Over the last few years, facts about it have made their way into our newspapers and on to our television sets; more so in the past 6 months. But are we being told the full story? Do we actually know to what foods sugar is being added to? Is it addictive? Do we need it? If so, how much?

 

I thought I'd write what I know on the subject and do a bit of research as well as one of my main goals with The Flips Side of Food is to create awareness of what is IN our food and sugar has a lot to answer for!! This may take a few posts though as it's a rather overwhelming subject (and no one needs to feel overwhelmed!).

 

So let's start with how much of a part sugar plays in our lives. Well, it's everywhere. And I mean everywhere. Taken from the article Everything You Need to Know About Sugar, in 2012 it was documented that Americans consume "756g of sugar every five days, or 130 POUNDS of sugar a year" - that compared to 45g sugar every five days in 1822 which is about the same amount of sugar in a can of coke. Britain isn't far away though with a 31% increase in sugar consumption since 1990 - that's 1.25lbs per person a week, 5lbs per person per month.  (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/wellbeing/diet/9160114/The-bitter-truth-about-sugar.html).  

 

I'll just give you a minute to process that. That's the same weight of a 2L bottle of fizzy drink. Of sugar. A month. Yup.

 

 

 

 

 

Now speaking of fizzy drinks, it is now plain knowledge that these are FULL of sugar - I'm not

going to touch on the Diet's, Zero's, Free's and Life's filled with artificial sweeteners - that's

another post another day. Of course, sugar makes up the majority of ingredients in

chocolates (still fancy that snickers?), sweets and all desserts - you're thinking... duh! They're

sweet and they taste good.

 

 

 

 

But did you know that sugar is being added to your bread? To ALL pre-made meals you buy from the supermarket? In ALL sauces, dressing and dips you use? If so, you are one of the few catching on to the sugar epidemic in the western world and hopefully share the view that it isn't right and something needs to change!

 

The advised daily allowance of sugar is currently 50g for women and 70g for men, per day; this was looked at last year and a draft was written to half it though this hasn't been published or legalised yet. However the 'rule of thumb' used by food companies on labels is 90g in Britain and the EU (about 22.5 small tsp of sugar. WHAT!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"So I'll just look for 'sugar' on labels and make sure it's not at the beginning of the ingredients right?" 

 

Unfortunately it's not that simple. Although ensuring that the 'bad stuff' is as far down the ingredients list as possible is great, sugar comes under many, MANY names and I'm sure some are even being created as I write this. Sneaky. But before we go into that, let's talk about where sugar comes from as for a lot of us it has always been available from the local shop ready for us for use in teas, treats and toppings.

 

Naturally occuring sugars

These are sugars which have not been added to the foods to make it 'taste better' or 'bulk it out'.

Like for example, GLUCOSE - glucose originates from plants and fruits and is the by-product of photosynthesis. Your body NEEDS this sugar for energy and can produce it if necessary. Lovely.

Next, FRUCTOSE; it comes from fruit and is a fruit sugar though it also crops up in honey and cane sugar. Eating the fruit with the fibre and nutrients  said fruit naturally provides is great - good for you, eat some fruit! But when the fibre is taken away...you guessed it, you're just drinking sugar. Hello, 'healthy' fruit juice (and you wonder why it takes your hangover away - sugar high!).

Lastly SUCROSE and LACTOSE; I'm sure you have seen these names on various labels but do you actually know where they occur naturally? Sucrose is found in the stems of sugar cane (roots of sugar beet) and is also found with glucose in some fruits. Marvy. Lactose is by-and-by milk sugar and is produced when our bodies undergo a certain process (which I won't go into). Children apparently possess an enzyme which can break down the molecule into lactose; those adults who cannot do this are lactose intolerent. 

 

On the whole, sugar comes from processing either the plants sugar beet or sugar cane which are processed and refined to resemble the white sugar that you see on your shelves today. There is NO nutritional value in it. Read that again. It is just refined sugar. 

 

TYPES OF SUGAR

 

We've all been there... We KNOW white sugar is bad so we buy brown sugar or we're told that pure maple syrup is better, or molasses, or that agave nectar is actually good for you. But really... sugar is sugar is sugar. And many ingredients in those 'healthy' cereal bars you've been eating have a whole host of sugars in but under strange, hard to pronounce names. As a rule of thumb - if it ends in '-ose' or 'syrup', it's a sugar. 

