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
