When it comes down to looking at the way that words are used in marketing, the use of sugar is a prime candidate as an example. Have you heard of these terms? Unsweetened, no sugar added, sugar-free, naturally sweetened all seem to suggest a healthy drink or food but you had best examine the ingredient list carefully. What do these terms (and others) really mean? This is a situation where sometimes the literal meaning is usually the one that is "true" but most of us hear what we think it implies rather than what the word says.
Let's start with the word unsweetened. It is not used consistently even in the market. Sometimes it is used to mean "without sweetness" -- such as unsweetened tea or coffee. However, it is also used for situations where added ingredients include sugar but no separate refined sugar or sweetener is added. For example, tea with cream is a sweetened drink because cream includes various sugars (primarily lactose). Unsweetened cereal means no refined sugar was added to the mix but almost all grains include sugars (maltose, fructose, and sucrose).
I used to buy a slice of "no sugar added" apple pie at a local restaurant. I love to cook and bake (it's really an at-home chemical laboratory) and know that it is possible to make an apple pie without any added sugar (one does have to do something to "draw out" the moisture from the apples, however, or it will be quite dry) because the apples have enough sugar within. But, it turns out that, at this restaurant, they actually make use of Splenda (sucralose-based) which is an "artificial sugar substitute". So, their definition of "no sugar added" really means "no caloric natural sweeteners added". I guess that it doesn't have the same ring to it -- but it is a lot more direct.
"Sugar free" is one of my least favorite marketing phrases. Unlike "unsweetened" which, at least sometimes, means no sweeteners are added -- it almost always means artificially sweetened. I guess that "chemically sweetened" doesn't have the same marketing pizazz as "sugar free". I keep hunting for a real sugar-free drink but water seems to be the only one that can be really trusted.
Finally, there is the term "naturally sweetened". Generally, this does have a meaning -- no refined sugars are added and no artificial sweeteners are included. This does not often mean without considerable sweetness as it usually means that extracted fruit juices are used in combination with the "primary" flavors. For solid foods, it means the same but the added sweetness comes from the other ingredients (like the tea with cream) in the mix.
So, how do we determine what is actually in the drink or food. Like most foods, one has to learn to read the labels (in countries where nutritional labels are required). First, read the list of ingredients. Ingredients that end with "alose" (NOT "ose" which is at the end of most natural sugars) or "itol" are likely to be artificial sweeteners. Natural sugars end with "ose" or are described with everyday words (sugar (sucrose), corn syrup (maple syrup is the only other included syrup of which I am aware is used). Check the order and frequency. The highest percentage come first but if the list includes sugar AND corn syrup AND fructose then the total might very well be first or second highest amount -- another marketing trick to shift the order of ingredients and help you to think it has less sugar.
After checking the list of ingredients, one has to look at the nutritional label. In the "carbohydrates" section, it will be broken down into dietary fiber and sugar. The sugar should correspond to the natural sugars in the ingredient list. When you add up the amount of sugar and dietary fiber, it will usually be less than the total amount of carbohydrates. The difference between these two amounts indicates the amount of more "complex" carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates are a classification of food elements that combine carbon and Hydrogen-Oxygen (think "hydration" -- or water added -- although hydrates are not quite the same as adding water). As from the previous blog on sugars, dietary carbohydrates can also be grouped into saccharides. The simple monosaccharides and bisaccharides are given the name of "sugar" while the polysaccharides are sometimes called "starches". Starches require the body to break them down into simpler molecules before using (as sugars). At any rate, the difference between the total of sugars and dietary fiber and total carbohydrates indicates the amount of "starch". As you can read from my earlier blogs on nutrition, the healthiness of starch depends on the mixture -- the ratio of dietary fiber versus sugar and simple starches should be kept high.
So, let the "buyer beware" -- the names used (and with many other aspects of life) have multiple meanings and uses. Marketing terms are used to make the consumer interested in the product -- not to inform. I really will talk about differences between "natural" and "artificial" sweeteners in my next blog but I thought that the use of marketing terms and sugar was important to understand first.
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Sunday, December 15, 2013
How Sweet it Is; sugars and the body
Our bodies, when we pay attention to them, include a group of tastes. These are usually referred to as sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami. They work by the chemicals activating specific sets of nerves on the tongue. Bitter tastes are associated with poisons and sweet with high-energy foods. It is rare, in nature, for one taste to dominate and this causes a huge set of possibilities. Also, the "flavor" of foods is how the brain interprets the taste, smell, and texture of the food in combination.
Since sweet tastes are an indication of higher-energy (calorie) foods, our bodies tend to favor sweet foods. Sweet tastes also activate a swallowing reflex within the mouth. (If a person is dehydrated but has trouble swallowing, try adding a single teaspoon of sugar to a glass of water.)
In the past, a "taste" for sugar has not been a problem as, within most of history, getting enough food has been a much greater problem than eating too much. With modern food processing, concentrated sweetness is a cheap method of making food more appealing and, thus, has become a problem for many people.
