Sugar Content In Foods

Bag of Sugar

When trying to learn more about your health and healthy eating food you might get frustrated with the sugar content in foods.

“Every man, woman and child consumes, on average, 43 teaspoons of sugar a day. In 13 days that adds up to a five-pound bag of sugar.” -John Mackey, CEO Whole Foods, Wall St Journal 10.3.09

I find this crazy: Most adults and children are eating 1/4 to 1/2 of a pound of sugar every day.

A study published in the journal Pediatrics, found that

10 to 15 percent of our children’s total calories are coming from fruit juice or soda (and juice, from a sugar point of view, is no better than soda).

Children and teens aged six to eighteen, averaged 30 ounces of juice or soda every day (or 20 teaspoons of sugar).

Younger children were drinking an average of 15.5 ounces of sugary drinks (or 10 teaspoons of sugar a day).

What is amazing about this study is that it only focused on sugars in drinks and not the cereal, cookies, jam, candies, crackers, ice cream and other foods our children are eating. Clearly, our children are eating a lot of sugar.

These are some of the hidden sugars in food:

· Beet sugar

· Brown sugar

· Cane sugar

· Concentrated grape juice

· Confectioner’s sugar

· Corn sweeteners

· Corn syrup

· Crystallized cane juice

· Dextrin

· Dextrose

· Evaporated cane juice

· Fructose

· Fruit juice concentrate

· Galactose

· Glucose

· High-fructose corn syrup

· Honey

· Invert sugar

· Lactose

· Malt

· Maltitol

· Maltodextrin

· Maltose

· Mannitol

· Maple syrup

· Molasses

· Powdered sugar

· Rapadura

· Raw sugar

· Sorbitol

· Sorghum

· Sucrose

· Table sugar

· Turbinado sugar

· White sugar

· Xylitol

To break it down a bit from Complete guide to sugars…

PROCESSED SUGARS

Glucose: when we talk about blood sugar, this is what we are measuring. While it would be nice to be able to measure all sugars in the blood stream, this is all we can currently measure. Glucose is easily taken up by the cells of the body and used as a fuel source for all energy production.
Fructose: Fructose is the twin brother to glucose and is the so-called “fruit sugar” because it is found in many fruits. The chemical structure of fructose is identical to glucose, it just has a different shape. That small difference is actually a big deal. Fructose tastes much sweeter that glucose and is used by the body differently.
Sucrose: Sucrose is white table sugar and is a glucose molecule and a fructose molecule stuck together to form a disaccharide.
Maltose: is two glucose molecules stuck together. It usually forms in the gut when starches are digested and is an important step in the creation of alcohol. Manufactures do use maltose in foods, but it is about 1/3 as sweet as sucrose.
Lactose: Lactose is the sugar found in milk and milk products.
High fructose corn syrup: High fructose corn syrup is the sweetener of choice for many food manufactures. It is cheap and tastes sweeter than sucrose. There are many scientists who are starting to question the health hazards of high fructose corn syrup.
Maltodextrin: Maltodextrin is a polysaccharide (larger than a disaccharide) that is easily broken down into glucose on digestion. It is generally used as a sort of “glue” when food manufactures are looking to hold a product together.
Dextrose: This is the same as glucose.
Dextrin: Dextrins are larger chains of glucose molecules stuck together, an example is maltodextrin.
Brown Sugar: Brown sugar is either slightly unrefined white sugar or white sugar that has molasses added back into it.

NATURAL SUGARS

Turbinado sugar: Turbinado sugar is made by pressing sugar cane and then evaporating the water from the juice.
Raw Sugar: There are many forms of raw sugar (including Turbinado) and they are all mostly the same: made from sugar cane and then evaporated.
Honey: Honey is the original processed sugar it is about 1/2 fructose and 1/2 glucose.
Agave: Agave come from same plant that gives us tequila. It is said to not raise blood sugar, but what they mean is it does not raise blood glucose because agave is mostly fructose.
Maple Syrup: Made from tree sap and is not a significant source of nutrients besides iron and zinc.
Molasses: Molasses is byproduct of sugar manufacturing. It does contain iron in significant amounts, but much better to get iron from other sources.
Evaporated Cane Sugar: The same as raw sugar or Turbinado sugar.
Fruit juice concentrate: This sugar is mostly fructose made by concentrating different juices (usually grape).
Xylitol: Xylitol is almost a fiber as it is derived from the fibrous portion of corn husks and peanuts. It is less sweet than sugar and can actually inhibit cavities. It shows up in a lot of natural chewing gums.