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.

Leptin, Living Environment and Cancer

Cancer is not only influenced by its micro-environment but also by a broader environment, according to a new study led by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (see here).

In this study, the scientists showed that tumors (melanoma and colon cancer) of mice in an enriched housing (20 mice in large containers equipped with toys, hiding places and running wheels, along with unlimited food and water as compared to control group) were 80 percent smaller than those in control animals (5 in smaller, standard containers with no toys but with unlimited food and water) within six weeks. Almost 20 percent of the animals in the enriched group had no visible tumors at all. Control animals, on the other hand, all had visible tumors.

"The anti-cancer effect we observed in this study was not due simply to increased activity by the animals, but rather it was induced by social and physical challenges that are associated with the release of stress hormones from the adrenal gland.” said During, one of the authors.

The same effect can be mimicked by blocking leptin or by activating HAS (hypothalamic-sympathoneural-adipocyte) pathway, which in turn lower the serum leptin level.

Leptin is a hormone that is primarily produced in a type of fat tissue called white adipose tissue. The level of circulating leptin is directly proportional to the total amount of fat in the body, in another word, higher amount of body fat means higher amount of circulating leptin.

Leptin is a circulating signal that reduces appetite. The absence of a leptin (or its receptor) leads to uncontrolled food intake and resulting obesity. However, in general, obese people have an unusually high circulating concentration of leptin (1), leading to the conclusion that these people are resistant to leptin.

Fasting or following a very-low-calorie-diet, on the other hand, lowers leptin levels (2).

Studies published recently suggest that the consumption of high amounts of fructose causes leptin resistance and elevated triglycerides in rats. Rats fed high-fructose diet subsequently ate more and gained more weight than controlled rats fed a high fat, high calorie diet (3). In North America, consumer foods and products typically use high-fructose corn syrup as a sugar substitute. In the United States, it has become very common in processed foods and beverages, including soft drinks, yogurt, industrial bread, cookies, salad dressing, and tomato soup (4).

What does it all mean?

I always believed that obesity was not caused solely by over-eating. If anyone has ever been to Guangzhou, China, it is easy to see that people there eat a lot and still stay skinny. Therefore, it must be foods that we in North America repeatedly eat that people there do not eat (or the other way around) that is making us gain weight. Refined sugar is probably one of the foods.

(1) Considine RV, Sinha MK, Heiman ML, Kriauciunas A, Stephens TW, Nyce MR, Ohannesian JP, Marco CC, McKee LJ & Bauer TL (1996). "Serum Immunoreactive-Leptin Concentrations in Normal-Weight and Obese Humans". N Engl J Med 334 (5): 292–295.

(2):
• Dubuc G, Phinney S, Stern J, Havel P (1998). "Changes of serum leptin and endocrine and metabolic parameters after 7 days of energy restriction in men and women". Metab. Clin. Exp. 47 (4): 429–34.
• Pratley R, Nicolson M, Bogardus C, Ravussin E (1997). "Plasma leptin responses to fasting in Pima Indians". Am. J. Physiol. 273 (3 Pt 1): E644–9.
• Weigle D, Duell P, Connor W, Steiner R, Soules M, Kuijper J (1997). "Effect of fasting, refeeding, and dietary fat restriction on plasma leptin levels". J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 82 (2): 561–5.

(3):
• Vasselli JR (November 2008). "Fructose-induced leptin resistance: discovery of an unsuspected form of the phenomenon and its significance. Focus on "Fructose-induced leptin resistance exacerbates weight gain in response to subsequent high-fat feeding," by Shapiro et al.". Am. J. Physiol. Regul. Integr. Comp. Physiol. 295 (5): R1365–9.
• Shapiro A, Mu W, Roncal C, Cheng KY, Johnson RJ, Scarpace PJ (November 2008).
“Frutose-induced leptin resistance exacerbates weight gain in response to subsequent high-fat feeding. Am. J. Physiol. Regul. Integr. Comp. Physiol. 295 (5): R1370–5.

(4) Warner, Melanie (July 2, 2006). “A Sweetener With a Bad Rap”. The New York Times.

High Fructose Diet May Contribute to High Blood Pressure

via Science Daily

People who eat a diet high in fructose, in the form of added sugar, are at increased risk of developing high blood pressure, or hypertension, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN).

Average sugar consumption in Canada has decreased between 1997 and 2007 from 37.1 kg to 32.1 kg per person per year, which is good news in a way. Still on average Canadians consumes 88g or 22 teaspoons of sugar per person per day, that’s a lot of sugar.

Worse news is that this data does not include sugar in pre-prepared items, i.e. processed food and beverages. So in reality, how much sugar do we consume?

How to eat well

The more I look into how to eat well, the less I seem to know. For many years, we have been told to avoid fat, animal fats mostly, such as fatty meat, lard and butter. Then we found out that trans fat is bad for you, so we avoided Margarine. Then it seemed that carbohydrates might have been the culprit that made us fat and caused us to have a whole range of other metabolic related diseases.

We cannot just eat protein for our caloric needs. Fibers are attached to carbs. and essential fatty acids are, well, essential. Another factor complicated protein intake is that studies showed methionine restriction without energy restriction extends lifespan in laboratory animals. Methionine is one of the essential amino acids that we humans cannot make ourselves, but is a must for us.

In the end, I will stick to the diet that I grew up with, which consists of rice, vegetables, fruits, nuts, shellfish and fish.

Two ingredients that I will avoid eating as much as possible, which are:

Refined Sugar (sucrose, glucose, fructose, lactose, maltose, Maltodextrin etc.)
Seed oils (often labeled as vegetable oils, olive oil is the exception)

The American know-how has made these two ingredients wonderfully cheap so they are everywhere in the processed foods. The Mediterranean diet is believed to be healthy. They use animal fat for cooking and olive oil for everything else. While growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution, cooking was done with either lard or peanut oil. Peanut oil (and canola oil) is better than most other seed oil, as they contain less linoleic acid.

When you avoided these two ingredients, you avoided almost all of the processed foods, which unfortunately also include chocolate and bread, the two foods I miss most whenever I go healthy eating.

In the end, I will adhere to eating with moderation.