Natural sugars are a group of carbohydrates called saccharides. These may be monosaccharides which include glucose (a "blood sugar"), fructose (a "fruit sugar"), and galactose. Disaccharides include sucrose ("table sugar"), maltose ("grain sugar"), and lactose (a "dairy sugar"). I put these common referents in quotes because, although associated with these types of foods, the sugars are not exclusively in these foods. Other substances can also activate the sweet sensors of the tongue. These include a group of chemicals called glycosides, some proteins and amino acids, and even some inorganic compounds.
All fruits and vegetables include sugar as it is a by-product of the process of photosynthesis (conversion of water and minerals into food using solar energy). Some vegetation is considered a primary sugar source because the concentration of sugar is sufficient to warrant extraction and can be used directly as a sweetening agent for foods during cooking. Three of these are sugarcane, sugar beets, and Stevia leaves (which includes a glycoside rather than a saccharide)
Historically, natural sugars have been used as sweeteners -- adding to food to make them more enjoyable to eat. It is possible, by the process of extraction, to increase the percentage of sugar by eliminating the fiber (pulp) and leaving a solution of sugar and water (still including other water soluble vitamins and mineral compounds). A final method of concentration reduces, or eliminates, the amount of water and non-sweet compounds until only relatively "pure" sugar remains.
From the body's point of view, the unprocessed sugars are what the body was designed to appreciate. Eating an orange, combined with the pulp, is healthy (in moderation). Orange juice,with the pulp extracted, is much less healthy -- and a tablespoon of sucrose is the least healthy. Our bodies were not designed to deal with "pure", refined, sugars and making use of such within a diet can cause various problems, including an overwhelming of the pancreas causing diabetes.
In order to combat problems associated with natural sugars -- including high calorie intake and tooth decay (the sticky sugar can remain on the teeth as food for bacteria) -- humans have created "sugar substitutes". Many of these substitutes activate the sweet sensors on the tongue to a higher degree than natural sugars. This means that a much smaller amount may be used for equivalent sweetness (increasing profits and decreasing any caloric intake that may still exist).
This sounds like a win-win for producers of food as well as consumers but, as we will cover in the next blog, fooling "mother nature" can cause the body to react in ways that are not easily foretold.
Since sweet tastes are an indication of higher-energy (calorie) foods, our bodies tend to favor sweet foods. Sweet tastes also activate a swallowing reflex within the mouth. (If a person is dehydrated but has trouble swallowing, try adding a single teaspoon of sugar to a glass of water.)
In the past, a "taste" for sugar has not been a problem as, within most of history, getting enough food has been a much greater problem than eating too much. With modern food processing, concentrated sweetness is a cheap method of making food more appealing and, thus, has become a problem for many people.
Natural sugars are a group of carbohydrates called saccharides. These may be monosaccharides which include glucose (a "blood sugar"), fructose (a "fruit sugar"), and galactose. Disaccharides include sucrose ("table sugar"), maltose ("grain sugar"), and lactose (a "dairy sugar"). I put these common referents in quotes because, although associated with these types of foods, the sugars are not exclusively in these foods. Other substances can also activate the sweet sensors of the tongue. These include a group of chemicals called glycosides, some proteins and amino acids, and even some inorganic compounds.
All fruits and vegetables include sugar as it is a by-product of the process of photosynthesis (conversion of water and minerals into food using solar energy). Some vegetation is considered a primary sugar source because the concentration of sugar is sufficient to warrant extraction and can be used directly as a sweetening agent for foods during cooking. Three of these are sugarcane, sugar beets, and Stevia leaves (which includes a glycoside rather than a saccharide)
Historically, natural sugars have been used as sweeteners -- adding to food to make them more enjoyable to eat. It is possible, by the process of extraction, to increase the percentage of sugar by eliminating the fiber (pulp) and leaving a solution of sugar and water (still including other water soluble vitamins and mineral compounds). A final method of concentration reduces, or eliminates, the amount of water and non-sweet compounds until only relatively "pure" sugar remains.
From the body's point of view, the unprocessed sugars are what the body was designed to appreciate. Eating an orange, combined with the pulp, is healthy (in moderation). Orange juice,with the pulp extracted, is much less healthy -- and a tablespoon of sucrose is the least healthy. Our bodies were not designed to deal with "pure", refined, sugars and making use of such within a diet can cause various problems, including an overwhelming of the pancreas causing diabetes.
In order to combat problems associated with natural sugars -- including high calorie intake and tooth decay (the sticky sugar can remain on the teeth as food for bacteria) -- humans have created "sugar substitutes". Many of these substitutes activate the sweet sensors on the tongue to a higher degree than natural sugars. This means that a much smaller amount may be used for equivalent sweetness (increasing profits and decreasing any caloric intake that may still exist).
This sounds like a win-win for producers of food as well as consumers but, as we will cover in the next blog, fooling "mother nature" can cause the body to react in ways that are not easily foretold.
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