Sugar and Diet

Sugar has been a victim of bad publicity lately; people are going out of their way to minimize or omit sugar in their diet. As sugar is scourged with accusations of being nothing more than a source of empty calories; its sweet taste can do little to salvage its fast souring image. To date, sugar has become synonymous with tooth decay, diabetes, obesity and other undesirable illnesses. Sugar, like fat, has been elevated into the most unwanted list.

Food manufacturers are taking advantage of the new market segment by continuously releasing products proudly bearing phrases like “sugar-free” and “reduced sugar.” Is it possible to totally omit sugar from our diet by avoiding foods we have come to know as high in sugar? When we crave for something sweet, do we avoid sugar by opting to eat fruit over cake or taffy? Are we really aware of the foods that are high in sugar?

Sources of Sugar

The term sugar is commonly used to refer to table sugar, typically sold in white crystalline or powder form in supermarkets. Table sugar is a form of processed sugar; it is extracted from plant sources such as sugar cane and beets. Other sources of sugar occur naturally in fruits and milk; while others are added during the manufacturing process of certain food items.

Natural sources - Sugars naturally occur in many foods such as fruits, honey, milk, and cereals. Fruits like bananas, prunes, pineapples, tangerines, certain oranges, grapefruits and grapes are known to have particularly high sugar content; while vegetables like potatoes, peas, carrots and corn also have high sugar content.

Processed sugars - Processed sugars are extracted from plant sources, the plants generally harvested to extract sugar from are sugar cane and sugar beets. There is no significant difference between sugar derived from sugar cane and sugar beets; the preference for either plant by sugar manufacturers are determined more by economic considerations like operating costs rather than the taste or quality of the finished product.

The common processed sugars are:

Raw sugars - Raw sugars are either yellow to brown sugar in color; the color is due to the minimal chemical processing the clarified cane juice undergoes. Raw sugars are not always in granule or powder form; sometimes they are manufactured in big chunks such as loaves or irregularly shaped blocks and half spheres.
Mill white sugar - It is still raw sugar; the white color is achieved through bleaching by exposure to sulfur dioxide.
White refined sugar - Raw sugar is dissolved and purified with phosphoric acid; the white color is achieved by filtering the purified raw sugar through a bed of activated carbon or bone char.
The finer grades of sugar or those less coarse in texture (including powdered sugar) are produced through extensive sieving or grinding.
Brown sugars - There are two kinds of brown sugars; those that do not go through the later stages of refining, and those that have been processed as white refined sugar and are coated with cane molasses.

Prepared sources - Processed sugars are added during the preparation of certain foods; for baked goods, sugar improves the taste, texture and color of the goods; for jams, jellies and puddings, sugar serves as a preservative and gives the product a viscous or firm quality; and sugar makes possible fermentation by yeast. Manufactured goods like candies, chocolates, cakes, ice creams, cookies, sodas, and juices typically have high sugar content.

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