Sugar By Any Other Name


Call it what you will, it is still sugar. Sugar began its impetuous journey in the new world near the mid 16th century. Starting as simple cane sugar, we now recognize 61 different varieties of sugar to this day. I want to merely show all the names of sugar, and not dive into the “good” and the “bad” sugar. That is a rabbit hole for another posting! Starting things off, here is a list of the 61 different sugars that are used today:

  • Agave nectar

  • Barbados sugar

  • Barley malt

  • Barley malt syrup

  • Beet sugar

  • Brown sugar

  • Buttered syrup

  • Cane juice

  • Cane juice crystals

  • Cane sugar

  • Caramel

  • Carob syrup

  • Castor sugar

  • Coconut palm sugar

  • Coconut sugar

  • Confectioner's sugar

  • Corn sweetener

  • Corn syrup

  • Corn syrup solids

  • Date sugar

  • Dehydrated cane juice

  • Demerara sugar

  • Dextrin

  • Dextrose

  • Evaporated cane juice

  • Free-flowing brown sugars

  • Fructose

  • Fruit juice

  • Fruit juice concentrate

  • Glucose

  • Glucose solids

  • Golden sugar

  • Golden syrup

  • Grape sugar

  • HFCS (High-Fructose Corn Syrup)

  • Honey

  • Icing sugar

  • Invert sugar

  • Malt syrup

  • Maltodextrin

  • Maltol

  • Maltose

  • Mannose

  • Maple syrup

  • Molasses

  • Muscovado

  • Palm sugar

  • Panocha

  • Powdered sugar

  • Raw sugar

  • Refiner's syrup

  • Rice syrup

  • Saccharose

  • Sorghum Syrup

  • Sucrose

  • Sugar (granulated)

  • Sweet Sorghum

  • Syrup

  • Treacle

  • Turbinado sugar

  • Yellow sugar

It is important to remember that there are natural sugars that occur, i.e. fructose (fruit sugar) and lactose (milk sugar). In the 1920’s Americans took in an average of less than 20 pounds of sugar per person per year, moving to an average excess of 130 pounds of sugar per person per year. Where does the issue really arise with this addiction? An article entitled Sugar addiction: pushing the drug-sugar analogy to the limit. Ahmed SH et all (2013), stated; “This research has revealed that sugar and sweet reward can not only substitute to addictive drugs, like cocaine, but can even be more rewarding and attractive. At the neurobiological level, the neural substrates of sugar and sweet reward appear to be more robust than those of cocaine.” With the increased use of sugars and substitutes in our food, we will only see a further addiction and complications with disease.

Julie Corliss (Feb. 2014) with Harvard medical published a study Eating too much added sugar increases the risk of dying with heart disease, stating, “Over the course of the 15-year study, participants who took in 25% or more of their daily calories as sugar were more than twice as likely to die from heart disease as those whose diets included less than 10% added sugar. Overall, the odds of dying from heart disease rose in tandem with the percentage of sugar in the diet—and that was true regardless of a person’s age, sex, physical activity level, and body-mass index (a measure of weight).”

Next time take a few minutes and look at the ingredients on the item you regularly purchase. Look up the nutrition of restaurants and coffee shops online. Last but not least, here are the current recommendations for sugar intake:

Men: 30g a day

Women: 25g a day

Children: 12-25g a day

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