Hi there. Dr. C here and I have a special guest in the studio with me today. You want to say hi.
Dr C’s Son Ryan
Hi my name is Ryan and I am Dr. C’s son and looks like from the title we are going to be talking about 257 names of sugar which is the best.
Dr C
Yeah so this is a big thing. There are so many different versions of sugar and it surprises me to hear about just the number of ways in which it is hidden in food. There is so little clarity and so many versions really try to play themselves off as healthy. As if they are good for you or are better and people are really tricked by that. So we have 257 different names. We are going to go through a bunch of these. Probably not every single one but we are going to talk about ones that might not be obvious sources. So Ryan do you want to read all 257 names and talk about each one of them for us real quick.
Dr C’s Son Ryan
Pass
Dr C
I am just kidding. So what is the first one up on the list. Are you able to read that all right.
Dr C’s Son Ryan
Agave Nectar
Dr C
Yeah Agave Nectar and there is also Agave Syrup and those are all next to each other. So that is a plant. You know that prickly plant out in the dessert that has got those little spikes that sometimes we would trim and make needles out of to sew things up that are torn.
Dr C’s Son Ryan
You mean that has gluten and we use as tooth picks.
Dr C
Yeah. So its the root of the Agave Plant and the root of that plant is something that you can make syrup out of. You can let it age. You have to ferment it. There is a certain way to cook it. There is a syrup that comes out of that and it is something that is certainly sweet tasting. It turns out it is something that is very high in fructose. As we will talk about you know sugars are Monosaccharides. Mono means one and a saccharide means a small sweet molecule. So sugars are things that are Monosaccharides as opposed to polysaccharide. Poly means many. Di means two. So a disaccharide is two sugars. A Monosaccharide is one sugar and a polysaccharide is a whole bunch, so many. So foods that are polysaccharides would be like beans or potatoes or carrots. So they actually got sugar but there is a lot of them that are all packed together. So what happens when you eat those foods is that it takes a long time for the body to pull those sugar molecules apart. They are not rushing into your blood stream. What happens if you drop a match on a puddle of gasoline? What happens to that?
Dr C’s Son Ryan
It lights on fire and blows up.
Dr C
It happens pretty fast huh. So imagine that happening in your body. Would that be a good thing?
Dr C’s Son Ryan
Well no.
Dr C
So what if you wanted to keep yourself warm all night long. Would the puddle of gasoline and match work? Would you be warm all night from that?
Dr C’s Son Ryan
Well for a couple of seconds and then you would die.
Dr C
If you could rather have a slow burning log would that work better?
Dr C’s Son Ryan
Probably.
Dr C
Yeah it would. You could control where the heat is. You could get the right distance from it. It could burn for a long time. It is the exact same way inside of our body in terms of how we burn fuel. Carbs are one of our main sources of fuel and the ones that are like logs are polysaccharides. They are lots of little tiny pieces stuck together. We have to pull them apart very slowly and we burn them very slowly and we get lots of steady fuel from that and our bodies can control that pretty well. Monosaccharides and Disaccharides, the more simple sugars, they burn like gasoline. They burn fast and they hurt us.
For The Monosaccharides we got Gluctose, Fructose and Galactose. Those are the main three common Monosaccharides in the diet. Out of all of those it turns out that frutcose may be the most harmful. So Fructose is only metabolized by your liver which means your liver has to work really hard to process Fructose. Where as Gluctose and Galactose can be used more directly by your muscles and other parts of your body. Our livers have a lot to do now a days. Any where we live. Even in a clean room like this there are things from the carpet and things from the panes. I mean we have got clean carpets and clean panes but there is still things that are volatile organic compounds and there are still solvents and our liver has to process those. We also have to break down all the waste from the air and our normal waste from our body. So if our liver is working on Fructose it has a hard time and it makes it get backed up with a sewer full of sludge. We can not move our blood through it very well and it makes us sick. It makes us sore, tired and cranky. It does all that stuff. Fructose is hard on the liver. So back to Agave Nectar and that plant. It is even higher in Fructose then even plain old table sugar is so it is not better. So now we get to evaporated cain juice.
That is sugar. It is a fancy name for sugar. It is not different. Some of these are rather rare. Apple sugar. Apple syrup. You know fruits are good things. There is really no data saying that simple unprocessed fruits do anything bad but fruit juices, dried fruits, tropical fruits and high amounts can. Somewhere along the way they are no different then sugar. In fact that little bottle of water we have right there. If that was full of coke and we had one that was full of orange juice do you know which one would have the most sugar?
