What is Sugar ?

Sugarcane is not a fruit nor vegetable. It is a type of perennial grass like bamboo, that are used to sugar production.
For most of us is still very confusing to understand what is sugar. First of all the common question is about the difference between sugar and carbohydrates.

But after all what is sugar exactly ?

The definition of carbohydrates:

Carbohydrates are biological molecules consisting of atoms of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. It is also called saccharides , which means sugar in Greek (sakkharon).

Saccharides or Carbohydrates are classified into 4 chemical groups :

Monosaccharides which consists of a single sugar unit.

Disaccharides is formed for two monosaccharides. Both are short chain and water soluble carbohydrates.

Polysaccharides are long chained carbohydrates formed by 10 sugar units. For example, starch is a polysaccharide found in foods like rice, potatoes, corn, cassava and wheat.

Oligosaccharides are a type of carbohydrate formed when 3 to 10 simple sugars are linked together. They are found naturally in chicory, artichokes, onions, garlic, legumes, asparagus and other plant foods.

Monosaccharides include:

Glucose that occurs naturally in plants and is a product of photosynthesis.          

Fructose or fruit sugar is found in fruits and is the sweetest of sugars.

Galactose is part of the disaccharide lactose (milk sugar).

Disaccharides include:

Lactose the natural sugar found in milk, and consists of one unit of glucose and one unit of galactose.

Maltose is formed from germinated grain such as barley (converted into malt). It is formed from two units of glucose.

Sucrose is formed from one unit of glucose and one unit of frutose. It is found in beet roots and sugarcane. Table sugar consists in 50% of glucose and 50% of frutose. Table sugar has zero nutritional value.

But, is sugar bad or not for your health?

It depends… 60% of the calories intake in the typical American Diet come from refined sugars, refined flours and cereals and added fats and oils.
“The dose makes the poison”. In small and occasional dose sugar can be safe. Sugars and Starches that we find in whole plant-based foods including fruits, peas, lentils, beans, rice and potatoes are good, but added sugars never!

In small amounts for people with healthful diets and lifestyle is not so harmful, but for people who have unhealthy diet and lifestyle can be very harmful.

According to Dr. RobertLustig, Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco :” Sugar’s not dangerous because of its calories, or because it makes you fat. Sugar is dangerous because it’s sugar. It’s not nutrition. When consumed in excess, it’s a toxin. And it’s addictive.”

Continuing,

”Sugar is now the most ubiquitous foodstuff worldwide, and has been added to virtually every processed food, limiting consumer choice and the ability to avoidit. Approximately 80 percent of the 6.000.000 consumer packaged foods in the United States have added caloric sweeteners.”

Where do you find added sugars?

Ketchup and other condiments, salad dressings, flour-based mixes, etc..

Food labels with corn sweetener, corn syrup, cane juice, cane sugar, caramel, coconut sugar, coconut water (50% sugar), fructose,  fruit juice concentrate, galactose, glucose, golden sugar, golden syrup, grape sugar, lactose, malt syrup, maltodextrin, maltose, maple syrup, molasses, raw sugar, sugar alcohols (erythritol, mannitol, sorbitol, xylitol), sucrose and more…

Is not difficult to understand why we eat sugar —-it tastes good and give us pleasure by triggering an innate process in the brain. In average americans consume 12 teaspoons of sugar a day, and about 2 tons of sugar during a lifetime.

Eating sugar may not only be making you unhealthy but also unhappy !

How it all began ?

The indians found a way to turn sugarcane juice into crystals in around 350 AD, and in the 5th century was discovered by the Imperial Guptas were called cristals Khanda. Crystallized sugar became a culinary staple across India, China and the Middle East.

It is widely believed that sugarcane was first used by man in Polynesia from where it spread to India. In 327 BCE Nearchus, a general greek wrote : There is a reed in India that brings forth honey without the help of bees. Only a small amount of sugarcane was brought back from Alexander’s conquest in India and traded to physicians.

Western Europeans was only discovered sugar as a result of the Crusades in the 11th century AD. In England was recorded in 1069. At this time, it was regarded as very much a luxury.

In the 15th century AD, sugar was refined in Venice and in the same century Columbus sailed to the Americas, and in 1493 he took sugarcane plants to grow in the Caribbean.
In the Modern Days, Brazil is the largest producer of sugarcane.

Sugarcane is minimally processed and has a darker color, since the molasses has not been refined out. However, though raw sugarcane is often marketed as a healthy alternative to regular sugar, but there’s no real difference between them. Both are identical in terms of chemical composition and made up of sucrose, a molecule formed by units of simple sugars, such as glucose and fructose.

What Science tell us?

Studies have shown that the consumption of sugar can surpass the reward value of drugs. In fact, sugar is often compared to drugs. Eating sugar causes changes in the brain’s chemistry, which produces a good sensation of pleasure. But scientific evidence proves the drug-like quality of sugar. The brain reacts to overconsumption of sugar.

A large Italian Study, showed the decrease of dopamine sensitivity in obese people, and scientists noticed the same pattern in cocaine addicts and alcoholics.

Dopamine is a neurotrasmitter that operates the pleasure sensation in the brain. When people take drugs like heroin and cocaine or consumes sugar, the center of pleasure of the brain is stimulated and increases the levels of dopamine. As time goes by, when you stop eating sugar you can experience depression. This explains why people go back to consuming sugar making it difficult to give up this habit.

Like many types of addictions, sugar addiction can in fact be deadly.This is a primary contributing factor causing not only obesity and diabetes, but also other chronic and lethal diseases. This molecule is indeed toxic to your body and accepted as a causative factor in most cancer.
Sugar molecules are probaly the most damaging. Fructose is an potent pro-inflammatory agent that creates advanced glycation and promotes growth of fat cells in the vital organs. Fructose also increases your insulin and leptin levels, decreasing the receptor’s sensitivity of these vital hormones.

About your Sugar Cravings,

For some, can be a real challenge, but you can try to kick your cravings practicing exercises, avoiding processed foods, eating natural whole foods and limiting your fructose consumption to below 25 grams per day. But if you want a sweetener occasionally you can use the sweet herb stevia.

The best way to satiate that need is turning to the natural method, eating whole foods!

Naturalize Yourself!