Not All Sugar Is Created Equal - Pt 2

Dr. Justine Ward's picture
on January 3, 2014 - 1:33pm
Eat By Design

Last week (click here to read part 1) we talked about fructose and why consuming fructose, especially in combination with glucose, is less than optimal for your body.

If you would like to learn more about that, this article does a really great job of discussing the toxicity of fructose in greater detail, as well touching on the financial and political drive behind the wide spread use of fructose in the food industry.

I understand that most people are going to eat sugar sometimes, so let me help steer you towards the lesser of the evils if you are going to be doing some sweetening. 

The inspiration for this series of blogs came when I was researching to decide what I would personally like to use in my holiday baking.

While baked goods are definitely not By Design, when I feel compelled to have cookies or squares around (as is often the case during the holiday season) I do my best to create goods that have the least possible amount of toxicity. This means grain-free for sure, vegetable oil free for sure, and the least toxic sugar options possible.

For the purpose of this blog, the sugar sources that I investigated: table sugar, high fructose corn syrup, molasses, honey, agave nectar, coconut sugar, maple syrup and dates. I realize that this list is in no way exhaustive. However, these are sugars often seen in baked goods and several of them are often considered health foods, which I wanted to discuss.

Oh, and one more note before we get into the specific sugars, because I know someone is going to ask about the Glycemic Index.

The Glycemic Index estimates how much each gram of available carbohydrate in a food raises blood glucose levels compared to pure glucose, pure glucose is given a score of 100. It is supposed to be a measurement of how quickly blood glucose levels rise after eating a particular type of food.

The problem with the glycemic index is that it isolates available carbohydrate in a given food, which is the total carbohydrate minus fiber. The portion of food eaten by the test subjects to achieve the glycemic index score for that food had to equal fifty grams of sugar.

To illustrate the issue, both watermelon and bagels have a glycemic index score of seventy-two. They would seem equally disruptive to your blood sugar.

However, to eat fifty grams of sugar in watermelon form you have to eat 835 grams of watermelon. Where as with a bagel, you will get fifty grams of sugar in a serving of only one hundred grams.

Can you see how this is not a fair comparison? 

Not to mention the glycemic index score does not take into account how long blood glucose stays elevated, which is the primary problem we discussed with regards to insulin resistance and how it is exacerbated by fructose. Fructose has a very low glycemic index score – because it is fructose and does not contribute glucose to the body. Yet, fructose has been shown consistently to alter glucose metabolism and cause a host of health problems. 

Due to these flaws, I will not be using glycemic index as a ruler for how toxic a given sugar source is.

Here are what I consider to be the most relevant facts about the different sugar sources:

Table Sugar (sucrose)

  • Table sugar is a 1:1 combination of glucose and fructose.
  • It is produced from sugar beet and sugar cane plants.
  • Raw sugar is actually brown. It is bleached at the end of the refining process to produce the white granules that are typically sold.

Molasses

  • Molasses is a by-product of the sugar refining process; it contains approximately the same glucose to fructose ratio as white sugar (about 1:1).
  • It contains all of the nutrients extracted in table sugar production.
  • Molasses contains a significant amount of iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, copper, zinc, manganese and selenium. It also contains B vitamins and choline.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

  • High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a manufactured product in which corn syrup is chemically altered to have a higher percentage of fructose. This allows for a sweeter tasting product.
  • Most high fructose corn syrup is 55% fructose, 45% glucose.
  • The processing leading to HFCS has been linked to mercury contamination.

Now let's cover what people typically think of as healthy and natural sugars.

I have often seen recipes that are ‘sugar free’ that are sweetened with honey, maple syrup, palm sugar, dates or agave nectar. To be clear, these are all sugar. Even though they may come from seemingly natural sources or undergo minimal processing, they are sugar. Your body treats them as sugar. The hard truth is that any food that is sweet either has sugar in it or artificial chemicals to make it taste like it has sugar in it.

Here are some of the specific properties of ‘natural’ sugars:

Honey

  • Honey consists of pure glucose syrup (dextrose) and fructose. These are products of the honeybee’s digestion.
  • It is about 30% glucose, 40% fructose and 30% water.
  • Conventional processing, such as pasteurization, destroys most of honey’s natural benefits.
  • Raw honey has a variety of antioxidants and enzymes; it has antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties. Two key active compounds that give these antimicrobial properties are methylglyoxal and bee defensin-1.
  • People who have a hard time digesting fructose can often tolerate raw honey, possibly because of the enzyme activity in the honey.
  • Raw honey contains many of the same minerals and vitamins in molasses, but in smaller quantities.

Maple Syrup

  • Maple syrup is made from the boiled down sap of black, red and sugar maple trees.
  • The majority of sugar in maple syrup is sucrose, with about a 1:1 ratio of glucose to fructose.
  • Maple syrup has considerably more zinc, iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium and copper per serving than honey.
  • Maple syrup is also a significant source of the mineral manganese.

Palm Sugar/Coconut Sugar

  • The sugar is made from a variety of palm sources and tropical plants. The palm and coconut labels are generally used interchangeably.
  • This sugar is mostly sucrose, bringing about 1:1 ratio of glucose to fructose.
  • Palm sugar contains a significant amount of minerals and antioxidants. You can read here to see how it compares to honey, maple syrup, agave and white sugar. It comes out ahead, in terms of nutrient content, across the board. 

Dates

  • Dates can be dehydrated and pulverized to form date sugar, pureed raw to make date syrup or used as they are to add sweetness to a dish.
  • Dates are about 80% sugar by weight, dried dates contain mostly sucrose so it has about 1:1 ratio of glucose to fructose.
  • Dates contain antioxidant flavonoids such as ß-carotene, lutein, and zea-xanthin and flavonoid polyphenolic antioxidants known as tannins.
  • Dates are an excellent source of iron and potassium.
  • They are also rich in minerals like calcium, manganese, copper, and magnesium.
  • Dates also have moderate levels of vitamin A, B-complex group of vitamins and vitamin K.

Agave Nectar

  • Agave nectar is highly processed syrup made from the core of the blue agave plant, called the aguamiel or "honey water." The processing strips all of the nutrients from the liquid leaving sweet syrup.
  • Most agave syrup has a higher fructose content than any commercial sweetener, ranging from 60 to 97%, depending on the brand. The average is about 70% fructose (recall high fructose corn syrup has only 55% fructose).
  • Agave is the most misrepresented ‘health food.’ It received its healthy label because it does not dramatically increase blood glucose when consumed on its own. Refer back to the post on fructose to see how high levels of fructose consumption are far more damaging than simple glucose consumption.

Of all of the available sugar sources I would rate agave nectar as the worst! And it gets extra negative points for agave nectar because it is so often misrepresented as a health food.

Based on all of the data that I looked at, I say that Coconut or Palm Sugar and dates are your best bet for sweetening baked goods and foods at home. They contain a relatively safe glucose to fructose ratio and contain beneficial nutrients.

Keep in mind; however, even sugars that are accompanied by nutrients should still be treated as sugars. They are not By Design. They should not be consumed in excess and can have negative, toxic effects on your body.

Now we'd like to hear from you.  What are your favourite sweeteners? Why do you use the sweeteners that you do?

For more simple By Design recipes why not pick up your copy of the Eat By Design Cookbook. I’ve created it in the form of a 28-day meal plan (plus grocery lists!) so you don’t need to think about what’s for breakfast, lunch or dinner for the next month. Or you can grab the first 7 days FREE by clicking here.

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