Sugars - Simple Summary

Most nutritional information available online is either deliberate bullsh*t, or simply misguided. I decided therefore to create few short posts explaining basics, so you can make up your own minds.

Sucrose, glucose, and fructose

Before I dare to invite you to read my post on artificial sweeteners (much more technical) you should ideally clearly understand the basics about sugars from this post.

Glucose, fructose, and sucrose all contain the same amount of energy per gram. Each of these sugars occurs naturally in certain foods. But food industry also adds them to many factory produced foods and drinks (FPFS - Factory Produced Food Substitutes).

FPFS is a term I will use to describe everything that was made in a factory, to easily differentiate between stuff that runs in the plain, grows on trees or shrubs, and swims in the water.

The main difference between these sugars is their structure, which affects how your body digests and absorbs them. The reason we distinguish them here is because they may have different effects on your body.

So what are “sugars”?

Simple sugars can be split into two groups with even fancier names: monosaccharides and disaccharides.

Mono = 1. Di = 2.

"Monosaccharide" means "one sugar" (molecule). These units are the building blocks of carbohydrates. Disaccharides have two monosaccharides joined together. Your body digests and metabolizes these sugars differently.

Sucrose

Sucrose is a fancy name for plain white table sugar that your grandma keeps in a small pot on the countertop. It’s made up (the sucrose, not the grandma) of two other “sugars”: glucose and fructose.

Sucrose is a disaccharide composed of one glucose and one fructose, and it naturally occurs in many fruits and vegetables. Because of that abundance it is typically manufactured by processing beetroots (in Poland) or sugar cane (pretty much everywhere else). Manufacturers also add it to foods and drinks like sodas, breakfast cereals, and ice cream.

Because sucrose is a disaccharide, your body has to break it down into monosaccharides before it’s absorbed into your bloodstream. Basically everything you eat must be split into its building blocks in order to be absorbed into blood. The process begins in your mouth, but most of the work occurs in your small intestine.

Glucose

Glucose is a monosaccharide. It is typically found in grains, nuts, vegetables, and starchy foods (like potatoes or rice). It is also abundant in offices of endocrinologists (doctors specialising in diagnosing and management of diabetes). 

As mentioned already above, glucose is also a building block of other disaccharides. Sucrose you already know. Other example is for example lactose - which is a fancy word for sugar contained in milk.