What is Sugar? - Lecture Outline
2002 AHA Statement to Healthcare Professionals, broad definition for “Sugar”:
Sugar; The Building Blocks for Carbohydrates
Simple Carbohydrates (consisting of one or two sugar molecules bonded together) are able to be absorbed into the blood and used for energy.
Complex carbohydrates consist of longer strings of sugars bonded together. The main purpose of the longer strings of sugars is for storage.
The main storage source in plants is starches and cellulose, in animals it is glycogen.
Plants use photosynthesis and sunlight to manufacture simple carbohydrates. Animals cannot manufacture carbohydrates directly therefore must ingest them.
Different Types of Sugar
Sucrose or Table Sugar - Found in most fruits and vegetables. It is most concentrated in Sugar Cane and Sugar Beets. Sucrose consists of one glucose molecules and one fructose molecule bonded together.
Types of Consumer Grade Sugars - White sugar (regular, white sugar, extra fine, or fine sugar), Fruit sugar, Bakers Special sugar, Superfine, Bar sugar, Confectioners or Powdered sugar, Coarse sugar, Sanding sugar.
Brown Sugar - Raw sugar in various stages of processing. Depending on the type will have varied amounts of molasses syrup. Turbinado sugar, Brown sugar (light and dark), Demerar sugar.
Liquid Sugars - Water solutions with sucrose dissolved in it.
Inverted Sugar - Sucrose split into its two sugar components (glucose and fructose).
The FDA restricts how manufacturers can use the term “Sugar” in ingredient statements. When sugar is listed as an ingredient it must be sucrose obtained from either sugar beets are sugar cane.
Sugar or Sucrose replacements.
Natural Sugar replacements:
Honey, Maple syrups, not Fructose.
Honey: 20% water, 40% fructose 30% glucose and 1% sucrose with other sugars, minute traces of acids, vitamins, minerals and enzymes.
Maple syrup: 33% water, 60% sucrose, 7% glucose, other sugars, acids, minerals and vitamins.
Manufactured Sugar Replacements:
Cornstarch is the biggest source but other grain and vegetables can be used.
Hydrolysis is a chemical process that uses enzymes and acids to break down long chains of starches into simple carbohydrates.
Common Sugar Replacers - Dextrose, corns syrup, corn syrup solids, maltodextrin, high fructose corn syrup, and crystalline fructose.
Juice concentrate - Sweeteners derived from fruit juice that has its water content, fiber and nutrients removed.
Alternative Carbohydrates Sweeteners - Sugar Alcohols.
Dextrose - Crystalline glucose produced from starch.
Corn syrup - Identifies a group of sweeteners that differ only by the amount of dextrose (glucose) present in the commercial syrup. A commercial “corn syrup” may contain between 20% and 98% dextrose (glucose).
Corn syrup solids - Corn syrup has been concentrated to contain less than 10% water. The glucose (dextrose) content must be at least 88% of the weight.
Maltodextrin - Short chain of linked dextrose containing as few as three and as many as nineteen linked dextrose units.
High fructose corn syrup - Corn syrups enriched with fructose. After blending, commercial fructose corn syrups contain either 42% or 55% fructose by weight.
Crystalline fructose - Fructose produced by crystallizing fructose-enriched corn syrup. It is derived from cornstarch, not fruit.
Juice concentrates – A direct sugar replacement. These syrups are made by removing water from natural fruit juice, then using enzymes and filtering to remove all characteristic color and natural flavor from the juice. Because of their bland initial color and flavor, grapes and pears are the primary juice sources. Juice concentrates that replace sugar contain variable amounts of fructose with traces of sucrose.
Sugar alcohols
Sugar Alcohols (also known as polyol, polyhydric alcohol or polyalcohols) are carbohydrates with a chemical structure that partially resembles sugar and partially resembles alcohol. They occur naturally in some fruits and vegetables. Those found in processed foods are manufactured.
They are incompletely absorbed and metabolized by the body, and consequently contribute fewer calories. Their provide 1.5 to 3 calories per gram compared to 4 calories per gram for sucrose or other sugars.
The polyols commonly used include sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol, maltitol, maltitol syrup, lactitol, erythritol, isomalt and hydrogenated starch hydrolysates. Most are approximately half as sweet as sucrose; maltitol and xylitol are about as sweet as sucrose.
Along with adding a sweet taste, polyols perform a variety of functions such as adding bulk and texture, providing a cooling effect or taste, inhibiting the browning that occurs during heating and retaining moisture in foods. While polyols do not actually prevent browning, they do not cause browning either.
Metabolism - Sugar alcohols are slowly and incompletely absorbed from the small intestine into the blood. After absorption, they require little or no insulin to convert into energy.