Dr C’s Son Ryan
The orange juice.
Dr C
Yeah. That is wild. Yeah it would actually have more sugar then the coke would.
Dr C’s Son Ryan
You should not drink coke anyways.
Dr C
Yes and there is also a lot of sugars in fruit juices. So yeah even syrups and fruit juices are good to be aware of. Barley malt, barley malt syrups. Some of the malt syrups. Those are a little lower in Fructose then a lot of the sugars are. There higher in a thing called maltose. So Maltose is a Disaccharide. It is a two molecule sugar. It is two glutcose stuck together, so there is no Fructose. You know sucrose is the main classic table sugar and most types of sugars are really just different names for Sucrose and Sucrose is one Glucose and Fructose so it is still hard on the body.
Another new one is coconut sugar. That sounds pretty healthy huh?
Dr C’s Son Ryan
It seems like everything is natural sugars from natural foods.
Dr C
Do you crack a coconut and does sugar fall out?
Dr C’s Son Ryan
Not all sugar is like the white sugar you find in the bag.
Dr C
Do you crack a coconut and does sugar fall out? So is coconut sugar natural? Its pretty concentrated. Its the sweet stuff of coconut taken out and it is also super high in Fructose and it is also a type of Fructose that is not very well stuck together so it hits the body faster. Um D-fructose, Dextrose, Dextran, Dextrin and Dixie Crystals, backward organic cane syrup juice and D-xylose. So there are things which are sugar alcohols. These would be things like Xylose and Xylotol would be a good example of that. Mannitol and Zorbotol. So here is the thing. The sugar alcohols there are many that are online and you talk about them being poisonous and toxic and having these solvent residues but you know good or bad we do not absorb them. When we eat them we poop it all out. There is not that much from them that gets kept in our bloodstream. So even if we do not like them we are not really absorbing them. So that is good in that they are not interacting with our liver or our kidneys. The one thing that could be bad. How could that be a problem? What happens if you eat a whole bag of sugar free jelly beans?
Dr C’s Son Ryan
You poop too much.
Dr C
So the one bad thing with the sugar alcohols is that they can cause loose stools. Also if someone has poor digestion or digestive function that can certainly aggravate that and that is not ideal. I think about a lot of things and it is easy to polarize and say oh for some reason that is bad and this is good but it is really more practical to strategize rather then polarize and divide everything out and say everything is bad or worse and that is kind of a small trick. You have got to be realistic but really you have to say that could be better or that could be worse but really what are my best options.
Given a choice I would take sugar alcohols in small amounts every so often over high frutcose corn syrup or over sugar. They are things that actually have been shown to have beneficial effects on blood sugar and also upon infections. So dental infections and ear infections are less common for those that consume Xylotol containing gums. There is also data showing that they do help to reduce nasal infections. You can do rinses with them and they are effective for that. So there is some places for that. Overall you do not want a lot of sweet flavorings in any of your foods. You know Maltitol syrup same thing. Maltodextrin. Maple syrup. Maple sugar. You know the same thing along the lines of other foods being dense in sugar sources. You know Maple Syrup a little higher in Glucose then many other types of sugars. You know a little more favorable but still a whole lot of calories hitting your blood stream at once. You know an idea here is that things that come into your blood stream fast you either have to burn them or you have to store them and unless you are riding your bike twenty miles and hour up hill you can not burn things very fast. I mean in that moment not even afterwards. Liquids that come into our bodies really quickly we store them. When is the one time in an animals life where they get a lot of food from liquids.
Dr C’s Son Ryan
Hibernation.
Dr C
What do animals drink when they are hibernating that is liquid. Do they have bottles of coke hidden in their cave? So what stage in life do animals get a lot a food from liquid? Think about this you can do it? Food not water. Food from liquid. What is unique about mammals?
Dr C’s Son Ryan
They are warm blooded. They have hair. They don’t give birth with eggs.
Dr C
How do mammals get their food to their babies?
Dr C’s Son Ryan
Ah. Milking.
Dr C
Yeah from milk. From nursing. Did you know boobs are also called mammary glands. Did you know that? Now you do its the same word origin. So mammals and the only time animals get a lot of calories is when they are growing really fast. So babies they double their size in a short period of time. You are still growing but I am not. Once we are adults we do not need to grow any more. We do not need liquid calories.
