The season of sugar has arrived

Monday, Oct. 31, Halloween, marks the start of what I call the season of sugar. Many of us kick off the holiday season with Halloween and allow our kiddos to fill bags full of pure sweet candies of all types, shapes and sizes. From here, we move to Thanksgiving and all the wonderful pies and creative desserts associated with giving thanks. Then off we go to fudge, cookies and all the most wonderful sugary treats of Christmas. Yes indeed, it’s that time of year!

Here is a bit of information to ponder as we swim into all the mind-numbing, mood-altering and waistline-changing sweetness. Did you know that on average, people in the U.S. eat 152 pounds of sugar in one year. This is roughly three pounds a week and surprisingly, Americans are not the biggest consumers of sugar in the world.

Sugar and sweeteners are in much of what we consume and often we are not even aware that the foods we are eating are loaded with sweeteners or sugars. If there was doubt that sugar in all its glory is a health problem, that doubt is long gone. Over the years, science has confirmed the constant demands metabolizing sugar puts on our pancreas and endocrine system is driving an epidemic of Type 2 Diabetes, metabolic disease and many other health-related issues. Sugars and other sweeteners are extremely addictive, causing over consumption, leading to so many negative health and toxic effects on the body it’s hard to list them all.

Most nutritionists recommend your sugar intake should not exceed 6 to 7 percent of your daily calories, a percentage I personally believe is too high. With that said, I don’t want to take all the sugary joy away, so let’s look at what they recommend. For example, if your calorie intake is around 2,700 per day, you should limit your sugar to 47 grams. So just consuming two or more of the more popular sports drinks and you will have exceeded the daily recommended amount and then some.

The following shows a good overview of the different types of sugar and common sweeteners. Hopefully this will be helpful information and I would recommend you always check food labels to verify sugar content and most importantly, carbohydrate content. Carbohydrate in their many forms, can be just more sugar in disguise.

Here is a list of the most common sugars:

Sucrose

Glucose and fructose together make sucrose, or plain white table sugar, brown sugar and powdered sugar.

Fructose

This fruit-juice concentrate is almost twice as sweet as sucrose and it’s attached to all the natural nutrients of fruit and fruit juice, but it causes stomach upset in some people.

Glucose

The basic sugar unit in the blood, glucose is often listed on labels as dextrose. It’s the body’s immediate source of cellular energy, so you’ll see it a lot in sports drinks.

Lactose

A mildly sweet, naturally occurring sugar found in milk and dairy products like yogurt. For many people, it can be a challenge to digest.

Here is a list of the most common sweeteners. Many of which can be very unhealthy to consume.

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)

First, let’s review high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in our diet. On average, people in the U.S. consume more than 60 pounds per person per year of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). I became aware of the negative aspects of this sweetener when I noticed my very normal and loving child become a creature from some Sci-Fi film when he consumed HFCS. Let’s look at the make up of regular sugar and what makes up HFCS.

Regular sugar (sucrose) is made of two-sugar molecules bound together, glucose and fructose, in equal amounts. Your digestive tract then breaks down the sucrose into glucose and fructose, which are absorbed into the body. HFCS is also made up of glucose and fructose, but not in equal amounts like regular sugar, but 55-45 fructose to glucose ratio in an unbound form. Keeping in mind fructose is sweeter than glucose, it makes HFCS a very effective sweetener.

The fact that how HFCS is made is a closely protected secret and the fact that the biochemical makeup allows HFCS to enter bloodstream very quickly, some research suggests 10 times faster than regular sugar, makes this a sweetener on steroids. There is so much controversy plus mixed data on both the adverse effects of HFCS and the corn industry claiming its product is a harmless natural “corn sugar,” that my son and I always avoid consumption and therefore I am reading lots of food labels when shopping.

Saccharin

Also known as Sweet’N Low, it was discovered in 1879. One of the world’s most widely used (and tested) lab-made foods, its been both embraced and controversial for its entire existence. Like HFCS, the facts and data to whether Saccharin has adverse health effects is an ongoing debate. Again, avoidance or minimal intake is your best bet.

Sucralose

This is a fairly recent sweetener on the market. It’s also the least controversial artificial sweetener because many people find its taste to be very good. It is 600 times sweeter than regular sugar and research on adverse health effects has been far less controversial.

Aspartame

This non-saccharide sweetener, which is in hundreds of products, is up to 200 times sweeter than regular sugar, so tiny amounts go a long way. The safety of aspartame has been the subject of much controversy. The FDA has found small amounts do not present any health risks, but many independent studies have shown evidence to the contrary. I tend to go with a simple rule: artificial is not organic, so I avoid artificial sweeteners.

Acesulfame K

An artificial sweetener found in many diet drinks, often combined with aspartame and sucralose. Has a mildly bitter aftertaste compared with other substitutes. This artificial sweetener is as sweet as Aspartame and has many of the same aspects.

I think we can all agree that in the U.S., we overconsume sugar whether natural or artificial. Our overconsumption of sugar has lead to a huge health crisis: diabetes, obesity and metabolic disease. Over the last 40 years, consumption of sugar has actually gone down in the United States, but only to be replaced with much more toxic artificial sweeteners.

Take control of your health by reducing your sugar intake and avoiding artificial sweeteners. Don’t let the season sugar take a toll on your overall health.

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Judd Jones is a director for The Hagadone Corporation in Coeur d’Alene.