Sifting Through Sugar

Do you find yourself confused by the different options for sweetening your food? Wondering if unrefined sugar is truly better than refined white sugar? Is honey better than agave? How about xylitol or stevia?

One of the key considerations is the amount of fructose, which gives food its sweet taste. Fructose makes up 50% of table sugar, and occurs naturally in fruits and even some vegetables.

Fructose, like alcohol places a burden in the liver. Unlike alcohol, fructose kicks the liver into fat storage mode, which can lead to insulin resistance and obesity.
 The resulting metabolic syndrome is perceived as a lack of discipline or willpower, when in fact the problem is biochemical.

The key it seems is keeping sugar in its place. . Historically, sugar has been considered a special treat rather than an entitlement. Dr. Robert Lustig, author of Fat Chance, Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease says it's best to stick with fructose in its natural form.

"Naturally occurring fructose comes from sugarcane, fruits, some vegetables, and honey. The first three have way more fiber than fructose, and the last is protected by bees. Nature made sugar hard to get. Man made it easy to get."

We made it very easy to get when we invented high fructose corn syrup in the 1970s. HFCS is processed with chemicals such as caustic soda (which may or may not contain mercury), alpha-amylase, hydrochloric acid, and isomerase, using corn (likely to be genetically modified) as its substrate. The corn starts out with no fructose, but after the enzymatic process yields a substance that is 55% fructose and 45% glucose. Clearly, HFCS comes with a set of risks.

However, the fructose content is virtually the same as table sugar. Therefore, avoiding HFCS may be a good step, but not the solution.

Some of the highest concentrations of fructose occur in unexpected places. Fruit juice concentrate can go as high as 90%, depending on sugars added or the type of fruit used. Apple juice concentrate is about 70% fructose, while orange juice concentrate comes in at 50%.

Agave nectar is derived from the yucca family of plants and requires high amounts of processing to convert the root bulb into syrup. The process is not unlike the one used to convert cornstarch into HFCS. Depending on the process used, the fructose content can range from 55% to 90%.

The similarities between naturally occurring and manufactured sweeteners can be seen in the following graph:

What about artificial sweeteners?
Sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose (Splenda) are 100% chemically derived and thus present a challenge to our already overburdened cells. These chemical compounds easily cross the blood-brain barrier, carrying with them the potential to do neurological damage.

Unrefined sugars include sucanat, rapadura, and turbinado. Rapadura and sucanat are similar dehydrated sugarcane juice products. Both retain the molasses. Turbinado adds the extra step of removing impurities and surface molasses with a centrifuge.

Sugar alcohols such as mannitol, sorbitol, and xylitol are neither sugar nor alcohol, but do add sweetness. All three occur naturally in various fruits and vegetables; however, sorbitol is most often produced from corn syrup. These substances are not fully digested by the body and can  lead to abdominal pain, cramping, or gas.

Other options worth considering are stevia and lo han. Lo han is derived from the Chinese monk fruit, while stevia is an herb native to South America. Both can be found with varying degrees of processing, but do not carry the fructose burden common to other sweeteners.Keeping sugar in its place, unrefined or otherwise, can go a long way toward protecting our health.

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What's Up with HFCS?

We just can't seem to get enough high-fructose corn syrup. It's in foods ranging from yogurt to canned fruit, from ketchup to breakfast cereal. Yet many consumers are beginning to question the health effects of HFCS. Do we really need to be concerned?

The Corn Refiners Association says no. The association offers two websites, SweetSurprise.com and CornSugar.com, dedicated to the promotion of corn sugar. The websites assure consumers that your body can't tell the difference between corn sugar and cane sugar. (For a summary, see their one-minute promotional video.)

A 2010 study at Princeton University says otherwise. The study found significant weight gain in lab animals when given HFCS for a significant period of time. The animals also experienced abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen.

