What is Sugar?
Sugar is a carbohydrate and is one of the most common food substances people can become addicted to.
What is the Difference Between Added Sugars and. Natural?
This is a common question that I get asked a lot. Added sugars are those that have been “added” to processed foods to enhance the taste, and appearance of the product. According to a recent study that was done by Damon Gameau “That Sugar Film” At least 80% of processed food products in our food industry have added sugars in them. Some examples include the following:
- Cakes
- Cookies
- Donuts
- Ice cream
- Fruit drinks
- Salad Dressings
- Ketchup
- Yogurt
- Cereal
- Low-fat muffins
- Dried Fruit
- Gatorade
- Sauces
- Baked Beans
- Pasta
- Instant Oatmeal Packets
Natural sugars are sugars that occur naturally in food. Some examples include the following:
- Fruits such as apples, bananas, oranges, etc.
- Lactose in milk
- Starchy vegetables (peas, corn)
Don’t let the Fat-Free products fool you!
Fat-free products can be loaded with sugar to help enhance the flavor. Just because it is labeled fat-free doesn’t mean it’s calorie free.
Sugar has many different names! So next time you are looking at your food label be aware of the following names listed below:
- amasake
- apple sugar
- barbados sugar
- brown sugar
- brown rice sugar
- beet sugar
- buttered syrup
- cane sugar
- caramel
- carob syrup
- evaporated cane juice
- date sugar
- coconut sugar
- corn syrup
- corn syrup solids
- corn sweetner
- chicory syrup
- dextrin
- dextrose
- diatase
- diastatic malt
- Diglycerides
- Disaccharides
- D-tagalose
- ethyl maltol
- Florida crystals
- fructan
- Fructooligosaccharides
- fructose
- fruit juice
- fruit juice concentrate
- Galactose
- Glucitol
- Glucoamine
- glucose
- Gluconolactone
- glucose solids
- glucose syrup
- glucose polymers
- Glycerides
- Glycerine
- Glycerol
- Glycol
- Hexitol
- golden sugar
- golden syrup
- grape sugar
- high-fructose corn syrup
- honey
- insulin syrup
- inversol
- invert sugar
- isomalt
- karo syrup
- lactose
- lactitol ++
- levulose
- malt syrup
- malted barley
- maltodextrin
- maltose ++
- malitol ++
- maple syrup
- microcrystalline cellulose
- molasses
- Monoglycerides
- Monosaccarides
- Nectars
- Pentose
- Polydextrose ++
- Powdered sugar
- Raisin juice
- Raisin syrup
- raw sugar
- refiner’s syrup
- rice malt
- rice syrup
- saccharides
- sorbitol ++
- sorghum
- sorghum syrup
- Sucanat
- Sucanet
- sucrose
- sugar cane
- trisaccharides
- turbinado sugar
Date sugar and Molasses both provide some health promoting benefits as a sugar. It contains a large amount of fiber. Date sugar is dates that have been pulverized to a powered form.