Ingested sugar alcohol not absorbed, passes out of the small intestine into the large intestines where thay may be fermented by bacteria. Over consumption may result in increased abdominal gas, abdominal discomfort and diarrhea in some individuals.
Foods that contain certain sugar alcohols and are likely to be eaten in amounts that could produce such an effect must bear the statement “Excess consumption may have a laxative effect.” The American Dietetic Association advises that greater than 50g/day of sorbitol or greater than 20g/day of mannitol “may cause diarrhea.”
Tooth Decay - Sugar alcohols are not acted upon by bacteria in the mouth, and therefore do not cause tooth decay. Xylitol has been found to inhibit oral bacteria, and is often used in sugarless mints and chewing gums for this reason.
Nutrition Facts Panel - Total carbohydrate content of a food will includes the amount of any sugar alcohols in the product. If the product label uses the terms “sugar free” or “no added sugar,” the polyol content must be declared separately under carbohydrates in the Nutrition Facts panel. If the product contains more than one polyol, the Nutrition Facts panel must use the term “sugar alcohol.”
The Sugar Alcohols
| Calories per gram | Approximate Sweetness (sucrose =100%) | Typical Food Applications | Sorbitol | 2.6 | 50 - 70% | Sugar-free candies, chewing gums, frozen desserts and baked goods | Xylitol | 2.4 | 100% | Chewing gum, gum drops and hard candy, pharmaceuticals and oral health products, such as throat lozenges, cough syrups, children’s chewable multivitamins, toothpastes and mouthwashes; used in foods for special dietary purposes | Maltitol | 2.1 | 75% | Hard candies, chewing gum, chocolates, baked goods and ice cream | Isomalt | 2.0 | 45 - 65% | Candies, toffee, lollipops, fudge, wafers, cough drops, throat lozenges | Lactitol | 2.0 | 30 - 40% | Chocolate, some baked goods (cookies and cakes), hard and soft candy and frozen dairy desserts | Mannitol | 1.6 | 50 - 70% | Dusting powder for chewing gum, ingredient in chocolate-flavored coating agents for ice cream and confections | Erythritol | 0.2 | 60 - 80% | Bulk sweetener in low calorie foods | Hydrogenated Starch Hydrolysates (HSH) | 3 | 25 - 50% | Bulk sweetener in low calorie foods, provide sweetness, texture and bulk to a variety of sugarless products |
Artificial sweeteners
Five artificial sweeteners – acesulfame K, aspartame, neotame, saccharin, sucralose – are approved for use in the U.S. All are chemically manufactured molecules that do not exist in nature.
Artificial sweeteners are used in one of two ways:
Artificial sweeteners are so intensely sweet that dextrose or maltodextrin, or both, must be added to dilute their intense sweetness to better imitate the sweetness of sugar. The dextrose or maltodextrin carriers add calories to artificial sweeteners sold to consumers.
The Food and Drug Administration regulations permit any food product that has 5 or fewer calories per serving to be labeled as containing “0” calories. Diabetics using artificial sweeteners, must count the added starch-based sweeteners as part of their carbohydrate intake since insulin is required for their metabolism.
Sugar in Foods
Why put Sugar in Foods?
Beyond its contributions as a sweetener and flavor-enhancer, Sugar:
Why is sugar harmful to us?
People who consume diets high in added sugars consume lower levels of a wide variety of nutrients contained and consume fewer servings of grains, fruits, vegetables, meats, and dairy products.
By displacing protective nutrients and foods in the diet, added sugars may increase the risk of osteoporosis, cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease, and other health problems.
Consuming a diet high in added sugars can, in some “insulin-resistant” individuals, increase blood-triglyceride levels. may increase the risk of coronary heart disease.
Added sugars promote dental caries.
People do not compensate as efficiently for excess calories consumed as liquid as for those consumed as solids.
For the body to absorb and utilize sugars in the body, minerals and vitamins are needed. If they are not combined with meal, the body must provide them from its internal stores.
Fructose and Weight Gain
People consuming large quantities of fructose do not compensate for energy consumed as fructose by reducing energy intake from other sources increasing body weight.
Fructose ingestion does not increase the production of two hormones, insulin and leptin, that have key roles in the long-term regulation of food intake and energy expenditure.
Long term consumption of large quantities of fructose leads to elevated levels of LDL-cholesterol and triacylglycerol concentrations and decreased insulin sensitivity.
Sugar and Aging
Sugar is one of the most powerful aging substance know. Sugar bonds with glucose and collagen, (glycation), can result in thickened arteries, stiff joints, pain, feeble muscles and failing organs. Diabetics age prematurely due to this affect, causing very high incidence of nerve, artery and kidney damage. Human tissues inevitably become rigid and yellow with pigmented glycation deposits.
