Today’s post is the first in a series about sugar and all things sugar.

However, to start I must address carbohydrates vs. sugar and what is the difference.

Earlier this year, I did a series on Nutrition Labels, and part 2 included the topic of macronutrients and how to read the nutrition facts panel. You can read the entire post here, and I have included some aspects of that post below. I mention this, because of how carbohydrates and sugars are listed on the Nutrition Fact panel.

I have also addressed the difference between the nutrients and food groups. For example, carbohydrates are a nutrient we must consume to survive, not a food group. And carbohydrates are found in all foods of plant origin and dairy foods.

There are three types of carbohydrates: starch, fiber, and sugar. So, all sugars are carbohydrates, but not all carbohydrates are sugars.

Sugar and Glucose = Fuel

Sugar in the form of glucose is THE fuel for the brain, the fuel for all our cells, and the fuel for our muscles. So, when people make a blanket statement such as “sugar feeds cancer cells,” that is true, but only because sugar feeds ALL cells in the body.

Glucose is the fuel for human cells – period.

We can get glucose from all types of foods, and it does not have to be what often comes to mind as the simple “white” granulated sugar, but from various foods that contain carbohydrates.

Again, this would be from ANY plant food and dairy products, including milk and yogurt.

Plant food in its “whole” form has carbohydrates that are broken down in your body into glucose (or converted to glucose), so it can fuel the entire body.

Plant food in its “refined” form has carbohydrates and they eventually break down in your body into glucose.

A dairy food containing lactose will be broken down and converted to glucose.

And what about soy milk, oat milk, and all those dairy milk alternatives? They are plant foods, so go back up two lines and re-read that statement.

And, what about starch in foods like potatoes, rice, and flour? Starch breaks down into usable glucose for fuel.

Simple vs Complex

There are several types of sugars. Simple sugars are mono- and disaccharides.

There are three monosaccharides:

Fructose
Galactose
Glucose

You can’t get much simpler than a monosaccharide unless you break it further down into carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.

There are three disaccharides:

Lactose (glucose and galactose bonded together)
Maltose (two glucose molecules bonded together)
Sucrose (glucose and fructose bonded together)

If we consume foods with these, we break them down into parts. In the body, galactose and fructose convert into glucose. Again, fuel for the cells.

There are starches which are a whole bunch of glucose molecules. And guess what happens in the body? Those starches are broken down into individual glucose molecules and provide fuel for the cells.

Because this is a whole bunch of glucose molecules, it takes more time to break down than the disaccharides.

Think of having to unlock only one deadbolt on the door vs. having to unlock 20 deadbolts on a door. It will be easier to enter with just one deadbolt to unlock. However, it will take more time to unlock 20 deadbolts.

Therefore, we call the mono- and di-saccharides “simple” carbohydrates (or sometimes simple sugars) and the starches “complex” carbohydrates (or sometimes complex sugars).

Fiber is a type of carbohydrate but does not get broken down into glucose because humans don’t have the capacity for that (unlike herbivores). And it is referred to as a complex carbohydrate.

And fiber is in plant foods, though processing may strip it out.

So foods like corn and potatoes are not full of simple carbohydrates but complex carbohydrates.

Foods like honey, fruit, and cow’s milk contain simple carbohydrates.

Something to also consider, though, is even though people may refer to grain foods as “carbohydrates,” even in their most refined forms, they are complex carbohydrates.

Okay, there is the chemistry lesson for today – next up: Sugars: Natural Vs. Added.