So rice syrup, brown rice syrup. So here is the concern is that it does have arsenic contamination. It would be higher in Maltose but it does have arsenic in it. Sorbitol that is a pure alcohol. Simple syrup is a sugar. Grape juice concentrate that one makes me nuts. That one I used to work in a food co-op way back when and there were so many foods that were sweetened with natural fruit juice concentrates and it is all just sugar. It is often times just pure crystallized Fructose which is even worse. We also have Sucanat which is also called sugar in the raw. Its sugar its no different. So if you need something sweet what do you do?
Well you change your taste buds. Your taste buds in terms of what tastes sweet to you is completely a function of what you are used to and if you are eating a lot of really sweet things you will not get a sweet taste unless you are tasting really sweet things. If you let that re-set and give yourself several days of going to really zero grams of added sugar your taste buds can re-set even within a week and once you are a week into that the sugar tastes change. You know a bowl of berries would be incredibly sweet. You would totally enjoy that. What do we put in the freezer. What is one of our favorite snacks from the the freezer. Frozen grapes are awesome.
Dr C’s Son Ryan
Fun fact from Ryan snakes and iguanas are some of the animals that can grow forever!
Dr C
Okay snakes and iguanas can keep on growing got it. So re-set your taste buds. They literally change. You got palliated taste and sweet taste and how much concentration of sweetness you need to trigger them is completely dependent upon how much you have been eating recently. So when you are off of sugar and are on natural they taste sweeter and they are fine. The other consideration is that sugar is just like a drug and if you are having it regularly you get addicted to it. It is certainly tough the first few days you are off of it but afterwards it is not a big deal and you will reach a point where you will find it totally unpleasant. No kidding it really does happen. Energy picks up. Mental focus improves. Clarity throughout the day is amazing.
So what are some sweet things that you can use. I am a fan of Stevia there have been some people talking about Stevia in the raw being the best type. Sure its fine. Its a good sweetener. Its a plant based sweetener. There are no drawbacks about it. When it first came to market some people were making some silly claims about it reversing diabetes and the FDA got upset and said you can not make those claims. For awhile Stevia got a bad name not because of what it did and not because of what it did but for the ridiculous claims that were made for it. Its fine and safe to use and you will find yourself eating less of it over time. Xylotol is also fine for the occasion baked goods that you are pretty much going to be making at home. They are not so much pre-made with it but Xylotol is a great substitute for sugar in baking. It does all the browning and all the binding and all the flavoring and it works just fine. Do not
eat the whole plate of Xylotol cookies as you will get loos stools but otherwise it is good stuff. On a day to day basis ditch the sugar. Have some fruits and really you will learn that grains, beans, fruits and vegetables have plenty of the sweet flavor and you will do fine with that. If you are craving sweets still you are probably not getting enough proteins early in the day. You know a good high protein breakfast and your cravings will go down.
Check out the list of 257 sugar below and lots of other amazing information on http://drchristianson.com/.
So thank you so much for tuning into this episode and thanks for checking out myself and my special guest. Take great care of yourself and we will talk again really soon.