According to the Corn Refiners Association, HFCS contains no artificial ingredients. This implies the product is natural. If the product were truly natural, wouldn't we be able to take an ear of corn, press on the kernels, and extract HFCS? The process, however, is far more complicated.

Corn is milled to produce corn starch. The starch is processed to yield corn syrup. The glucose which is produced is transformed into fructose with the addition of enzymes. The resulting syrup (after enzyme conversion) contains approximately 42% fructose and is called HFCS 42. Some of the 42% fructose is then purified to 90% fructose, HFCS 90.

The enzymes, however, are industrially produced. Alpha-amylase is produced by a bacterium, Bacillus sp. in most cases. An enzyme called glucoamylase breaks the sugar chains down even further. Unlike alpha-amylase, glucoamylase is produced by Aspergillus, a fungus, in a fermentation vat.

Many of the enzymes are genetically modified, as is the corn itself in most cases.

Furthermore, the synthetic glutaraldehyde is used in the manufacturing process. This chemical is used as a biocide in oil pipelines, a slimicide in paper manufacturing, a preservative in cosmetics, a disinfectant in animal houses, and is among the chemicals used for embalming. The Centers for Disease Control warns of adverse health effects as the result of exposure to glutaraldehyde.

Is all of this enough to merit avoiding HFCS? Maybe it's time to choose a better alternative than those competing breakfast cereals shown above.

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Valentine's Day Treat

We enjoyed a strawberry pie for Valentine's Day this week. The pie consisted of three ingredients: Sprouted almonds, coconut, and organic strawberries. Life without sweets has been an adjustment. We went five months without almonds and fruit in order to "kick" the sugar habit. It helped. Our tastes have markedly changed. The strawberry pie tasted delicious.

In his recent article Easy Changes With a Dramatic Effect, alternative health researcher and clinician Dr. David Williams writes,

One of the most beneficial changes you can make is to get the sugar and refined carbohydrates out of your diet. Our bodies were never designed to handle the obscene amounts of simple carbohydrates they are being subjected to. Research of late has been confirming what all of us “health nuts” have been stressing for decades: sugar kills. It took a while for scientists to confirm exactly how, but it’s now there for everyone to see.

■ Sugar and simple carbs (refined grains, high-fructose corn syrup, etc.) adversely affect blood lipids, increasing your risk for heart disease and stroke through fat accumulation, metabolic syndrome, obesity, premature aging, and type 2 diabetes.

■ Sugar molecules bond with proteins to create AGEs (advanced glycation endproducts)—which wreak havoc on blood vessels, including those of the heart and kidneys. AGEs are responsible for many of the long-term complications of diabetes.

■ Cancer cells thrive on sugars, particularly fructose.

It has been demonstrated that cancer cells actually metabolize glucose and fructose differently from other cells. While cancer thrives on both, it uses fructose specifically to proliferate. It’s no wonder that cancer has moved quickly up the list of killers in our society since we started adding high-fructose corn syrup to everything from sodas to bread. With such damning and irrefutable research, I still don’t understand why it hasn’t become standard practice to immediately put cancer patients on fructose-free diets to help disrupt cancer growth.

And, since our immune systems are trying to eliminate mutated, potentially cancerous cells on a daily basis, why would we even risk supplying these cells with the very compound they need to survive, grow, and spread within our body? Are soft drinks and high-fructose sweetened foods really that hard to eliminate when you realize the cancer connection?

Our health crisis provided the much-needed motivation to move away from refined sugars. One of our first treats was our strawberry pie, which included dates and honey. (The recipe can be viewed here.)

Here is our adapted Valentine's Day recipe:

4 tbls. coconut oil
2 c. shredded coconut
2 c. sprouted almonds

(Next time I may add mulberries or goji berries.)

Process in food processor. Press dough into pie plate.

4 c. shredded coconut
4 tbls. coconut oil
4 c. frozen or fresh strawberries

Blend in high-powered blender. Spoon into pie crust. Refrigerate.

