Sugar: Its Uses and Abuses

There is so much bad press for common sugar today that one wonders why it stays on the market at all.  It has many, many uses besides table use, however, and in today’s society the only way to obliterate it from your diet is to grow your own food entirely – including your animals and their foodstuffs.  So it is to your advantage to understand it, recognize it, and plan your diet accordingly.

Two of the largest producers of sugar today are China and the Caribbean Islands.  Most sugar sold in bulk is made from cane, but in processed food as much as 30% may be refined from sugar beets.   In crystallized form the two are almost identical, but there are differences in processing.  Sugar beets take a fourth of the water during refining, making the process cheaper and quicker, but sugar cane tolerates hot weather and climate fluctuations better, making it easier and cheaper to grow.  Both produce  a molasses syrup as a by-product, but while cane syrup is used in a variety of ways, beet molasses is only good for animal feeds.

Sugar is an age-old product; originally a luxury but readily available at low cost since the 1700’s.  Not only is it used as a sweetener, but as the base of most confections and candy, a necessary ingredient in breads and baked goods, a fermenting agent, and a preservative.  In the past common dietary issues were easily controlled by simply controlling the diet, and the only real concern was tooth decay.  Today dental care is vastly improved, but other issues such as obesity and diabetes are both common and growing.  Why?  Because so much of the common diet is comprised of processed foods. 

The average American eats a diet comprised of at least 85% processed foods.  Processed foods include everything from boxed and frozen dinners to the bag of fresh sliced apples.  Many folks are getting pretty good about reading labels, but they often neglect to take into consideration the many types and names of sugar.  For instance, a product label may include sugar, corn syrup, sucrose, fructose, and  sorbitol.  All these products are natural sugars, and you need to know this in order to correctly gauge the actual sugar content.  In addition, many items can be correctly labeled as ‘all natural’ and not be a particularly healthy diet choice.  Almost all processed foods have either sugar or sugar substitutes in them.  Breads and yeast products are particularly high, needing much more sugar to make a stable product with a longer shelf life, than you would use if you made your own goods at home.

When a person decides to lose weight, the first product to go is usually sugar.  This is sensible, as sugar has little or no nutritive value, but there are two problems.  One is recognizing the sugar in other foods.  The other is that the flavor of everything you sugar changes, so many people opt to replace it with substitutes.

Carbohydrates break down into sugars in your liver.  They are necessary for energy for cells, tissues, and organs, and provide some vitamins and minerals as well.  Carbohydrates can be classified as simple or complex sugars, and are found in many foods; milk products and fruits are simple sugars, while complex sugars are found in starchy vegetables, legumes, and whole grain breads and cereals.   A careful diet depending on a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables and homemade breads provides all the sugar your system needs, while exercise helps your body absorb it and flush extra quantities.  But depending on canned or processed foods throws the whole diet out of whack, as extra sugar or substitutes are used in the processing and preserving. 

One answer is to look for reduced calorie items, but again, packaging is misleading.  ‘Low fat’ does not necessarily mean ‘low calorie’ any more than ‘reduced sugar’ means less sugar products or substitutes.  Another option is to stick with organic foods or farm markets and self-grown food, and this is a helpful and nutritional choice.  It may also limit the foods available to you depending on the season.  Drinks are a huge issue when dieting.  Replacing regular soda with diet soda is no answer at all since you are now introducing artificial sweeteners to the mix, and the same is true with fruit juices.  Really the only healthy alternative is to stick to water if you are dieting.

Substitutes for sugar can be natural or artificial.  There are at this time 24 natural sugars recognized by the Food and Drug Administration, and 12 artificial sweeteners.  They vary greatly in nutritive value, chemical properties, after effects, and capabilities when used for processing foods.  A careful study is needed of any substitute sweetener you choose so as to properly gauge is effects.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar

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