Several sugars - a short discussion

Types of Sugars

James K. Sayre

Plants and animals that yield sugar:

Sugar Cane, Saccharum officinarum - grown in tropics

Sugar Beet, Beta vulgaris spp. - grown in temperate regions

Bees' Honey -

Maple syrup - from the sap of Maple trees.

Fruit sugars are found in ripe fruits.

Maple syrup is made from the spring sap running in Maple trees. It is produced by boiling down the maple sap to produce the maple syrup. It is made from the sap of the Sugar Maple, Acer saccharum, the Red Maple, Acer rubrum and the Black Maple, Acer nigrum. In its table form it contains about 5% sucrose, 25 - 35% glucose, 35- 45% fructose and 5- 7% maltose. It is made almost exclusively in northeastern North America, especially in Quebec, Vermont and New York.

Sugar - any of a class of sweet, soluble, crystalline carbohydrates, as the disaccharides and monosaccharides; sucrose; esp. when prepared as a crystalline or powdered substance used as a food and sweetening agent

- sugars are water-soluble carbohydrates

Fructose - a simple sugar - a crystalline monosaccharide - found in fruits, some vegetables and honey - fruit sugar - levulose - C6H12O6 - it is absorbed slowly by the body and does not require the release of insulin.

"Crystallized fructose is 100% pure." - Fortin.

Glucose - a crystalline monosaccharide occurring naturally in fruits, honey and blood; the commercial form also contains dextrose and maltose (it is stored in the liver and then released to the blood stream)

Sucrose - a pure crystalline disaccharide extracted from sugar cane or sugar beets and consisting of one glucose and one fructose joined together in the molecule - common table sugar - also found in fruits, vegetables and honey

Dextrose - a right-handed form of glucose found in plants and animals and in the human blood, and made by the hydrolysis of starch with acids or enzymes

Maltose - a white crystalline dextrorotatory disaccharide obtained by the actions of the diastase of malt on starch - it consists of two glucose units - called malt sugar

Malt sugar - another name for maltose

Levutose - another name for fructose

Fruit sugar - another name for fructose

Lactose - a white, crystalline disaccharide found in milk - consisting of glucose and galactose

Galactose - a white, crystalline monosaccharide, prepared by the hydrolyosis of lactose

Corn syrup - a mixture of sucrose and fructose

High-fructose corn syrup - a mixture of fructose and sucrose, with the fructose dominating

Honey - a thick, sweet, syrupy substance that bees make as food from the nectar of flowers - a mixture of fructose, glucose and sucrose.

Honey is approximately 40% fructose.

sugar alcohols include xylitol, sorbitol, mannitol and lycasin

Dextrin - in between sugar and starch - from starches being broken down by digestive enzymes

Notes:

Simple sugars may be monosaccharides or disaccharides.

Monosaccharides are single molecules of sugar. They include glucose, fructose, galactose and mannose.

Disaccharides are two monosaccharide molecules that share a single water molecule. They include sucrose, lactose and maltose.

Complex sugars, also called polysaccharides or complex carbohydrates, include starch and fiber.

Non-sugar sweetners:

Stevia - Stevia rebaudiana - family: Aster, Compositae or Chrysanthemum

This South American herb has been used for centuries by natives of Paraguay and other nearby countries to sweeten their Maté drinks. This small shrub contains a glycoside* in its leaves called Stevioside, which is a non-calorie natural sweetner that is about eight times sweeter than regular cane or beet sugar. It is now used throughout South America and in Japan as a regular sweetner. In 1991, the US FDA issued an import alert against Stevia, claiming that it had demonstrated a mutagenic effect on a particular strain of Salmonella bacteria. (I guess that the FDA wants to keep our Salmonella bacteria healthy and free from mutagens.) A more plausible explanation is that the FDA wants to protect the profits of the large corporations in the US which manufacture synthetic chemical sweetners such as NutraSweet (Aspartame), saccharine and Sucralose. A natural calorie-free sweetner such as Stevia would pose a severe threat to these synthetic chemical sweetners in the US market. Stevia has been widely accepted for use as a sweetner in South America and Asia. Stevia is mainly cultivated in Paraguay, Brazil, China and Japan. It is also cultivated in Canada and Mexico. It comes in several forms: a green powder, composed of the dried leaves of Stevia; an extract form as a white powder or in liquid. It is currently available in some health food shops.

The Stevia genus of plants contains about three hundred species. Stevia would appear to be useful for adult diabetics, as it would provide sweetness without raising blood glucose levels.

Other names: Ca-he-he.

Note: a glycoside is defined as any of a group of sugar derivatives, widely distributed in plants, which upon hydrolysis, yield a sugar and one or more other substances.

Artificial sweetners:

Saccharin - made from coal tar - first discovered by a German researcher in 1879 - restricted use since 1978 - link to cancer

Cyclamates - derived from Benzene - discovered in 1937 - use restricted in 1969 due to possible link to cancer

Aspartame - discovered in 1969 - possible harmful effects of ingestion - may trigger an inherited metabolic disorder: phenylketonuria - recommended limit of daily dose to 40 mg/Kg body wt.

Sucralose - discovered in 1976 - approved for use in Canada in 1991. Approved for use in US in 1998.

References:

Fortin, Francois, Editorial Director, The Visual Food Encycopedia, New York: Macmillan, 1996.

Herbert, Victor, Editor, The Mount Sinai School of Medicine Complete Book of Nutrition, 1990. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Neufeldt, Victoria, Editor in Chief, Webster's New World Dictionary of American English, 3rd College Ed., 1988. New York: Simon & S

Please note this disclaimer: consult competent medical and dietary authorities before embarking on use of fructose or any other sugars in one's diet. The essay is for informational use only. The author accepts no responsibility or legal liability arising from ingestion of additional sugar in one's diet.

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Web page last updated on 15 February 2004.