Sugar Primer

It's that time of year when sugar is everywhere and is also getting its share of bad press. (Sugar Hype) What's a parent to do?  To make an informed decision, it is important to understand that sugars, although simple, are actually  complex. I will give you the basics so you can make an informed decision about what to do with that chocolate Easter bunny (or chocolate-covered matzoh) the grandparents gave the kids. 

There are three main kinds of sugars:  polysaccharides, disaccharides, and monosaccharides.
1.  Carbohydrates (polysaccharides and oligosaccharides):
Many people do not think about carbohydrates as being sugar.  But carbohydrates are sugar molecules that attached to form large molecules.  That means rice, beans, potatoes, pasta, (including whole wheat), cereals, and breads are made from sugar molecules attached together.  Depending on how these bonds form, these complex sugar molecules can be used in many ways, including food (starch) or  fiber(cellulose).

2.  The most common disaccharides in food are:
Lactose (milk sugar) which breaks down into galactose and glucose.
Sucrose (sugar cane or beet sugar) which breaks down into glucose and fructose.
 In breast milk, also known as "The Perfect Food", 50% of the calories come from lactose.

3.  The monosaccharides (the smallest sugar molecules):
Are the final breakdown product in our bodies from carbohydrates and  disaccharides.  In nature, most commonly  found in:
  a.  honey -  a combination primarily of fructose and glucose, but also has complex carbohydrates, trace minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants (depending on the flowers used by the bees).
  b.  fructose (fruit sugar).

 4.  Manufactured sugars are the sugars that are manufactured.  They include:
   a.  Syrups - usually the sugar is sucrose, including maple syrup.
   b.  High fructose corn syrup which is usually about 55% fructose and 42% glucose.
   c.  Corn syrup - primarily glucose.

Only monosaccharides are absorbed through our guts.  That means only galactose, fructose and glucose get into the blood stream, assuming you have a normal, functioning gastrointestinal system.

One way to look at sugars is where they are primarily utilized and metabolized.  You don't have to eat any particular sugar.  The body is capable of making and storing the different sugars from food.  It is made and stored primarily in our liver and muscles.  Glucose, galactose and fructose are used and metabolized throughout the body.  We know this because there are people that have different genetic diseases that make it impossible for them to digest a sugar.  They then accumulate that sugar throughout the body, not just in the liver.  But glucose is the human's primary energy source.  Although we use the other two for energy, our bodies mostly use fructose and galactose to make them into other compounds that we need, and then will convert the extra into glucose, which becomes glycogen.  If you have an excess of glycogen, the body makes fat.

If you think about it, that means if you are a vegetarian, your diet is primarily glucose, fructose and galactose.
Yet, who (except for a few carnivores that I know) would declare that an adult who eats a vegetarian diet is eating unhealthily?  What makes a diet of refined sugar, or for that matter, high fructose corn syrup unhealthy?  By the time it gets to your blood stream it is all the same stuff as what the vegetarians are eating.

I don't have a definitive answer for you.  I do have some thoughts. 

Food is more than calories.  There is how those nutrients are delivered.  Diabetics are aware of the glycemic index.  A newer refinement of that is what is called the insulin index which may be a better measurement of the multiple factors that affect how those same sugars are seen by the body and how the conversion from one sugar to another occurs.  There is, of course, the whole issue of soluble and insoluble fibers, which do not come with a diet of refined sugar.  And finally, there is the interaction of micro nutrients.

There are also my whole idea about food and the research on it.  When people do research, they try to hold all the variables the same but one.  Humans are more complex than that.  The more research I read about food, the more convinced I am that it is rare that 1 "truth" will be learned.  We get small pieces of the puzzle and we get hints and on rare occasions, we get truths.  It goes back to my blog on Girl Scout cookies.  And my whole approach to food.  A little won't hurt you.  Moderation in all things.