The No-sugar Challenge

Sugar has never been considered a nutritious food, yet it has nevertheless become a major component of our diet. Whether sugar is merely a source of "empty calories" or something more harmful has long been a subject of debate among dietitians. When you hear the word "sugar," you probably imagine white table sugar, also known as sucrose. There are actually a number of different types of sugar. Sugars are either single sugar molecules (monosaccharides) or two sugar molecules linked together (disaccharides), according to their chemical structure. These sugars are added to a variety of processed foods and sweets, such as cakes, cookies, candy, etc. There are also naturally occurring sugars in fruit and fruit juice. Sugar has been linked to a variety of illnesses and health problems - especially when consumed in excessive quantities - due to its ability to rapidly boost blood sugar and insulin levels. That’s why it’s important to get your sugar intake under control.



Finest grades - Powdered sugar, confectioner's sugar (0.060 mm), or icing sugar (0.024 mm), are produced by grinding sugar to a fine powder. A small amount of anti-caking agent to prevent clumping may be added, this is either cornstarch (1%-3%) or tri-calcium phosphate. There are also sugar cubes for convenient consumption of a normal amount. Brown sugars are obtained in the late stages of sugar refining, when sugar forms fine crystals with significant molasses content, or by coating white refined sugar with a cane molasses syrup. Their color and taste become stronger with increasing molasses content, as does their moisture retaining properties. They are also prone to hardening if exposed to the atmosphere although this is reversible. Sucrose is a disaccharide of glucose (left) and fructose, important molecules in the body. In biochemistry, a sugar is the simplest molecule that can be identified as a carbohydrate. These include monosaccharides and disaccharides, trisaccharides and the oligosaccharides; these being sugars composed of 1, 2, 3 or more units.



O), where there are carbon-oxygen double bonds, making the sugars reactive. Most sugars conform to (CH2O)n where n is between 3 and 7. A notable exception is deoxyribose, which as the name suggests is "missing" an oxygen. As well as being classified by their reactive group, sugars are also classified by the number of carbons they contain. Derivatives of trioses (C3H6O3) are intermediates in glycolysis. Pentoses ( 5 carbon sugars) include ribose and deoxyribose, which are present in nucleic acids. Ribose is also a component of several chemicals that are important to the metabolic process, including NADH and ATP. Hexoses ( 6 carbon sugars) include GlycoMode glucose formula which is a universal substrate for the production of energy in the form of ATP. Through photosynthesis plants produce glucose which is then converted for storage as an energy reserve in the form of other carbohydrates such as starch, or as in cane and beet as sucrose.



Many pentoses and hexoses are capable of forming ring structures. In these closed-chain forms the aldehyde or ketone group is not free, so many of the reactions typical of these groups cannot occur. Glucose in solution exists mostly in the ring form at equilibrium, with less than 0.1% of the molecules in the open-chain form. Monosaccharides in a closed-chain form can form glycosidic bonds with other monosaccharides, creating disaccharides, such as sucrose, and polysaccharides such as starch. Glycosidic bonds must be hydrolysed or otherwise broken by enzymes before such compounds can be used in metabolism. After digestion and absorption the principal monosaccharides present in the blood and internal tissues are: glucose, GlycoMode Blood Sugar support fructose, and galactose. The term "glyco-" indicates the presence of a sugar in an otherwise non-carbohydrate substance: for example, a glycoprotein is a protein to which one or more sugars are connected. Simple sugars include sucrose, fructose, glucose, galactose, maltose, lactose and mannose. As far as disaccharides are concerned, the most common are sucrose (cane or beet sugar - made from one glucose and one fructose), lactose (milk sugar - made from one glucose and one galactose) and maltose (made of two glucoses).