Paige Harris Welcome to the first day of the Sugar Secrets Series!
Over the next week, you’ll be learning all about the sweet stuff; from its various names and sneaky add-ins to its overall effect on your body and mindset. That’s right, it even affects the way you think!
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
The first thing you really need to know is that sugar comes in many forms, and not all of them are created equal.
First we have refined sugar, aka the typical white granules you picture when you think of plain ol’ sugar. This table staple comes from the stems of the sugarcane plant or from sugar beet roots. To get the granules to look so white, it undergoes a chemical refinement process where the molasses, vitamins, and minerals are stripped from it.
Refined sugar has ZERO nutritional content. This means that when you eat a teaspoon’s worth, your body isn’t taking in any nutrients from it. Sure, it contains calories, so you will get some energy, but it provides no vitamins or minerals to your cells.
And don’t judge refined it on color alone. Brown sugar (both light and dark) is really just white sugar in disguise. Manufacturers just add a little bit of molasses back into it for color.
Next come the unrefined sugars, aka honey, maple syrup, molasses, coconut sugar, brown rice syrup, fruit & date sugars and many more. Manufacturers leave the vitamin and mineral content of these sweeteners alone, so many of them do provide some nutritional value. For example, date sugar contains as many antioxidants as a serving of blueberries.
No matter what form this sweet stuff comes in, it’s important to keep the amount you eat in check. At any given moment, our blood contains about 4 grams — or one teaspoon’s worth. Keep that number in mind the next time you reach for a glass of orange juice, which contains approximately six times more sugar than that in a single cup.
I tend to use more unrefined sugars when I’m baking. For example, my Hot Cocoa Muffins from last week use maple syrup as the sweetener!
Now you know the two most common types of sugars. But I bet you can’t guess how many names for it exist in the world today!
Give it some thought, and we’ll talk about it tomorrow!
If there are good and bad sugars is the limit of sugar you should have of each differ? Or do they have the same effect in the body? What is your recommended daily limit? I understand you said something about 4 grams but is wasn’t sure if that was what you were recommending.
Great question Rebecca! The American Heart Association recommends no more than ~38g per day for men and no more than 25g per day for women, but honestly I think it’s more important to just be aware of where sugar is coming into your diet. For example, I eat some kind of dessert every night and know that it’s full of some kind of sugar, but I try and minimize it in other places by choosing condiments and sauces and things without sugar. At the end of the day, there’s no daily requirement for sugar, so it really depends on your preferences and how your body responds to it. Does that help?
Yes!
Awesome! 🙂