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The Truth About High Fructose Corn Syrup

One of the best and most immediate things we can do for our health is to eliminate high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) from our diet. This is easier said than done, as it is ubiquitous to the Standard American Diet (SAD). Next to air, water, and salt, HFCS is the cheapest ingredient in our current food chain. HFCS is found in breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, condiments, and much more.

How exactly is HFCS made? Anyone battling a toxic mold exposure should be aware. According to CNN's Eatocracy website:

The corn syrup is made by first steeping kernels of corn in a solution of 122°F-140°F water and a small percentage of sulfur dioxide - to prevent excessive bacterial growth - for 30-40 hours. This hydrates the kernels, more than doubling their size, and breaks gluten bonds down to release starch.

The steeping water, which then contains nutrients as a result of the process, is condensed for use in animal feed and fermentation processes. The kernels are coarsely ground to break the germ down, then spun in cyclone germ separators. First, the germ is pumped onto screens and has the starch washed off it, then it's sent through chemical and mechanical processes to extract corn oil, which is then refined. The germ residue is used in animal feed.

The corn and starch are then sent through a second, more intensive milling process that releases the starch and gluten from the fiber in the kernel. The fiber is screened out, milled again, then piped off to - you guessed it - become animal feed. The starch and gluten that remains is piped off to a starch separator.

In this next centrifuge, gluten and starch separate easily. The gluten is sent off to become, yes, animal feed. The starch is diluted, washed 8-14 times to remove any residual gluten protein, and then rediluted and washed again to produce high quality starch. Some of this starch is dried and sold as unmodified corn starch, and the rest converted into corn syrups and dextrose - also known as D-glucose.

From this humble kernel comes:

Hulls: used for animal feed and scientists are working on new applications for corn fiber oil, patented as "AmaizingOil" and a corn fiber gum, "Zeagen," which could be used as a thickener in culinary and industrial applications

Oil: used for cooking, biodiesel fuel, paint, ink, pharmaceuticals and other products

Protein: used as animal feed or as an herbicide

Starch: used for fabric sizing, surface coating, adhesives, anticaking agents, mold-release agents, dusting powder, thickening agents, "drilling mud" employed to cool down superheated oil drilling bits, dextrose and corn syrups

It's that last one we're after. The starch, in a water suspension, is treated with enzymes - namely alpha-amylase, which is derived from a bacteria - to break down long chemical chains of pure glucose into shorter chains called polysaccharides. Then these shorter chains are treated with an enzyme, glucoamylase - which is derived from a fungus called Aspergillus. This fermentation converts the mixture, or "slurry" into almost pure glucose. If other sugars like maltose are desired, different combinations of enzymes and acids are used, for varying times.

This glucose mixture is then poured over columns containing an enzyme called glucose-isomerase, which converts the pure glucose into a glucose-fructose mixture. This is then distilled to a 90% fructose solution using a process called liquid chromatography.

This higher fructose liquid is then blended back into the original mixture to net out at a solution of 55% fructose and 45% glucose: known in the industry as high fructose corn syrup or HFCS.

Despite the complicated process and high cost of at least one key ingredient - the glucose-isomerase - HFCS is often a cheaper ingredient than sugar for manufacturers, for several reasons. Because it can be produced domestically, it is not subject to the USDA tariffs and quotas that drive up the price of cane sugar. It can also easily be packed into tankers and driven across country. Additionally, corn subsidies to US farmers - $3,975,606,299 in 2009 alone - make corn a cheap and plentiful commodity.

And because of its relative inexpensiveness, high fructose corn syrup is a common sweetening agent in countless packaged foods, from soft drinks and baked goods, to tomato sauce, salad dressings, jellies and ketchup.

That makes for some pretty sweet business for the makers of "corn sugar" – as the Corn Refiners Association is now lobbying the Food and Drug Administration to call the stuff.

To read the article in its entirety as well as participate in a survey regarding your previous knowledge about HFCS, click here.

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