Why is everyone afraid of refined sugar?

I know why people are afraid of the ‘sugar free’ sugar like splenda. Studies have shown that chewing sugaar free gum like orbit or stride can increase your risks for cancer, although I’m not sure how. Also the things they use in diet sodas, whether it be sugar or some other substance, increases your risk of getting alheizmers by the age of sixty by A LOT.

Because it has a bad attitude

I’m by no means an expert, but I know since the introduction of high fructose corn syrup, the obesity rate has gone way up. I think most manufacturers use corn syrup because it’s cheaper than using pure sugar.

Has anyone tried the Pepsi and Mountain Dew Throwback that is made with sugar instead of corn syrup? The Pepsi is really good…I normally don’t like Pepsi, but it is good with real sugar.

Jackson, did you get a new SN?

But for real, Knitfroggy, you are proving my point exactly.

EVERYONE is a pretty far reaching word. Are you sure EVERYONE is scared of high class sugar?

It is all going to kill you or give you cancer and kill you so just enjoy your refined sugar. I do.

I am not everyone but I can vouch for natural sugar (in whole foods) contributing to food coma and refined sugars combining with carbs to cause lousy moods and flab. Avoiding refined sugars and controlling the natural ones has helped my moods, energy and weight maintenance. A lot.

@knitfroggy; I really want to try some of that Mountain Dew throwback

@Cardinal I’ve never met a lot of sugar that I was scared of…high class sugar might do it to me tho…

@knitfroggy
maybe that’s what happened to coke? i seemed to like it years ago better..

@SeventhSense I don’t know…Remember New Coke that came out in the 80s and then they went back to Coca Cola Classic? Coke is my drink of choice, but I can’t drink it cuz I’d weight 8000lbs. so I just stick to Diet Pepsi and get my daily aspartame.

@J0E I’ve not tried the Mt. Dew yet but two people have told me it’s nasty. I will try it tho.

Because refined sugar makes it really easy to get way too many calories without any nutritional benefit. If you get your simple carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables, you get fiber and other nutrients, and there’s enough bulk to make you feel full when you’ve had enough. If you get your simple carbohydrates from soda, for instance, you get nothing but sugar, and there’s no bulk, so you can drink thousands of calories a day.

Mmmm…sugar. Real sugar just tastes better. I’m not afraid of HFC. How can I be when it’s in pretty much everything?

Thank you for your great answer, cwilbur, but I still don’t know what someone would prefer natural sugar in there sodas and coffee.

Around the house, we only use Organic Evaporated Cane Sugar. I find I use a lot less of it, because it’s just naturally sweeter.
I’m not afraid of refined sugar, I just want to limit my intake. I rarely drink commercial sodas, we buy Hansen’s Soda, which is HFCS-free.

WHY DO BUY HANSEN’S!?!?!? Why can’t anyone answer me?

@simone54 whoa. you’re reminding me of this right now.

@simone54
Use your @ signal jelly. :)

@simone54 Real sugar tastes better!

High fructose corn syrup is… well, syrup. Natural sugar isn’t as thick. And despite being about the same amount of calories as HFCS, it’s sweeter.

Drink a Mexican or Canadian pop (Jarito’s or Jones sodas…) and you’ll know exactly why it’s better.

I hope this answered your question…

@casheroo Bahahahaha thank you for linking that!

@knitfroggy I wasn’t crazy about the natural Pepsi, but I’m not really a cola person to begin with. I tried a Mountain Dew Throwback tonight, and the first few sips were a little weird, but then I thought it was really good. The friend who gave it to me said that he thought it tasted like diet (and he said that the other people who had tried it had said the same thing; I didn’t really agree, but I’ve never had diet Mountain Dew).

HFCS is a by-product (of a process I cannot recall right now) and is a man made chain (long) of simple sugar molicules linked together. It’s hard on the body when it comes to breaking it down and absorbing
Refined sugar on the other hand has minimal nutritional value, mostif not all of the good stuff from sugar cain juice (which is actually very good for you) is stripped out during processing. What’s left has been associated with everything from diabetes, auto-immune stuff, higher cholestrol, feeding the growth of cancerous cells, to raised blood pressure and even Alzheimer!

It clashes with my rugged personality.

Episode 16 of Season 5 of How It’s Made on the Discovery Channel showed how refined sugar is made.

It’s an incredibly complex process with lots of chemical baths, washing, drying, bleaching. And it iterates a lot. There’s something like 50 distinct steps it goes through in the factory to get to the crystal sugar we buy at the supermarket.

What I found interesting is that what we call “raw” or “natural” sugar – it looks brownish – is simply pulled out of the process around step 48 or 49… somewhere near the very end. It has gone through several bleaching steps already, it just misses the very last one.

Now, to me, “raw” sugar just looks like a marketing scam. It certainly should not cost any more than regular sugar.

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[ Disclaimer: The number “50” above is a representative placeholder value. It was just a ten minute spot on the show… so I don’t know in detail. ]

A stalk of the sugar cane plant contains 12–14% sucrose (by mass) and also many vitamins and minerals.

Sugar obtained from sugar cane contains about 99.5% sucrose (refined sugar). So there’s almost no difference.

Overall there are different kind of sugars. It takes our body longer to digest fructose. Glucose can be used directly. Sucrose is a disaccharide of glucose and fructose. Another type of sugar is lactose.

@simone54: at some point when you’ve got both packets of refined sugar and natural sugar (“Sugar in the Raw” is a common brand), taste them. They taste different.

It’s like asking why someone likes to use honey in his or her tea instead of sugar. They taste different.

Let’s not forget that Sugar Cane isn’t the only way we get sugar. Sugar Beets are used almost as much a Sugar Cane.