Sugar and Fat

Sugar and Fat

             It is essential to learn few facts about sugar before you randomly cut down on your sugar intake.

             As mentioned earlier, all the natural food sources contain some amount of sugar.

It is a common misconception that sugar is directly responsible for an increase in weight and obesity.  One of the common arguments is that the foods containing sugar also contain fat. One of the facts is that the foods containing sugars and fat are very low in number. Sugar, like any other carbohydrate provides only 4 kcal/g of calories as opposed to fats, which provide 9 kcal/g of calories. There are other factors to count on. There are other nutrients, which have different effects on the food intake or on the rate of metabolism; therefore, they have different influences on the balance of energy and weight. Nutrients exercise an important effect on appetite and satiety, thus playing an important role in weight control. A commonly held misbelief for a long time was that the fats were more filling than carbohydrates.  Over the past few years, with due credits to scientific research, it is proved that carbohydrates bring a state of satiety more quickly than the fats. This happens due to the psychological and physiological mechanisms involved in the breaking down of carbohydrates.

Another misconception was that the foods containing sweet carbohydrates contributed to overeating by increasing the palatability of foods. It in now held, scientifically, that sugar is not responsible for overeating. It is again a myth that sugar turns into fat very fast. However, the fact is that the synthesis of fat from carbohydrates is negligible, because carbohydrates undergo oxidation at the priority higher than fats do.

You must clearly mark that eating sugar would not make you fat. However, eating extra calories without any significant physical activity would sure lead you to obesity. Also, remember if you see a label proclaiming “sugar free,” it does not mean that the ingredients are “calorie free.” It is true that such food would not contain added sugar, but there is no guarantee that it would be devoid of carbohydrates, fats and protein, the main constituents of an increase in your body weight. To get an exact idea on the content of calories and sugar in the ingredients of any food item, you must read the label of the container carefully.

 

Food sources that contain sugar

Soft drinks	Bakery goods	Biscuits	Dairy products	Jams and chutneys
Chocolates	Fruits	Cakes	Cookies	Pies
Rolls	Beer	Carbonated beverages	Fruit drinks	Liquor
Cream	Ice cream	Milk	Shakes	Fruit juices
Burgers	Grains	Cereals	Legumes	Meat
Poultry products	Nuts and seeds	Sweets	Vegetables	Cocoa powder
Salad dressings	Bread	Crackers	Candies	Tea and coffee

 

Snacks with high sugar content that you should avoid during a weight loss program

Cakes	Sponge	Jam	Chocolate	Cookies
Coffee	Fruit drinks (con)	Ice cream	Ice cream shakes	Cold drinks
Indian sweets	Candy	Jelly

Sugars
Names	Other common	Composition and manufacture	Sweetness	Food sources
	names
Sucrose	Table sugar	Extraction from sugar beet	1.0	Fruits, diary products, chocolate
		And sugar cane		preparations, pastry, biscuits, jams
				soft drinks, confectionery
Glucose	Dextrose	Hydrolysis of starch	0.7	Confectionery, pastry, biscuits, sweets
				chocolate preparations
Fructose	Fruit sugar	Hydrolysis of sucrose or	1.35	Fruits, honey, confectionery,
		transformation of starch		pastry, biscuits
Lactose	Milk sugar	Isolated from milk	0.3	Milk products
Invert sugar		Liquid blend of equal quantities of	1.0 - 1.1	Pastry, biscuits, confectionery
		glucose and fructose derived by
		hydrolysis of sucrose
Glucose syrups		Blended syrup of glucose,	0.3-0.6	Soft drinks, pastry, bakery, jams
		maltose, complex carbohydrates		ice cream, confectionery
		derived by a partial hydrolysis
		of starch
Isoglucose	High Fructose	Glucose syrup in which a part of	0.9 - 1.0	Soft drinks, pastry, biscuits,
	Corn Syrup	glucose is transformed in fructose		confectionery
	(HFCS)	(in practice 42 or 55 % fructose)
Inulin syrup	Very High	Hydrolysis of inulin (from chicory)	1.25	Soft drinks, ice cream, bakery
	Fructose Syrup	(80-85% fructose, 10-15% glucose)
	(VHFS)
Mannitol		Hydrogenation of sucrose	0.5 - 0.6	Confectionery, chocolate
				preparations
Sorbitol		Hydrogenation of glucose or invert	0.5 - 0.7	Confectionery, chocolate
		Sugar		preparations
Xylitol		Hydrogenation of xylose derived by	0.8 - 1.0	Confectionery, chocolate
		hydrolysis of xylan (extracted from		preparations
		birchwood, straw, corn cobs,…)
Maltitol/ Maltitol		Hydrogenation of corn syrup that	0.8 - 0.9	Confectionery, chocolate
syrup		has a high maltose content		preparations
		(hydrolysis product of starch)
Isomalt		Hydrogenation of a transformed	0.45 - 0.5	Confectionery, chocolate
		sucrose		preparations
Lactitol		Hydrogenation of lactose	0.4	Confectionery, chocolate
				preparations

Source: With written permission from Dr. Nathalie Henin, Scientific Counsellor, European Sugar Industry,  Sugar and Sugars (1998). CEFS Information Bulletin, vol.5 (2)