Sugar and Cancer
Cancer cells require a direct supply of glucose. Presence of cancer can be detected due/2 build up of lactic acid and an acidic pH from direct consumption of glucose in cancer cells.
Free Radical Increase
Healthy adults who drink two cans of cola (75 grams of pure glucose), experienced a significant rise of free radicals in the blood after one hour, and a doubling of free radicals after two hours. The sugar drink also increased a part of an enzyme that promotes free radical generation and a four percent decrease in levels of Vitamin E. In obese people, this cumulatively leads to damage and may cause hardening of the arteries.
Children behavioral problems and sugar
Children with hyperactivity, attention deficits and other behavioral and learning problems. 70% improved with elimination of one or more of: food coloring and additives, sugar, wheat, eggs, milk, corn, chocolate and citrus.
Problems with artificial sweaters
Center for Disease Control (CDC) study of 231 cases; the CDC registered the following complaints based on consumption of aspartame: (a) neurological behavior (67%); (b) gastrointestinal (26%); (c) allergic (17%); (d) menstrual (6%).
Sugar and Immunity
Excessive consumption of carbohydrates from glucose, sucrose, honey and orange juice all significantly decreased the capacity of neutrophils to engulf bacteria. Sugar caused an increase in a protein that inhibits macrophage activity. Elevated levels of blood sugar are linked to bacterial invasion and infectious diseases, such as sepsis and vaginal candidiasis.
Sugar and Obesity
From 1986 to 1998, the number of overweight non-Hispanic white children doubled from 6% to 12%. 20% of African-American and Hispanic children are overweight, a 120% increase during the 12-year study period. The odds of becoming obese increased 1.6 times for each additional can of soft drink consumed above the daily average. Soft drinks are the leading source of added sugars in the diet of young Americans.
In a six-year period, soft drink consumption by adolescent males rose from 11.7 ounces per day to 19.3 ounces per day.
Sugar and diabetes
Diets with a high glycemic load and a low cereal fiber content increase risk of diabetes in women.
Sucrose added to the diet of laboratory animals or increased in the diet of healthy volunteers is associated with impaired glucose tolerance, retinopathy and nephropathy, and reduced insulin sensitivity of the tissues.
Between 1990 and 1998 the number of people diagnosed with diabetes in America increased by 33%, to 6.5 percent of Americans of all age groups
In 2000, Associated Press reported that adult-onset diabetes rose 70 percent in the previous eight years among people in their 30’s.
In 2000, the Journal of General Internal Medicine estimated that 16 million Americans have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
One in four extremely obese children under the age of 10 and one in five obese adolescents under the age of 18 in the US have impaired glucose tolerance -- a precursor to type 2 or adult-onset diabetes.
Researchers studied 23,000 pregnant women and found that obese women who also have type 2 diabetes are three times more likely to have a baby with a birth defect, and seven times more likely of giving birth to a child with a craniofacial defect such as cleft palate, or abnormal limb development.
Nearly 6% of all women with type 2 diabetes had babies with major defects, compared with 1.34% of women without diabetes.
1992 USDA Recommendation on Added Sugar Consumption:
| 1600 calories / per day | 6 teaspoons, 24gs or 96 calories |
| 2200 calories / per day | 12 teaspoons, 48gs or 192 calories |
| 2000 calories / per day | 10 teaspoons, 40gs or 160 calories |
Two-day intake data from USDA’s Continuing Survey of Food Intakes of Individuals (“CSFII”) for 1994-96
Percentage of calories from added sugars by Age Group:
| Age Median | 25% | 5% | |
| 2 and over | 14% | 21% | 32% |
| 6 to 11 | 18% | 24% | 32% |
| 12 to 19 | 19% | 25% | 37% |
| 30 to 39 | 21% | ||
| 40 to 49 | 19% | ||
| 50 to 59 | 20% | ||
| 60 to 79 | 16% |
Some experts estimate that roughly 25 percent of apparently healthy people are insulin resistant. A recent study in Italy estimates that the insulin-resistant segment of the population may include 66 percent of people with glucose intolerance, 94 percent of people with diabetes, 84 percent of people with high triglycerides, 88 percent of people with low HDL cholesterol, and 20 percent of normal-weight subjects with no metabolic disorders.
CSFII 1994-96 data, the largest sources of added sugars are:
| Soft drinks | 33% | Cakes, cookies, pies, etc. | 14% | Fruit drinks, ades, etc. | 10% | Dairy desserts | 6% | Candy | 5% | Breakfast cereals | 4% | Tea | 3% | Other | 25% |