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Six Surprisingly Simple Sugars

It's sweet. It's delicious... but it's addictive. It's found naturally... but its mass-produced and altered. It's a runner's best friend.. .but it's the cause of chronic health concerns. Indeed, sugar is one of the nutrition industry's most controversial topics...

Sugars are often called "simple sugars" due to their simplicity in the world of organic chemistry. And although most would agree that organic chemistry is one of the most challenging college courses, you may be surprised to find out that sugar's use and role in the body truly is... simple...

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 Sweet! The story of simple sugar

As the obesity and diabetes epidemics continue to soar, the blame for our expanding waistlines and declining health is frequently pinned on sugar. The problem is that when people think of “sugar,” they think of the added sugar in foods that are associated with weight gain, such as soda, cake, and candy. However, there are many different types of sugars – both naturally occurring sugars in fruit and vegetables, and added sugars in processed foods. Most people don’t really need to consume any added sugar; the natural sugars in fruits, vegetables and dairy products are sufficient

Articles of Interest

Everything You Need to Know About the Different Types of Sugar

Carbohydrates come in two main forms: simple and complex. The difference between the two is how quickly they are digested and absorbed, which is determined by their chemical structure. Complex carbohydrates are formed from three or more sugar molecules, whereas simple carbohydrates are composed of either one sugar molecule (monosaccharides) or two (disaccharides)

Foods With Natural High Carbs With Simple Sugar

The word on the street is that complex carbs, the type that are rich in fiber and digest slowly, are the most nutritious. While that's true in most cases, there are foods that contain simple sugars that are also nutritious, and there are times when these simple sugars come in handy. Knowing the difference between simple and complex carbs can help you make healthy food choices.

Simple Carbohydrates

As far as chemical structure, simple carbs are small molecules consisting of a monosaccharide or two monosaccharides linked together. Anything bigger than that is called a complex carbohydrate.

Simple Sugars vs. Complex Carbs

All carbohydrates are NOT created equal. Selecting the right carbs can allow you to uptake double the energy from your nutrition products.

Simple Sugars Wipe Out Beneficial Gut Bugs

Fructose and sucrose can make it all the way to the colon, where they spell a sugary death sentence for beneficial bacteria. Karen Hopkin reports.

Simple Sugars- Good or Bad?

When carbohydrates - "Simple" monosaccharides (Glucose or blood sugar/Fructose or fruit sugar), disaccharides (sucrose or table sugar & lactose or milk sugar), "complex or starchy" polysaccharides (glucose or fruit/ grains, potatoes, pasta, rice, cereal, whole wheat breads etc), "Fibrious" polysaccharides (vegetables) are digested in the intestines, they are changed by specific enzymes back into their original simple sugar form, called "Glucose."

Simple vs Complex Carbs

Simple carbohydrates are called simple sugars. Sugars are found in a variety of natural food sources including fruit, vegetables and milk, and give food a sweet taste. But they also raise blood glucose levels quickly. Sugars can be categorised as single sugars (monosaccharides), which include glucose, fructose and galactose, or double sugars (disaccharides), which include sucrose (table sugar), lactose and maltose.

Study finds that reducing intake of simple sugars improves GERD

Simple sugars are a type of carbohydrate with only one or two saccharide molecules, like glucose and fructose. In contrast, complex carbohydrates have three or more monosaccharide units. Simple sugars are the teaspoons of sugar stirred into your morning coffee as well as the “added sugars” that are used in food manufacturing to sweeten drinks, desserts and many processed foods.

Types of sugar

What are the different types of sugar, how do they affect your body and are some better than others? We look at fructose, glucose, lactose and sucrose.