SOME names for sugar are as follows:

 

• Agave nectar

• Barley Malt Syrup

• Beet Sugar

• Brown rice syrup

• Brown sugar

• Cane crystals

• Cane juice crystals

• Cane sugar

• Corn sweetener

• Corn syrup

• Corn syrup solids

• Crystalline fructose

• Date sugar

• Dehydrated cane juice

• Dextrin

• Dextrose

• Evaporated cane juice

• Organic evaporated cane juice

• Fructose

• Fruit juice

• Fruit juice concentrates

• Glucose

• Glucose solids

• Glycerol

• Golden brown sugar

• Golden syrup

• Grape sugar

• High-fructose corn syrup

• Honey

• Invert sugar

• Lactose

• Malt syrup

• Maltose

• Maple syrup

• Molasses

• Raw sugar

• Rice syrup

• Saccharose

• Sorghum

• Sorghum syrup

• Sucrose

• Sugar

• Syrup

• Treacle

• Turbinado sugar

 

 

"But what do these sugars DO to MY body?"

Well for one thing they all have a similar effect though some are MARGINALLY better for you... I know I said I wouldn't go into artificial sweeteners in this post but needs must so to explain the basics, here is an extract from a great article on 'Nerd Fitness':

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm sure you recognise a few names there from packaging labels and 'health claims' made by the food industry that you may or may not have been sucked into. No need to be ashamed. We've all done it, but have hopefully learned that this industry is like a J.J Abrams creation in which nothing can be truly be trusted due to the constant twists, allegations and drama. Well, I think so. Moreover as a side thought, many artificial sweeteners actually began as mistakes or accidents during research to find things like pesticides... And you want them in your body?! Just saying...

 

Now back to the effects of sugar and WHY you could be gaining a bit of weight 'unjustifyably'. The deal with the sweet stuff is that unlike fatty foods (healthy or otherwise), you don't necessarily see the results and consequences immediately as the effect is accumalative. So if you eat a take-away 3 times a week for a month, you will put on weight, but if you have food (and drinks) with added sugars in you may not get heart disease, ADD, diabetes, weight gain, food allergies, cancer...(the list goes on), until 10 years later. When your body is poisoned. Don't think you'll be ok till then though, your body will definitely still protest when you chow down on a few chocolate bars a day, or a lovely sugar-packed ceasar salad from the pub (everyone else was having pasta but you wanted to be 'healthy' right?). To explain better than I could and to save you from reading a post longer than a dissertation, here is a 3-minute video:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So. Sugar makes you fat, gives you a range of physical problems, has a lot names and disguises and is in pretty much everything. Ok.

 

But what about the 'healthy' sugars we mentioned earlier? What about fruit sugars?

 

Well eating fruit is great, if you're hungry and walking past somewhere that sells sweet treats (which is pretty much EVERYWHERE now; when did you need a twix to complete a transaction at the post office?), have a handful of blueberries or a banana instead. Now it is still sugar so go easy - if you want to be healthier, eat plentiful amounts of VEGETABLES and some fruit to keep down the amount of sugar you consume. But if it's a toss up between a piece of fruit or a store-bought muesli bar, pick the fruit every time.

 

However, fruit JUICE is not the same. Juices are the fruits without the fibre so you're consuming a lot more sugar than if you were to eat a piece. Think of it this way, if you were to eat one orange you'd be getting approxiamately 3.1g of fiber and 12.2g of sugar which is fine as it's combined with all the nutrients; drink an 8oz (250ml) glass of orange JUICE and you're drinking 0g fiber and at LEAST 22g of sugar. WHAT. If you were to make it yourself, that uses about 5 oranges. Question is, could you eat that many?!

 

 

 

Other examples (taken from nerdfitness.com):

 

• Apple juice - 28g of sugar

• Cranberry juice – 37g of sugar

• Grapejuice - 38g of sugar

 

 

 

A can of coke by the way has 40g of sugar and Naked Juices aren't the angels that they're peceived to be. Their 'no added sugar', 'all natural ingredients' 'GREEN MACHINE' for example has 28g of sugar PER SERVING and there are TWO servings per bottle... Good one Naked. 

 

YOU have the power to make a healthier choice with EVERY food and drink purchase. There is always an alternative as I'll explain in Sugar Part 2! For now I'll leave you to inspect your food cupboards. ;)