“The average American, as of 2005, consumes about 22 to 30 teaspoons of sugar which translates roughly into about 350 to 475 added calories to the American diet.” What does this do? Where does it go? Why does it matter?
The Chemical Structure of Glucose
This is not a simple subject to understand, because sugar feeds all kinds of different cells and so it serves infinite purposes in our bodies. Glucose (its chemical structure is depicted above) is the primary source of fuel for cells in our body. It is the simplest form of sugar that is contained in fruits and honey. According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, molecules of starch, the major energy-reserve carbohydrate of plants, consist of thousands of glucose units. What this means is, the more complex you get with your sugars and carbohydrates, the more time and energy your body will need to break down unruly sugars and carbohydrates into glucose. Unless you are an active person whose body is constantly sucking nutrients out of food, you want to be saving your energy for other metabolic functions.
Here’s a link to a funny video about the Olympic Swimmer, Michael Phelps’ eating habits:
An athlete like Michael Phelps works to tighten up his metabolism so that it could focus on expending energy on one main activity: swimming. He can consume 12,ooo calories a day (over 4x the average caloric intake of males in the U.S.) because he will use all of it to swim efficiently. His body is a machine that’s been trained and fine-tuned to deal with high quantities of energy. If you feel the need to eat as much or swim as much as Mr. Phelps, good for you, but metabolizing on that scale isn’t a joke.
What do our bodies do with sugar?
The major thing that our body does with glucose is use it for the process called cellular respiration, where one of my favorite cell organelles, the mitochondria go about producing ATP. ATP is the basic unit of energy storage in our cells. The overall process of oxidizing glucose to carbon dioxide can produce about 38 molecules of ATP from a single molecule of glucose. Glucose, fructose and galactose are three monosaccharide. While they are barely indistinguishable from one another, they are different.
Chemical Structures of 3 Sugar Types
According to an article entitled “Sugar Overload” from a magazine called Nutrition Action Healthletter, there was a study (Stanhope, The University of California: Davis) cited about the differences in how bodies accept fructose vs. glucose:
“32 men and women gained the same weight (roughly three pounds) after 10 weeks whether they had drank beverages sweetened with fructose or glucose. But there were differences. The fructose eaters (Especially men) gained more deep abdominal- or visceral- fat than the glucose eaters. That’s critical because visceral fat is linked to a higher risk of heart disease and diabetes. In contrast the glucose eaters gained more subcutaneous at which is just below the skin and less likely to raise the risk of diabetes and heart disease.”
As a part of the same study, the scientists found that the fructose drinkers experienced a drop in sensitivity to insulin which is linked to a higher risk of heart disease and diabetes.
The American Heart Association won’t openly admit that too much sugar intake will lead to diabetes, but they do say that sugar leads to obesity, which “increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.”
Why do we want it?
From a biological standpoint, “sugar is a substance that releases opioids and dopamine; thus it might be expected to have addictive potential.” (Solomon) This means that we will feel good after eating sugar products and want to sustain that feeling by continuing to eat more and more sugar products that will consistently create the same after effects.
From an evolutionary perspective, “Scientists believe that the preference humans seem to have for sweets is probably a long-cultivated, protective mechanism against poisonous substances, since many poisons taste better while many safe, nutritious foods, like fruit, taste sweet.” Simply put though, we’ve been conditioned to want sweet things, because sugar derivatives are in just about every single processed product (things in fancy boxes, bottles, bags, cans that we purchase).
Sugars go by many names, and come in many forms, but here is the cast of sugars that plays into our daily intake of sugar products:
Corn Sweeteners/ High fructose corn syrup (HFC’s)- The cheapest way to make something sweet
Glucose syrup, Dextrose, Honey, Lactose, Maltose, Maple Syrup, Invert sugar, Cane sugar, Molasses, Malt syrup, Maltodextrin, Sorghum, Agave Syrup
How is sugar made?
“The method of transforming plant or raw sugar (from cane or beets) into table sugar is called refinement, which involves washing, crystallizaing, clarifying and filtering raw sugar to remove plant matter and molasses to create the final product, white sugar.”
What Do Our Bodies Do With Sugar?
The major thing that our body does with glucose is use it for the process called cellular respiration, where one of my favorite cell organelles, the mitochondria go about producing ATP. ATP is the basic unit of energy storage in our cells. The overall process of oxidizing glucose to carbon dioxide can produce about 38 molecules of ATP from a single molecule of glucose.
Sources Used
Professor Ryan H. Lustig on Obesity and Sugar
Sharon Salomon “EN Answers Your Most Pressing Questions About Sugar” Environmental Nutrition, March 2010 Volume 33 Number 3
Macrobiotic Guide’s article on Understanding the Energetics of Food-
About.com’s Article on Macrobiotic Diets – All about keeping a simple diet and maintaining health based on principles on yin and yang
Dr. Vincent Bellonzi on Sugar: Bellonzi works at the Austin Wellness Clinic in Texas… Take these videos with a grain of salt.
The Molecular Machinery of Keilin’s Respiratory Chain
