Sugar Information

[ajhoover]

When refering to a healthy diet, avoiding sugar is normally high on the list but in reality that is impossabile. Sugar is in practically everything we eat, though it has many different forms, some being better than others. Sugar is not only in fruits and vegetables, but also in dairy, meat, fish, beans and countless other dietary staples. Think of the last time you threw somthing on the grill. Within a minute of being on the grill many changes start to take place. The sugars in whatever it may be start to move to the surface and begin to carmalize. This is indicated by the change in color or grill marks. This happens with any food you cook because it all has sugar.

Sugar comes in simple and complex forms. Singule molecular forms are called monosacchrides and make up the simple sugars. Complex forms include disaccharides which have two molecules, trisaccharides which have three molecules and oligosacchrides which can have up to six. When thousands of these form up they are called polysaccharides which are starches and glycogen. Simple sugars break down into further categories. Fructose comes from fruits vegetables and honey. Glucose is the type measured in the blood and is also known as dextrose and is found in fruits and honey. Galactose comes from plants. Compound sugars break down into categories as well. Lactose (glucose and galactose) is known as "milk sugar". Maltose (two glucose) found in malt, grains and fruit. Sucrose (glucose and fructose) found in sugar cane, cane beets and maple syrup.

So why is sugar important?

The brain uses only glucose and glutamic acid (amino acid) for fuel. Fat will not fuel the brain though protein can be broken down to feed the brain with less efficiency. Sugar is necessary but high levels inhibit the release linoleic acid (omega - 6) causing a shortage in essential fatty acids. Two amino acids can combine to form a single biochemical message, two identical sugar molecules can form 11 distinct messages. Four amino acids can form 24, four sugar molecules have the potential form 35,560 mesasges called tetrasacchrides. These sugars require significantly less mass in order to convey the same message of the proteins alone. Sacchrides determine the difference between blood types. They also enable cells to give and recieve instructions.

I am simply trying to illustrate the importance of sugar in the diet. With sugar in everything we eat we do NOT need ANY concentrated forms (refined sugars). Natural occuring sugars are a necessary and healthy part of every diet and simply eating a wide variety of foods especially veggies and fruits will ensure a necessary amount in the diet. As far as the sweetness of sugars go, if sucrose was 100 (for ease of comparison) fructos would be 173, glucose 74, maltose 33, and lactose 16.

Andrew

[Guest irongymnast]

This is great information. Thank you.

I have to read the nutrition books that the fellow members recommended, I need to learn more on these.