Although sugars tend to be over consumed they are nonetheless an important part of a healthy and complete diet. They are an easily digestible simple carbohydrate that can supply a quick source of energy. In food combining sugar is the dominant nutrient of a food if it makes up 12% or more of its volume.
Sugars are grouped into two types, intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic sugars are those contained within the walls of cells and extrinsic sugars are not. Since sugars are easily digestible and can quickly be absorbed into the system they can cause blood sugar spikes. This is less of a concern when sugar is eaten in the form of food as the digestion of the food and the fiber will provide for a more controlled release. Of course since so many different sugars are extracted and processed into a refined form it is easy to consume unnaturally large amount of sugar at one time.
Blood sugar is controlled by the hormone insulin which is secreted by the pancreas as needed. As blood sugar or glucose levels rise the pancreas will secret higher amounts of insulin. The problem is that excessive amounts of sugar consumption can cause high levels of insulin to be secreted constantly. The system becomes laced with insulin and is believed over time to cause the cells to become resistant to it. This illustrates the danger of having so many sources of sugar handy.
There are many different types of sugars. Some of the most common ones are: sucrose, lactose, maltose, fructose, honey, molasses, glucose, dextrose and corn syrup. When reading labels these are what one needs to look at. It has become a game of the food industry to hide sugar in products. It is almost like a game of Three Card Monte. The only way to beat it is with a little street smarts. Drinks are what one needs to pay close attention to for sugar. Almost everything today is sweetened with something. In many drinks like soda there can be as much four teaspoons of sugar in a single serving.
The most important thing to watch out for is refined sugars. The reason for this is that when sugar is refined all of the enzymes and cofactors that the body needs to digest it are removed. This causes the body to borrow from its own reserves of enzymes and minerals to digest it. Refined sugars are what are most responsible for causing blood sugar spikes because they are absorbed extremely fast into the system. Even with the sugar content of molasses and honey both contain everything necessary for the body to digest them. This is why nutritionally speaking it is important to try and get one's sugar from food.
