A Sugar is a Sugar is a Sugar ?????

This time of year we are reminded of all things sweet: Gifts from our SWEETheart for the holiday of love, Chocolates that satisfy our SWEET tooth or SWEET dreams of a healthy new year.   Beware- Being surrounded by all things sugary can be detrimental to your health.  Carbohydrates are a great fuel source and should compose about 45% of our diet per day.  When choosing your carbohydrates you should know there are several types of sugar and we should try and eat naturally occurring carbs and not added sugars  because not matter what, all sugars in excess can be stored as fat. 

My friend, Mary, who is a registered dietician, says a sugar is a sugar is a sugar.  She put together the list below and no matter what you call a sugar it all breaks down to the same thing;  It just depends on how fast.

Agave Necter                           Barley Malt                                 Beet Sugar

Brown Sugar                            Buttered Syrup                          Caramel

Carob Syrup                             Castor Sugar                               Corn syrup solids

Crystalline Fructose               Dextran                                       Diastatic Malt

Diatase                                      Ethyl Maltol                              Evaporated Cane Juice

Fructose                                    Fruit Juice                                   Fruit Juice Concentrates

Galactose                                 Glucose                                        Glucose Solids

Golden Sugar                          Golden Syrup                            Granulated Sugar

Grape Sugar                             High-Fuctose Corn Syrup       Honey

Icing Sugar                              Inverse Sugar                              Lactose

Malt Syrup                              Maltodextrin                               Maltose

Maple Syrup                            Molasses                                    Muscovado Sugar

Panocha                                    Raw sugar                                  Refiners Syrup

Rice Syrup                               Sorbitol                                      Sorghum Syrup

Sucrose                                     Sugar                                           Syrup

Treacle                                     Turbinado Sugar                        Yellow Sugar                                        

A very powerful tool when making good food choices and watching your sugar consumption  is reading the ingredient list on food labels.  We know that the farther down the list the ingredient is, the less there is of the item.  Sadly, manufacturers have learned to be very creative.  They may use two or more different types of sugars which when listed separately there is less of them so they can be placed further down on the list of ingredients.  But when combined (Sugar is a sugar is a sugar) they would be one of the largest quantities on the ingredient list.  See example below.

 

Six of the top eight ingredients are sugar.  Yikes.  They are so tricky. 

Take time to choose your carbohydrates wisely.  Your health will thank you for it.