Sugar Sugar
Obviously, being a baker I have a bittersweet relationship with SUGAR. But I want this blog to be a place where we learn facts that allows us each individually to discern what is best for them and THEIR family. This is going to be different for each person and/or family. Sugar is an interesting topic because it is a primary ingredient for baking. This will be the first post of many, covering a little information at a time, as we dive into the ever expanding world of sugar.
From the Levels blog (https://www.levels.com/blog/whats-the-difference-between-glucose-fructose-sucrose-and-lactose)
“What is Sugar?
Chemically speaking, a sugar is a type of carbohydrate. Single-molecule sugars follow the general formula Cn(H2O)n. The C stands for carbon, and H2O, of course, is water. So a “carbo-hydrate” means “carbon linked with water” in a specific ratio: one carbon molecule for every water molecule.
Another word for sugar is “saccharide,” which you’ll usually see as part of a larger word identifying types of sugar. A monosaccharide is a one-molecule sugar, and a disaccharide is a sugar made of two linked sugar molecules.”
Does it help you to understand what sugar is actually made of? As a person who has gone through a lot of my life addicted to sugar, something that is helpful for me is to look at sugar from a scientific point of view. A big part of the process to becoming healthy is to be able to be in a balance of providing my body nutrients is to understand What are the types of sugar?
Glucose. Glucose has the molecular formula of C6H12O6 and is the most abundant monosaccharide and is the breakdown of most carbohydrates. We all have a blood glucose level that is managed by many bodily processes including giving us energy but is managed by our pancreas. Glucose affects me personally everyday because my eight year old son has type 1 diabetes. A diabetic does not produce the necessary hormone called insulin to allow glucose to be absorbed into the cell. This means the sugar or glucose continues to build in the bloodstream causing major health problems and eventually death. Thankfully in 1921, a young surgeon named Frederick Banting and his assistant Charles Best figured out how to remove insulin from a dog’s pancreas. He donated his research and won a Nobel peace prize in 1923. You can read more history here (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168822721001789#:~:text=The%20discovery%20of%20insulin%20was,Collip%20who%20purified%20the%20extract.)
All consumed sugar no matter what it is eventually is broken down and becomes glucose in order for our body to create energy. Our body needs glucose everyday and the national library of medicine says: “Glucose is the essential metabolic fuel for the brain. Acute and severe reduction of brain glucose leads quickly to impairment of cognitive and reflex function, autonomic failure, seizures, loss of consciousness, and permanent and irreversible brain damage and, if not rapidly corrected, can be lethal.” (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453140/)
Fructose. Fructose is sugar found in fruit, fruit juices, some of our vegetables like red pepper, and honey. It has the same chemical structure as glucose and just like glucose is one of dietary monosaccharides that when being digested is quickly absorbed by the gut lining and sent right out into the bloodstream to be picked up and dealt with. The natural existing part of fructose sounds good right, but we have gone and modified it to create a cost effective option of High – fructose corn syrup.
Sucrose. “Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula C12H22O11. For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refined from either sugarcane or sugar beet.” (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/chebi/searchId.do;?chebiId=CHEBI:17992#:~:text=Sucrose%2C%20a%20disaccharide%2C%20is%20a,either%20sugarcane%20or%20sugar%20beet.) This basically means that sucrose is the scientific name for table sugar. Also because this is a disaccharide it means that there is an additional processing step of breakdown that must occur before it becomes a simple sugar (monosaccharide) and can be released into the bloodstream.
Lactose. Lactose is a sugar with a molecular formula C12H22O11 that is found in our milk and milk products. We probably don’t think of sugar in milk but it has become more aware of our culture because some people have a milk allergy specifically because of lactose.
Now we know where the sugars we consume on a daily basis come from. This is our baseline of sugar knowledge that will help in future posts as we learn about sugar refinement and how that affects our absorption and use of it to create energy. Why is it today that we are hearing so much more about our consumption of sugar? Medical News Today wrote, “The Department of Health and Human Services recommend that less than or equal to 10% of daily calories should come from added sugars. The AHA recommends maximum daily added sugar intakes of less than 36 g, or 9 teaspoons, for males and less than 25 g, or 6 teaspoons, for females. Children aged 2–18 years should have less than 25 g a day.
However, they point out that many people in the United States are consuming too much added sugar. Adults are consuming roughly 77 g of added sugar each day, which is more than three times the recommended daily intake for females. Meanwhile, children are consuming close to 81 g each day.” So yet again similar to our discussion about food dyes if we are not considering WHAT we are consuming we end up having up to 4 times the amount that we need.
The AHA highlights that “sugar-sweetened beverages are the main source of added sugar in the U.S., with these drinks accounting for 47% of added sugars in a typical diet.” (https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/does-your-body-need-sugar#is-sugar-necessary) Sugar has been added to everything, with arguments being made that it creates a desire in us for more. Our busy lifestyles lead us to grab easy meals or snacks and those processed foods tend to include added sugars. The sneaky added sugars quickly add up and I know because I have to count each one of the darn things each time I need to give my son insulin. My life before diabetes, I had no idea how much sugar or carbohydrates was in something, it just wasn’t something I chose to spend my time on. But I feel strongly that we can no longer not care about how we are fueling our bodies, chronic illness is on the rise. The World Health Organization says “The number of people living with diabetes rose from 200 million in 1990 to 830 million in 2022.” (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/diabetes) but diabetes is not the only concern.
An drastic overconsumption of sugar has been attributed to heart disease, colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, high blood pressure, kidney disease, liver damage, retina damage, obesity, skin aging, inflammation, hyperactivity to just name some of the main correlations.
A last thing I want to stress is that there are no BAD foods and just as what has been said for many many years, everything in moderation. There is so much more to cover on the sugar topic and I hope that this post gives you a good base of information. What sugar is, a general guideline for consumption, and why we should be giving ourselves a guideline to follow. Let it sink in and not frighten you but empower you to make changes and choices. Are you someone that stays within the AHA guidelines for added sugar? Let me know below. In the next post I will be talking about refinement, what it means and why I have chosen to use certain less refined sugars in the bakery.
Sincerely,
Stephanie
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I love reading all of this. Thank you, Steph, for your dedication to health and sharing your knowledge.
My takeaway is that sugar falls into a Goldilocks scenario. Like most things is life, out diet should be built on not too little or too much of anything, we need to figure out how to make it just right (or close enough to cause no harm). While carbohydrates fall into sugar, starch or fiber classes and each have many forms, all classes of sugar and starch eventually become glucose to provide us the needed energy to live. Too little glucose and our brain cannot function, too much glucose leads to numerous metabolic health concerns which we see every day in our own family circles.
My bottom line from this blog post is that our western diet falls into the “too hot” category for Goldilocks. Too many refined carbs and too much added sugar for too many hours throughout our daily life all lead to the negative health consequences we would like to avoid. Only you can change that outcome.