The truth on the not so sweet, Sugar!

Sugar is everywhere. Just like someone who is hiding in a witness protection programme, sugar is also hiding in places we least suspect.

Can’t you just look on the label? It’s not that easy. Just like your friend Robert might go by Rob, Bobby, Roberto, added sugar has a lot of aliases, and by a lot I don’t mean five or six. Try 56. There is brown rice syrup, barley malt, high fructose corn syrup. Even organic evaporated cane juice sounds healthy but when you evaporate it, you get sugar. Chemically speaking it’s all the same. Even trickier when multiple types of sugar are used in one product, they get buried down in the ingredient list. So the sugar content may appear to be ok, but when you add them all together they will be the single most ingredient.

A good thing to remember: the ingredient that is in the highest quantity is listed first. Often you'll see things like 'wheat flour', which metabolises into sugar in the body, or maltose, dextrose or any other word ending in -"ose", which all end up meaning the same thing, SUGAR.

Recently the World Health Organisation (WHO) findings have confirmed what we all knew - we're eating far too much sugar. Kiwis are consuming on average, 37 teaspoons of the stuff daily! That's 31 teaspoons over the amount recommended by WHO.

Today, there are all sorts of ‘healthy’ sugar-based sweeteners on the market. The problem with many of them is that they are just as bad as regular sugar.

In some cases, these healthy sugars are even worse, and they are added liberally to all sorts of foods that are then marketed as ‘health foods’.

Pure Maple Syrup:

Maple syrup contains a decent amount of certain minerals, especially manganese and zinc, but keep in mind that it also contains a whole bunch of sugar – about 67% sucrose (as in table sugar) to be exact! But if you’re going to eat a sugar-based sweetener anyway, then replacing refined sugar in recipes with an identical amount of maple syrup will cut the total sugar content by a third. Make sure you buy the 100% Canadian maple syrup, not the cheaper maple-flavoured syrup which is made from a nasty mix of sugar and corn syrups.

Honey:

Honey – once described as ‘nectar of the gods’. Honey contains some nutrients including

antimicrobial and antioxidant and other trace amounts of vitamins and minerals. It is about 80% sugar, by weight. If you’re substituting a tablespoon of honey for sugar, you’re consuming more calories, not fewer. That being said, several studies have compared honey and plain sugar and noted that honey had slightly less harmful effects on metabolism.

If you’re healthy, having some quality honey in moderation is fine. It is definitely a better choice than plain sugar or high fructose corn syrup. But honey is not a harmless sweetener and certainly won’t help you lose weight, like some people would have you believe.

Agave Sweetener:

This sweetener is flaunted as a healthy alternative to sugar because of its low glycaemic index. It has a very low GI because almost all of the sugar in it is fructose. The Agave sweetener sold today is made by treating the sugars with heat and enzymes, which destroys all the beneficial health effects of the Agave plant. The end product is a highly refined, unhealthy syrup. When consumed in high amounts it leads to insulin resistance.

Coconut Sugar:

Coconut sugar retains quite a bit of minerals and nutrients found in the coconut palm but when comparing it to white sugar it is 79% sucrose (table sugar). It does contain a fibre called inulin, which may slow glucose absorption and explain why coconut sugar has a lower glycaemic index than regular table sugar. I’m going to have to put coconut sugar in the same boat as honey. It is healthier than refined sugar, but definitely worse than no sugar at all.

Stevia:

Stevia is a no-calorie sweetener derived from a plant and is 30 times sweeter than sugar in its whole leaf form and almost 300 times sweeter once it has been refined. Given that stevia is much sweeter than sugar, less is needed when using it as a sugar substitute. One teaspoon of stevia is needed when the recipe calls for a cup of sugar. Stevia doesn’t add calories, affect blood sugar or insulin levels, or contribute to dental cavities. I’d say this is a win.

All the sugar you eat will go down to your intestine, get broken down into glucose and fructose and eventually reach the liver. Your liver does not know (or care) whether the sugar you eat is organic or not.

Try to stick to whole foods, but if you absolutely have to have something in a packet, make sure you read the ingredients list and stay away from the -"ose".