Sweet Villain

CEBU, Philippines - More nutritious but less in calories, brown sugar is strongly encouraged by the National Nutrition Council.

It is said that sugar is stripped of its minerals during the refining process that turns it into white sugar. Sugar cane is high in potassium, magnesium, calcium and iron. Muscovado or brown sugar tends to retain these minerals in small amounts and is lower in calories. A teaspoon of muscovado or brown sugar has about 11 calories while the average teaspoon of white sugar has 16 calories.

Sugar has often been blamed as a dietary villain causing obesity and diabetes. There is a need though, to understand this villain. So long as it is not taken in excess, sugar is good for the body because some of the food we eat are changed into sugar through digestion. Sugar is then absorbed into the bloodstream. Sugar can be used as fuel for the body but only with a hormone called “insulin.” It is the pancreas that produces the insulin hormones that help sugar to move from the bloodstream into the cells of the body.

It is said that diabetes occurs when there is not enough insulin or the insulin produced is not working as efficiently as it should. What happens is that too much sugar stays in the bloodstream and is not absorbed into the cells of the body which can be used as fuel. That is why diabetic patients are administered insulin medication to enable the sugar to turn into fuel.

To fully appreciate brown sugar from white sugar, you must understand what is in sugar that would make it a dietary villain, a sweet nothing or a sweetener friend. Sugar by any name is sugar. Chemists describe “simple” sugars to include glucose, fructose and galactose. Each of these has six carbon atoms, 12 hydrogen atoms and six oxygen atoms. Sucrose or the regular table sugar is the combination of glucose and fructose.

When “molasses” is removed in the processing, what is left behind is white sugar. It is said that molasses can contain microscopic amounts of hundreds of vitamins and minerals.

Granted you don’t like brown sugar on your coffee, eating fruits and vegetables can give you glucose and fructose found in sugar. You can get lactose from milk. Much of the simple carbohydrates are sugars added to processed foods like sodas and cookies. Soda alone supplies one-third of added sugar.

So will eating sweets like cake, ice cream and cookies cause weight gain or obesity? Fact is, it is not the sugar or starch in cakes, ice cream or cookies that cause obesity but the fat. The more you eat fat-laden dessert, the more likely you will grow fat.

Bottomline is, even if you use brown sugar on cake and ice cream, if you eat these in excessive amounts and don’t exercise, you will most likely gain weight and grow fat. It’s a sweet choice. ?