How Sweet it Isn't!
At the beginning of this century, when the health movement was just getting started, refined sugar was Enemy #1. Pioneers in this area almost universally believed that health and longevity required the total elimination of sucrose from the diet.
Despite these early warnings, U.S. sugar consumption has been steadily increasing. According to the most recent statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Americans take in 20 teaspoons of sugar per person, per day--and that's just added sugar, not the sugars that occur naturally in fruits and other foods.
Even with the introduction of artificial sweeteners such as saccharin and aspartame later in the century, sugar remained the sweetener of choice. These lower-cost, non-caloric "sugar substitutes" initially threatened the sugar industry, but their downsides quickly made them even less attractive than plain old sugar.
Research shows that eating foods artificially sweetened with these chemicals increases a person's cravings for sweets. This finding quickly negated the highly touted weight-loss benefits of artificially sweetened foods and drinks. Even more significant is that each popular artificial sweetener has now been shown to cause a long list of health problems, from headaches to an increased risk of cancer.
Fructose Isn't the Solution
The manufacturers of many so-called "health foods" have led the way in denouncing the use of artificial sweeteners, and fortunately people seem to be listening. Unfortunately though, health food manufacturers are now touting the fruit sugar fructose as a healthy alternative. They point out that because fructose is the natural sugar in fruit, it doesn't lead to the quick spikes in blood sugar levels associated with sucrose. These spikes trigger mood swings and energy level fluctuations, and place additional stress on the pancreas and adrenal glands.
What makes this unfortunate is that the manufacturers' claims about fructose are only half-right. It's true that fructose consumed in fresh, whole fruits doesn't cause spikes in blood sugar. But when that same fructose is extracted from the fruit and used in processed foods, it acts just like sugar... if not worse!
Research has recently revealed that the consumption of fructose, sucrose and all the other forms of sugar could turn out to be one of the biggest "hidden" threats to our overall health. When the early pioneers sounded the warning against sugar, it seems they knew exactly what they were talking about.
Glycation (the Maillard Reaction)
One of the major problems stemming from sugar consumption has to do with a chemical process called glycation (or the Maillard Reaction). If you're concerned about preventing health problems like heart and artery disease, Alzheimer's, cataracts, vision loss and aging in general, glycation is something that you should know about.
In simplest terms, glycation refers to the combination of a sugar and a protein molecule. Most everyone has seen the effects of glycation in the kitchen. During baking, sugar (whether it be white table sugar--sucrose; fruit sugar--fructose; or milk sugar--lactose) combines with certain amino acids in the grain proteins of flour. The chemical reaction that takes place causes loaves of bread and pastries to turn brown. The same reaction also occurs when meats are glazed and coffee is roasted.
Glycation also occurs in the body when the sugar in your blood (glucose) combines with the amino acids tryptophan, lysine and arginine. During this reactive process, certain by-products are created and released within the body. The byproducts are known scientifically as Advanced Glycation Endproducts. And in terms of what Advanced Glycation Endproducts do inside the body, well, their acronym says it all: AGE.