What Is Wrong With Common Table Sugar?

What is wrong with common table sugar?  Well, let's just find out!

What are Sugars?

Sugars are a class of edible crystalline hydrocarbon (hydrogen and carbon) substances that have a common characteristic of “sweet flavor” when tasted. Some natural known substance that fall into this class would be sucrose, maltose, and fructose. When we talk about sugar in foods, for the most part we mean sucrose commonly known as table sugar. Sucrose comes from sugar cane and to a lesser degree beet sugar. Other sugars used in specific food productions like beverages, juices, jellies, pharmaceuticals and medicinal are glucose, fructose, and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

Many types of sugars found in nature - tetroses, pentoses, and hexoses.
When identifying a sugar molecule always look at the ending sound in the name. Most natural sugars end with the sound –ose-. Like sucrose, fructose, glucose, maltose, galactose, etc.

Let’s Classify Sugar Types

The word “saccharide” is used in organic chemistry to classify simple sugar compounds. In science sugars are classified as monosaccharide, disaccharides, oligosaccharides, polysaccharides.

Some examples of saccharides:
Mono- fructose, glucose, and galactose
Di- sucrose and maltose
Oligo- fructo-oligosaccharide
Poly means a whole lot of simple sugars. (Starches)

Monosaccharides are called “simple sugars” of which glucose is the most important monosaccharide. Glucose is the most abundant sugar molecule found throughout nature and is the energy source that feeds the plant and animal kingdoms. Glucose is the principle energy source in humans sometimes called “blood sugar”. Fructose is the most abundant sugar molecule found in fruits like berries, figs, cherries, plums, and in honey.

Disaccharides are made up of two simple sugar (monsaccharides) molecules. These two sugars molecules are linked together by a glycoside bond.
Sucrose or table sugar the most used sugar is composed of fructose and glucose. Maltose is composed of two glucose molecules.

Oligosaccharides are multiply groups of simple sugars
Complex sugars called polysaccharides commonly known as starches. (amylose and amylopectin)

Simple Natural Sugar Molecules

In humans enzymatic hydrolysis reactions must occur to break these bonds before the sugar molecules can be used in metabolic reactions. After digestion and absorption the principle sugars found in the body are glucose, fructose, and galactose.

Carbohydrate Metabolism

When glucose, galactose, and fructose enter our body after digestion they are transported from the intestinal mucosa membrane of the stomach into the bloodstream. They are directly used for energy by all tissues; temporarily stored as glycogen in the liver or in muscle; or converted to fat and amino acid compounds.

The Fate of Glucose

The entry of glucose into most tissues is dependent upon the presence of the hormone insulin . Insulin controls the uptake and metabolism of glucose in these cells and plays a major role in regulating the blood glucose concentration. The reactions of carbohydrate metabolism cannot take place without the presence of the B vitamins , which function as coenzymes.
When the body's need for glucose is greater than the supply available in the blood, glycogen reserves in the liver and muscles are broken down and converted to glucose.

The liver, the pancreas and the adrenal glands play roles in keeping the blood sugar level at a normal concentration of around 90 mg. per 100 ml. The liver buffers body sugar levels by converting excess glucose into glycogen. The presence of glucose in the body stimulates the pancreas to secrete the hormone insulin. The hormone insulin helps regulate glucose by active transport (facilitated diffusion) of sugar into cells where it is used as energy.

The Fate of Fructose and Galactose

In the body fructose and galactose are ultimately converted to glucose.
So again I ask the question, "What Is wrong With Common Table Sugar?"

Well, for the majority of people who don’t have challenges with glucose and insulin…Nothing!

What about Sugar and Diabetes?

Sugar, because of its simpler chemical structure, was once assumed (without scientific research) to raise blood glucose levels more quickly than starches. You can find more than twenty published scientific studies that clearly demonstrate that sugar and starch cause blood glucose to rise at similar rates. This finding showed that controlling all carbohydrates is necessary for controlling blood glucose levels in diabetics, the idea behind carbohydrate counting. Beaser, Richard S.; Campbell, Amy P. (2005). The Joslin guide to diabetes: a program for managing your treatment (2nd Ed.). Simon and Schuster. p. 37. “However, a 2010 meta-analysis of eleven studies involving 310,819 participants and 15,043 cases of type 2 diabetes found that "SSBs [sugar-sweetened beverages] not table sugar may increase the risk of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes not only through obesity but also by increasing dietary glycemic load, leading to insulin resistance, β-cell dysfunction, and inflammation." Vasanti S. Malik et al., 2010, "Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Risk of Metabolic Syndrome and Type 2 Diabetes: A meta-analysis", Diabetes Care 33(11), 2477-2483.

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)

HFCS are any corn syrups that have undergone enzymatic processing to convert some of its glucose into fructose to produce a desired sweetness.
HFCS is a blend of 55% fructose and 42% glucose. Table sugar comes naturally as 50% fructose and 50% sucrose. But herein is a major difference. The two simple sugars in table sugar come naturally bonded together. In HFCS the sugars are separate.

A system of sugar tariffs and sugar quotas imposed in 1977 in the United States significantly increased the cost of imported sugar and U.S. producers sought cheaper sources. High-fructose corn syrup, derived from corn became more attractive because the domestic U.S. and Canadian prices of sugar were twice the global price of sugar at this time. The U.S. government in turn, has kept the price of corn low through government subsidies paid to farmers. HFCS became an attractive substitute, and became preferred over cane sugar among the vast majority of American food and beverage manufacturers. Soft drink makers such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi use sugar in other nations, but switched to HFCS in the U.S. in 1984.

The argument that centers around corn syrup vs. sugar, a recent study conducted at Princeton, revealed that lab rats who were fed HFCS gained more body weight than those fed the same amount of sugar. In addition, over long term consumption, those fed HFCS were found to have elevated levels of triglycerides.

The increase of HFCS usage in processed foods is linked to various health conditions, these include metabolic syndrome, hypertension, de novo lipogenesis, dyslipidemia, hepatic steatosis inflammation, hepatic insulin resistance, obesity, CNS leptin resistance, promoting continuous consumption. All of the above are also symptomatic of alcohol abuse. For reference on the subject see presentation by Robert H. Lustig, MD, University of California at San Francisco, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, which explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin. Series: UCSF Mini Medical School for the Public [7/2009] [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 16717]