Sugar is a description that can apply to many different foods.‘Sugar’ is a description that can apply to many different foods. Along with fats and salt, it is a food group to avoid if we want to stay healthy. However, sugar can be a misunderstood group (as can the other two), in that our body needs some sugar, some fat and some salt.
The misunderstandings begin when the marketing gurus get hold of the food group, link it with the fact that we need it for health and sell it back to us, as consumers, in a different form. Then we have health problems.
At the moment sugar is the new bad guy of food. New evidence suggests that high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is the worst of all sugars and can even increase our chances of premature death. This type of sugar is also known as glucose corn syrup and is the sweetener found in almost every processed and convenience food and soft drink.
A new study from the University of Utah, US, reports that “this is the most robust study showing there is a difference between high-fructose corn syrup and table sugar”. The more HFCS you consume, the more likely you are to die a premature death. This is related to the molecules in the sugar.
Corn syrup has separate molecules called monosaccharides, which are combined in table sugar. It seems that this one difference is enough to have a huge impact on our health. As they are separate, the fructose molecules in HFCS are quickly taken up and used by the body, whereas those in sucrose (natural sugar from cane or beets) must go through an extra metabolic stage before the body can absorb them.
The team, headed by lead researcher Wayne Potts, fed two groups of mice (which were eating a healthy diet) a mix of monosaccharides such as those found in HFCS. The other group were fed sucrose. In the monosaccharide group, nearly twice as many mice died and also produced 26 per cent fewer offspring, suggesting that the sugars interfered with their reproductive organs. A similar study in 2013 also came to the same conclusion.
An interesting link was brought out by this study. Diabetes and obesity epidemics started in the mid-1970s, which is just about when HFCS started to replace sucrose as the major added sugar in the western world, especially in the US.
The evidence to support this comes from researchers at Princeton University, who established that we put on far more weight after consuming HFCS than any other sugar.
A further study found evidence that HFCS interferes with the body’s ability to procedure insulin. Impaired insulin production is a stage on the path to type 2 diabetes.
To enable consumers to understand the sugar being consumed, it is helpful to consider how different sugars are defined.
At the moment sugar is the new bad guy of food. New evidence suggests that high-fructose corn syrup is the worst of all sugars
Sugar is a carbohydrate found naturally in whole foods and often added to processed ones. Simple sugars (or simple carbohydrates) are made up of either one or two molecules (monosaccharides or disaccharides). Glucose and fructose are monosaccharides, while sucrose is a disaccharide, comprising both of those sugars.
Glucose – is often called ‘blood sugar’ because it circulates in the bloodstream. The body’s insulin processes the carbohydrates we eat into glucose, which is then used for energy or stored in muscle cells or the liver. It is also found in the sap of plants.
Fructose – found in fruits and vegetables, this is often added to sodas and fruit-flavoured drinks. Fructose is metabolised only by the liver and is more fat-producing than glucose.
Too much fructose could lead to more fat in the body. However, as with any food type, who do you know who put on weight eating oranges and bananas alone?
Sucrose – commonly known as ‘table sugar’, this is derived from sugar cane or sugar beet. Other fruits and vegetables also contain sucrose, that when consumed, is broken down into is constituent parts of fructose and glucose.
Sugar substitutes – artificial sweeteners and sugar substitutes are all supposed to reduce your intake of sucrose when sweetening hot drinks. These can be a ‘minefield’.
They come in four forms: artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame (banned in some countries), sugar alcohols (lactitol, sorbitol, xylitol), novel sweeteners (stevia, trehalose) and natural sweeteners (agave nectar, date sugar, honey and maple syrup).
However, it is worth noting that artificial sweeteners have a warning all of their own. A study led by Eran Elinav, based in Rehovot, Israel (Nature, 2014), has provided remarkable new insight into the way artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose and saccharin trigger insulin resistance, which leads to glucose intolerance, in both animals and humans.
These no-calorie sweeteners do this by changing both the composition and functions of the human biome (that mass of bacteria, fungi, protozoans and other microbes) that permanently reside in our gut.
These are known as gut flora, something I have written about in the past that can also be eliminated by overuse of antibiotics and certain medication.
So what is the answer? As with all forms of addiction, going cold turkey is tough.
However, you are sure to reap rewards further along in your life if you assess your sugar intake now.
kathryn@maltanet.net