Question about sugar

[FiddleFit]

Hi everyone,

Does anyone know the alternative names used on product ingredient labels to refer to "High Fructose Corn Syrup"? My latest nutritional project is to weed out as much HFCS and transfats from my food as possible. I still want sweetness in my food, but I'd rather get it from the natural sugars already present in fruits and vegetables, and small amounts of honey in baked goods. On that note, is honey considered "glucose", "fructose", or some other kind of "-ose"? And is evaporated cane juice a form of HFCS?

Thank you for any information you may have,
Sandra
-capping her sweet tooth

 

[Maximus]

I don't know all the various names, but here's a link that might help:

http://www.sugar.org/facts/types.html

 

[Bobbi]

These aren't corn syrup but they are all sugars and since your body can't differetiate between them, they have the same affect on your blood sugar. Sucrose and dextrose are a couple more oses. Lactose is milk sugar. Evaporated cane juice, cane crystals, evaporated juice are fructose or fruit sugars, and are more likely to be found in natural foods . Even the ones found in healthy foods ones can be trouble makers if they are too abundant. You can eat a lot of sugar unwittingly. Sugar is sneaky, isn't it? I believe honey is usually labelled as honey. Although I don't sweeten much anymore, I favor Sonoran desert honey. It's supposed to help with allergies since the bees get pollen from the allergens which make Tucson noses run. Good luck!
Bobbi http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/chicken.gif "Chick's rule!"

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

- Mary Oliver

 

[FiddleFit]

Maximus and Bobbi,

Thanks for your replies. There seems to be some disagreement in general about how the different sugars are metabolized by the body; some say it doesn't make a difference, and others argue that it does. I've found that sugar stimulates my appetite beyond normal hunger, and makes me crave more sugar and salt, so I've decided to just eliminate it as much as possible. I also think it is extremely important to get lots of carbs to replace glycogen in the muscles, but I want to get that from natural foods, such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Like you said, Bobbi, when you start looking at labels, it's amazing how much hidden sugar is in your food. By the way, now I'm looking for sandwich spreads that are not fat or sugar based. I used to use either honey-mustard, bbq sauce, cranberry sauce, or low-fat Miracle Whip on my sandwiches. All of these are sugar based, so now I'm stuck. I used yellow mustard on my ham sandwich and that was great. But surely there are more options than just mustard?

It took a couple of days for my tastebuds to adjust to less sweetness, but now that it has, I have to say that my appetite appears to be under better control. It's nice to bite into a raw baby carrot and actually find it tastes sweet.

Rambling on,
Sandra

 

[Author]

You might try stevia. It's a natural herb from South America and has been used for thousands of years with no side effects -- it does not affect blood sugar and like I said, has no side effects ever listed or noted in all this time. It takes a little getting used to, but if you want a sweet, sweet taste -- more like a sugar taste use it with vegetable glycerin -- you have to alter your recipes a little and it takes a little getting used to, but it's really worth the effort.

Sugar is the bad guy -- and although fruitose occurs naturally in fruits and such, you don't get as much of a jolt from a whole piece of fruit as you do from the sugars in the fruit minus the fruit -- plus with a whole piece of fruit, you are also getting all the fiber and other nutrients and so these fruit juice sweetened things, although they sound good, is not the same thing as eating a piece of fruit, and will still put on weight -- this is particularly true of fruit juice. Think of how many oranges go into one glass or OJ -- and without the fiber.

Honey is a good alternative as is agave nectar, if you can get it -- but they are sugars. I would go with stevia, myself. It can be gotten at any Health Food Store, as can agave nectar.

 

[Krille007]

Hi Sandra,

another thing what tells you, that there might be a lot of hidden sugar in it is LOW FAT. They take the fat out, but they need something to substitute it with and that is sugar.

So you could for example put regular mayonaise on your sandwiches, I mean you don't have to go crazy on how much you put on it and your body needs fat to function properly, so that would be an alternative.

Also with all the low carb products, you can be sure that they don't put sugar in their product. So look in the grocery store for some low carb options you can put on your sandwich.

Just my 2 cents
Have a great day
Kristine ;-)

 

[Bobbi]

Hi, Sandra! It's good rambling and I admire your decision to eliminate sugar. I never realized how pervasive it was until I did and it is everywhere. I attempt to use products with less than 5 grams of sugar on the label and now that I've made it a way of life, I have adjusted nicely and find my swet tooth is dormant. I do use the evaporated cane and cane crystals and concentrated fructose much more willingly than corn syrup which is usually in products that have a bafflingly long list of ingredients. Artificial sweeteners seem to leave me with a strange aftertaste and since my main thing is green tea, I don't sweeten at all. I remember dumping so much sugar on cereal when we were kids, I shudder at the thought! Now I eat it plain with a not too sweet or naturally sweetened soymilk or a touch of honey. One thing that amazes me is that PMS has virtually disappeared and carb cravings with it. I think it affected my mood horribly. PMS used to turn me into a carb eating machine. I have been using Hain safflower mayo and it does indeed have dehydrated cane juice as the 8th ingredient and honey as the 11th but it lists 0 carbs so it's mostly fat. I use about a teaspoon anyway. I love using avacados to replace mayonaise and mustard is a favorite of mine. It's been nearly impossible to find yougurt without too much sugar but I have been buying fruit on the bottom yogurt and not stirring it all together completly so its much less sweet but sweet enough. I keep bittersweet chocolate on hand for when I want a treat but a small square always does the trick. I know I have eliminated a fair amount of sugar from a diet I thought was very clean.
Bobbi http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/chicken.gif "Chick's rule!"

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

- Mary Oliver

 

[FiddleFit]

<Triumphant sounding "ha ha!"> What a helpful bunch of people you all are. So, I went to the grocery store to pick up some more fresh fruit, and took a gander at the sauce aisle, and the breakfast foods. For sandwiches, hamburgers, etc., I picked up a 12 vegetable antipasto sauce and some marmite. For a sweeter kick, such as with chicken or ham, I picked up some sugar free jam, sweetened with Sucralose (Splenda), which I don't mind so much. I also picked up some pancake syrup made by the same company (E.D. Smith), also sweetened with sucralose. As far as I can tell, the only way to get any sort of sauces that are truly sugar free, or not artifically sweetened, is to make them yourself, and I do not have that kind of time. However, I think I will make apple butter in my crock pot this weekend. That would be great for ham sandwiches.

Bobbi, it's really good to hear that the sweet tooth can be capped. And if it alleviates PMS, then all the better!!!! Personally I am not concerned that sugar itself is a health hazard, but it is, for me, a trigger to eating foods that contain too many empty calories, and make it very difficult to be satisfied with "clean" eating.

For a long time now I've stopped buying presweetened yogurts, but buy the plain, low-fat stuff and simply had a whole bunch of fresh fruit into it. I found it didn't take long to get used to the tarter taste of the yogurt, and it enhanced the natural sweetness of the fruit. It's too bad you can't buy single-serving sized containers of plain yogurt and just fruit mixed together.

Okay, I'd better get some work done today.
Cheers!
Sandra

 

[Bobbi]

If you ever come across Torani caramel syrup, (the type they use in iced coffee) look for the one made with Splenda, it's splendid! I'll go to yogurt with fruit next. I love tart and bitter, salty and spicy way more than sweet. For awhile, I ate yogurt daily but I off it for now. One thing is certain, I'm hungry and it's time to cook dinner.
Bobbi http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/chicken.gif "Chick's rule!"

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

- Mary Oliver