Added sugars: nowadays in order to take care of one’s own health, we need to become conscious consumers and thus be able to read and understand labels.
To start with, what are the added sugars?
These are sugars
that do not occur naturally in foods, but are being added to them in the production process to give the product specific, desirable qualities.
The most popular added sugars in foods are: white and brown sugar, dextrose, glucose-fructose syrup, maple syrup, melamine, honey.
Cane or beet sugar is the most popular sweetener in any home. It is sweet and consists of up to 99.7% of sucrose disaccharide. White sugar is purified from molasses in the production process to which it owes its color. This is a process also known as refining, and on the shelves you will find it by name refined sugar. Brown sugar becomes more and more accessible and easy to find BUT, unfortunately, it may be a plain white sugar, which has been colored with caramel or coffee to give it a brown color. It is worth paying attention to this when buying sugar. The best will be the one that will clearly have “unrefined sugar” written on the packaging, it will be naturally brown but also untreated, and consequently richer in minerals such as iron, calcium or magnesium. It is not, however, a rich source of them.
Added sugars. know them better
Melasa – This characteristic syrup is extracted from sugar in the process of its production. It contains about 40% of sucrose, and it is often used for the production of alcohol or baker’s yeast and feed. More sucrose content will be found in beet molasses than cane molasses.
Maple Syrup, harvested during spring thaw in Canada, is a malt containing 52-75% of sucrose. It is frequently used for dishes such as pancakes, waffles, porridge or muesli. It also has many minerals such as calcium, magnesium, manganese, zinc and polyphenols. It is a healthy alternative to honey.
Dextrose-D-glu obtained by hydrolysis of starch, gives a cooling effect, emphasizes the taste of dishes to which it is added such as ice cream (lowers the freezing temperature, improves consistency), has a sweetening ability and contains 70% sucrose.
Finally, a few words about glucose-fructose syrup. It is a solution of fructose and glucose produced from corn starch or initially from potato starch, rarely wheat. It has a great sweetness and today we find it practically everywhere, in any processed food product. What is the phenomenon of this sugar? First and foremost, it has a high solubility and a low viscosity. In addition, it is characterized by high microbiological stability, liquid form, which makes it easier to use in food production and transport. It has a low price, expressive taste and aroma, has a lot of functions in the food like binding, filling, gluing, taste and odour stabilizer. Unfortunately, it is not possible to estimate the consumption of this substance. Producers are also not obliged to provide the quantity of added syrup. There is also no data on this in the composition tables and nutritional value of the food. It is known, however, that its intake is constantly increasing, which contributes to the increase of obesity among children and adolescents, and among adults which leads to numerous diseases like diabetes and atherosclerosis.
It is said that in the diet of most European Union citizens, too much energy share in the daily ration of food comes from refined carbohydrates and simple sugars. So let’s read the labels carefully:
– when buying a product let’s choose those without glucose-fructose syrup written between the ingredients
– let’s choose sugars clearly marked as ‘unrefined’
-add a spoonful of maple syrup or honey to your breakfast muesli or porridge
Edited by Dr.ssa Agnieszka Tokarz
