a natural product and not considered refined sugar, but is mainly fructose (about 38.5%) and glucose (about 31.0%).

Maple syrup is also almost a natural product and not considered refined sugar; it is mainly sucrose and water.

Why do I consider honey and maple syrup almost natural rather than all natural? Because both products sold in the stores pass through some processing methods. The only true natural sugar is the sugar you get by eating whole fruits (fresh or frozen), such as apple, grapes, blue berries etc. Natural sugars also exist in sweet potatoes, corn and peas……

3. Is Sugar Good for You

Obviously, otherwise why would you be given intravenous glucose whenever you are in the hospital?

The reason why sugar gets such a bad rap is partly because we consume way too much (which leads to fatty acid and triglyceride synthesis)and partly because we consume refined sugar (empty calories with no nutrients). The latter is something like buying a pair of pliers from dollar store for a dollar and find out that it is a piece of junk so you throw it away and buy a pair of Stanley for $20.00. I still have my $20.00 pliers after I have used it for 10 years and it will probably last another 10. You can either drink a can of soda loaded with empty calories for $0.25 or getting the equivalent amount of sugar in frozen peas for 10 times the cost. The cheap soda makes you energized right away; and the latter just makes you full. I knew right away the pair of dollar store pliers was not good since it did not do a job required. We still do not know how to communicate with our bodies to find out what types of foods are good for us long term. We rely on scientists to find out. Often nutrition research is done through causality and we all know the chicken or the egg causality dilemma. We all love sugar through no fault of our own (evolution conditioned us to love sugar), and sugar is everywhere and cheap.

Unlike essential amino acids I do not believe that there are any essential sugars, though some claim that there are 8 of them. As studies show that sub-maximal endurance performance can be sustained despite the virtual exclusion of carbohydrate from the human diet ( see here). The only one that comes closest to essential sugar is glucose, but our body can breakdown many carbohydrates into glucose.

4. How to Incorporate Sugar into Your Diet

I try to follow a role model in the family as genetic make-up along with energy needs probably affect how much sugar you need. My maternal grandmother lived till 91 years old in good health. She ate very little and was vegetarian. She sat a lot (doing low vocal Buddhist chanting), so her energy need was little. The sugar she used occasionally was the sugar fellow villagers made from sugar cane. Basically, the sugar was made by boiling the juice squeezed from the sugar cane until majority of the water was evaporated. The sugar we got from the villagers looked like dark brown chocolate truffles. I spent my year 1 to 6 in that village and loved sugar cane season. Farmers set up outdoor cooking pits to boil the juice and all the kids running around eating sugar canes. When it got dark in the evening, we were then given these dark sugar clumps to take home. Now I would call those clumps natural sugar. My grandmother also loved persimmons, both fresh and dried, so she ate them as much as they were available to her. She ate white rice every day and it was her main source of calories. White rice breaks down to glucose.

I think sugar boost on an emergency case is not unhealthy. Unfortunately, most of us think every day life is an emergency. That’s how I thought when I was working. I used to boost myself every two hours with coffee, milk and sugar. Now if I need a sugar boost, I either drink fruit juice without added sugar or take a spoon of honey.

With the exception of occasional honey and fruit juice, all the sugars I eat now are from whole foods. I eat quite a lot of fruits each day. Right now I eat one apple, one cup of grapes and half pint of blue berries. Other sugar related foods I eat are white rice, sweet potatoes, spaghetti and pumpernickel bread. The pumpernickel bread I eat is made in Germany since the North American ones use too many additives.

I would like to eat less quantity in every thing, not just sugar. I am in the processing of training my body to do so. In the meantime, I am taking one day at a time and each day is One Great Day.