Good Health, Dr. Alan Christianson
257 Names of Sugar:
Agave nectar
Agave syrup
All natural evaporated cane juice
Amasake
Amber liquid sugar
Anhydrous dextrose
Apple butter
Apple sugar
Apple syrup
Arenga sugar
Bakers special sugar
Barbados Sugar
Barley malt
Barley malt syrup
Bar sugar
Berry Sugar
Beet molasses
Beet sugar
Beet syrup
Blackstrap molasses
Blonde coconut sugar
Brown rice syrup
Brown sugar
Buttered syrup
Candy floss
Cane crystals
Cane juice
Cane juice crystals
Cane juice powder
Cane sugar
Caramel
Carob syrup
Caster sugar
Castorsugar
Cellobiose
Chicory (HFCS)
Coarse sugar
Coconut palm sugar
Coconut sap sugar
Coconut sugar
Coconut syrup
Coco sugar
Coco sap sugar
Concentrate juice (Often with HFCS)
Concord grape juice concentrate
Confectioner’s sugar
Corn sugar (HFCS)
Corn syrup (HFCS)
Corn syrup solids (HFCS)
Corn sweetener (HFCS)
Cornsweet 90 ® (really HFCS 90)
Creamed honey (Often with HFCS)
Crystal dextrose
Crystalline fructose
Crystallized organic cane juice
D-arabino-hexulose
Dark brown sugar
Dark molasses
Date sugar
Decorating sugar
Dehydrated sugar cane juice
Demerara Sugar
Dextrin
Dextran
Dextrose
D-fructose
D-fructofuranose
Diastatic malt
Diatase
Disaccharide
Dixie crystals
D-mannose
Dried evaporated organic cane juice
D-xylose
ECJ
Evaporated organic cane juice
Evaporated corn sweetener (HFCS)
Ethyl maltol
First molasses
Florida Crystals
Free Flowing
Free flowing brown sugar
Fructamyl
Fructose (HFCS)
Fructose crystals (HFCS)
Fructose sweetener (HFCS)
Fruit fructose (HFCS)
Fruit juice (Often with HFCS)
Fruit juice concentrate (Often with HFCS)
Fruit sugar (Often with HFCS)
Fruit syrup (Often with HFCS)
Galactose
Glucodry
Glucomalt
Glucoplus
Glucose
Glucose-fructose syrup (HFCS)
Glucose solids
Glucosweet
Gluctose fructose (HFCS)
Golden molasses
Golden sugar
Golden syrup
Gomme syrup
Granulated fructose
Granulated sugar
Granulated sugar cane juice
Grape sugar
Grape juice concentrate
Gur
HFCS
HFCS 42
HFCS 55
High dextrose glucose syrup
High-fructose corn syrup
High fructose maize syrup (HFCS)
High maltose corn syrup (Often with HFCS)
Hydrogenated starch
Hydrogenated starch hydrosylate
Hydrolyzed corn starch
Honey
Honey comb
Honey powder
HSH
Icing sugar
Inulin (HFCS)
Invert sugar
Inverted sugar syrup
Invert syrup
Icing sugar
Isoglucose (HFCS)
Isomalt
Isomaltotriose
Isosweet
Jaggery
Jaggery powder
Lactitol
Lactose
Levulose
Lesys
Light brown sugar
Light molasses
Liquid dextrose
Liquid fructose (Often with HFCS)
Liquid fructose syrup (Often with HFCS)
Liquid honey
Liquid maltodextrin
Liquid sucrose
Liquid sugar
Maize syrup (HFCS)
Maldex
Maldexel
Malt
Malted barley syrup
Malted corn syrup
Malted corn and barley syrup
Malted barley
Maltitol
Maltitol syrup
Malitsorb
Maltisweet
Maltodextrin
Maltose
Maltotriitol
Maltotriose
Maltotriulose
Malt syrup
Mannitol
Maple Sugar
Maple syrup
Meritose
Meritab 700
Misri
Mizuame
Molasses
Monosaccharide
Muscovado sugar
Mycose
Mylose
Nigerotriose
Oligosaccharride
Organic agave syrup
Organic brown rice syrup
Organic cane juice crystals
Organic coconut palm sugar
Organic palm sugar
Organic sucanat
Organic sugar
Organic raw sugar
Orgeat syrup
Palm sugar
Palm syrup
Panela
Pancake syrup
Panocha
Pearl sugar
Piloncillo
Potato maltodextrine
Powdered sugar
Promitor
Pure cane syrup
Pure sugar spun
Raisin syrup
Rapadura
Raw agave syrup
Raw sugar
Raffinose
Refiner’s syrup
Rice maltodextrine
Rice Syrup
Rice syrup solids
Raw honey
Rock sugar
Saccharose
Sanding sugar
Second molasses
Shakar
Simple syrup
Sirodex
Soluble corn fiber
Sorbitol
Sorbitol syrup
Sorghum
Sorghum molasses
Sorghum syrup
Sucanat
Sucre de canne naturel
Sucrose
Sucrosweet
Sugar
Sugar beet syrup
Sugar beet crystals
Sugar cane juice
Sugar cane natural
Sugar hat
Sulfured molasses
Sweetened condensed milk
Sweet sorghum syrup
Syrup Syrup
Table sugar
Tagatose
Treacle
Trehalose
Tremalose
Trimoline
Triose
Trisaccharides
Turbinado sugar
Unrefined sugar
Unsulphured molasses
White crystal sugar
White grape juice concentrate
White refined sugar
White sugar
Xylose
Yellow sugar