Hey sugar, you sure are sweet.

As human beings, instinctively we crave sugar. Back when people had to forage for food, we knew that something with a sweet flavor usually meant it was ripe and okay to eat, while something sour tasting often meant that a food was poisonous or to approach it with caution. As a little girl, my mother rarely kept soda, junk foods or any type of snack that was extremely sugary in our home. She would pack my lunches with Hansen's Natural Soda, Newman-O's, (basically organic Oreos) fruit and a sandwich. Of course, as a kid I used to hate this because my friends were allowed to have Cokes and real Oreos, but I was allowed to have sodas and junk foods only on special occasions.

However, looking back I'm glad my mom monitored my sugar intake. I don't usually crave sodas and junk food and I believe this is because I wasn't raised eating them on a regular basis. I remember, every so often my mother would let me have Kool Aid. The recipe for Kool Aid is basically one cup of sugar and one packet of Kool Aid thrown together with water to fill a pitcher. My mom would always put half of a cup of sugar in the pitcher instead of the full cup because she knew what the recipe called for was excessive. I would get frustrated because my other friends could have Kool Aid the regular way but I was stuck with the not as sweet, (but still really sugary) version. Ultimately, I'm glad she did little things like giving me "fake" Oreos and watered down Kool Aid because I never needed all that excess sugar.

There is another side to sugar.
Though I am a proponent of moderate sugar consumption, by no means would I recommend people to avoid sugar in their diet. Sugar has been demonized as the main cause of obesity and diabetes problems in the United States, but sugar is just as important in our diet as any other nutrient. Sugars are what make up carbohydrates which should be about 45-65% of our daily food intake! The biggest problems that Americans are facing with sugars is the form that they are most commonly sold and consumed in.

High fructose corn syrup.

There is a commercial on television that you've probably seen, with the two moms talking at a kid's birthday party. One of the moms makes a comment to the hostess of the party about a drink she's serving to the children and says something like, "That has high fructose corn syrup in it, you know what they say about it?" Then the hostess responds, "Like what?" Confused, the mom is at a loss for words, so the hostess says, "That it's made from corn, doesn't have artificial ingredients and like sugar and is fine in moderation?" At the bottom of the screen when this commercial is playing, the Corn Refiners Association logo pops up, which makes a lot of sense when you think about who might want to boast HFCS as a healthier product than it is. The truth of the matter is, HFCS is an unnatural form of sugar made from almost exclusively genetically modified corn. The reason corn syrup is so prevalent in foods in America is because we heavily subsidize it. Farmers actually get paid by the government to grow genetically modified corn for refinement. The films King Corn and Food Inc. are two of the best nutrition movies out there to date and they cover the topic of corn subsidization thoroughly. The process of creating HFCS is long and arduous and I will try to put it in as simple terms as possible: The corn is grown, harvested and shucked. The kernels are then removed and steeped in warm water with sulfur dioxide to dissolve salts, carbohydrates and proteins, (yes, as in taking out some good stuff). The kernels are then ground up to remove the germ, separating the germ and turning it in a slurry. The slurry is washed and milled to remove the fiber, (look, they took out more good stuff) leaving behind some protein and starch. The starch is then split open and washed numerous times. The starch is then processed into chains of sugar molecules called dextrose through hydrolysis by treating it with mineral acid and enzymes. The product of this process is treated with glucoamylase which produces individual glucose molecules. Glucose isomerase then breaks down these glucose molecules into what we know as, high fructose corn syrup. 


I know. That was about as fun for you to read it as it was for me to write it.


As of last September, the Corn Refiners Association are petitioning the FDA to re-name high fructose corn syrup on labels as, "corn sugar".  It seems like just another way to confuse consumers who are becoming all too aware that HFCS is not a healthy sugar. 

And really? You guys have got to be kidding me. I don't know if the statement, "It comes from real corn" really applies to HFCS after knowing about the tedious process of producing it. I guess at some point in time it was corn... just like at some point in time we were all under 5 feet tall and thought the earth was flat.

Cane Sugar

Many people are excited about buying an item that is sweetened with cane sugar. There is a lot of advertising out there telling us that it is far superior to HFCS. Unfortunately, cane sugar isn't much better than corn syrup at all because it is also highly refined. The process is shorter and doesn't involve GM corn but it's still produced by a method that strips the sugar of it's natural vitamins and minerals. The procedure begins with cane stalks that are essentially crushed, pressed, crystallized, bleached, crystallized again and filtered to create a stable, purified chemical which never spoils. When the sugar is going through the bleaching process, it is most commonly run through cow bones to get that bright white color, (yeah, I know... gross). When you eat food sweetened with cane sugar, it dissolves immediately into your bloodstream shocking the pancreas into releasing a large amount of insulin. Cane sugar also creates an acidic environment in your blood, and to cope with this acidity, minerals leach out of your bones.



Over consumption of refined sugars cause long term problems.
Cane sugar, (also known as table sugar) and high fructose syrup are the versions of sugar that are dangerous to your body, and over consumption of them are hugely why so many people have type 2 diabetes. As I said before, when you ingest high levels of sugar in a short amount of time, your pancreas releases insulin in response to this to lower your blood glucose levels. If you continue to ingest cane sugars and corn syrup on a regular basis, you are at risk for your pancreas to become taxed, and your cells to stop responding to these insulin signals. Basically, your pancreas and cells get pissed at you from all the sugar abuse and they don't want to do the work for you anymore. Cane sugar and corn syrup also can cause high blood pressure and elevated fat levels in your blood.









There are other, better sugars. 
There are many different types of sugars that you can replace HFCS and cane sugar with. A few unrefined cane sugars such as, sucanat, rapadura and florida crystals are examples. Sucanat and rapadura are the most natural and unrefined dry sugars there are. They are the highest in nutritional value of all dry sugars because they are produced with the least amount of processing. Both rapadura and sucanat contain molasses and are a great substitute for brown sugar. Organic, unrefined cane sugar (otherwise known as florida crystals) is a good substitute for standard cane sugar. Florida crystals are unbleached, and contain more trace minerals such as calcium, iron, phosphorus and magnesium. Honey, agave nectar and pure maple syrup are great natural alternatives to wet sugars. All of these sugars are less likely to spike your blood sugar to dangerous levels when you ingest them. Raw honey has antioxidants and anti-bacterial properties that can improve your digestive and immune systems. Agave nectar is also anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory, and pure maple syrup has natural antioxidants.

Consuming refined sugar can shock to your system and throw your insulin levels off, making you store  high levels of fat, while giving you no nutritional value. Stick to sugars in their more natural form, the way we are supposed to eat them, in order to avoid health problems.

Consuming natural sugar in moderation is part of a balanced diet, so stay away from high fructose corn syrup and cane sugar as much as possible, and then you can eat sweet guiltlessly.