Refined Sugars

Some nutritive sweeteners are not found naturally but instead are created commercially during refining, monosaccharides and disaccharides are extracted from plant foods to create sugars that can be added to foods, such as white table sugar, molasses, brown sugar, and high-fructose corn syrup.

These sugars provide calories but few nutrients; they are often added to, or found in, foods and beverages that are high in calories but low in key nutrients. It’s important to keep your intake of added sugars low to leave room for more healthful foods and beverages.

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is the main calorie-containing sweetener used in American. Although the biggest dietary source is nondiet soda, HFCS is also found in many foods and beverages including salad dressing, pickled products, ketchup, baked foods such as breads, tabletop syrups, cadies, gums, deserts, and fruit drinks.

In recent years, HFCS has been singled out as a possible contributor to the current obesity epidemic in America. Some argue that increased availability of HFCS in our food supply has contributed significantly to an increased intake of sugar. Surveys have shown that obesity rates have climbed in both adults and children, in part due to increased daily intake, and many of those calories come from sugary soda and other foods and beverages made with added sugars including HFCS.

Although some researchers believe that, compared with equal calorie amounts of other sugars and sweeteners, consuming fructose (in the form of HFCS) affects hormones in a way that increases appetite and promotes body fat accumulation, recent research has failed to confirm this.

A recent report by The American Medical Association (AMA) concluded it’s unlikely that HFCS contributes more to obesity or other conditions than sucrose. Still, the AMA, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans and MyPyramid, and many health professionals urge Americans to significantly reduce their intake of added sugars from all sources to stay within recommended guidelines.

Because HFCS is found in a lot of high-calories, nutrient-poor foods and beverages, and because foods with added sugars tend to be easy to overconsume, reducing your intake of any foods high in HFCS or any added sugars and sweeteners can certainly help reduce your overall calorie intake and leave room for more healthful foods and beverages.

Sugar Alcohols

Sugar alcohols, also known as polyols, are found naturally in a variety of fruits and vegetables. They’re also commercially made from sucrose and glucose (two simple sugars) and from starch (a polysaccharide).

Sugar alcohols add wetness, bulk, texture, and moisture to foods and are often used by manufacturers to create reduced or low-carbohydrate products that appeal to people with type 2 diabetes or who simply want to limit their dietary carbohydrate intake. In general, sugar alcohols differ from sugar in that they’re not as sweet (though sweetness varies), have less of an impact on blood sugar levels than simple sugars, are less likely to promote tooth decay, and provide only about half as many calories (about 2 calories per gram versus 4 in sucrose and other sugars) because they’re only partially digested and absorbed by the body. (Erythritol is unique in that it is virtually calorie-free).

Some examples of sugar alcohols commonly found in foods and beverages include erythritol, lactilol, mannitol, sorbitol, and xylitol.

Because sugar alcohols are incompletely digested and therefore fermented by bacteria, consuming too many products that contain them can cause diarrhea, bloating, and abdominal pain because they’re in the large intestine. Again, erythritol is an exception; it’s less likely to cause diarrhea than other polyols.

Fructose malabsorption is a condition in which fructose cannot be absorbed into the bloodstream and instead stays in the gastrointestinal tract unabsorbed; this can cause gastrointestinal symptoms such as bloating, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.

Sugar alcohols are compounds that contain monosaccharides (simple sugars) and are often used as nutritive sweeteners in many processed foods.

Added sugars are sugars and syrups added to foods during processing or when preparing, cooking, or consuming foods at the table.

MyPyramid is a graphic representation of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a set of science-based recommendations for how to eat well to promote health and prevent disease. MyPyramid replaced the previous Food Guide Pyramid; it recommends specific calorie levels and meal patterns using foods and beverages from several categories.

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