Congress said Pizza is a Veggie to Save Money On School Luches! o

[dogmom]

Naisho, for me, chem was purely an exercise in failure and frustration but I think it's helpful info to put up anyway

if it's purely between aspartame, HFCS and plain old table sugar <especially if they happen to have "raw sugar" which many more places here do now>, then I'll take the table sugar. Or ask for some honey instead.

I rarely drink pure fruit juice because of the high sugar content. In morning, if I want some Orange Juice, I pour less than half of a regular-size glassful of the juice and add water to that, so it's actually more water and not much juice.

 

[naisho]

Yep! I agree if it's a battle between choosing one kind of sucrose, the natural alternative kind the better it is.

Brown sugar, cane sugar, beet sugar are great examples. Because when you get 50g of brown sugar, it's not like getting a dose 50g of white table sugar - a certain portion of the brown sugar contains natural condiments like the molasses in it.
The same holds true for cane sugar, if it were 50g of it, probably more like 30g of cane sugar is the actual sucrose, the other 20g is glucose/other mixtures.

After I grasped this stuff, it made better sense how all these sugars worked when we consume them in our bodies.

 

[dogmom]

"sugar" is so basic but there's actually so much to it that people just aren't aware of!

other sweeteners I like is raw agave, Eden's sprouted barley malt and sorghum.
That and raw honey are variously what I get for the household

 

[Jazzberry]

I also avoid HFCS for the reasons stated up thread and also for another reason.

HFCS is one of the cheapest forms of sugar. If a food processor is adding HFCs to their product, chances are they are adding more grams of sugar than if they were using any other form.

I also try to avoid products that have any form of sugars listed as the first or second ingredient. Currently food processors are not required to tell you how much of the food's sugar is added as opposed to part of the food naturally*, but they are required to list ingredients in order of the amount used.


I also try to avoid products that use more than one form of sugar. It can be difficult to judge how much sugar was added if the manufacturer lists more than one.

Here are some other names for sugar:
50 Other Names for Sugar - Healthy Eating Tips


Basically if a word ends with "ose" or starts with "dext" or "malt", it is probably a sugar.

Lastly, I try to keep in mind what the range of sugars are for common foods and buy the ones with the least amount. For example, I have been able to find breakfast cereals that I think taste good that only have 5 grams of sugar. This is good to know because many breakfast cereals have far more grams of sugar.

--

* As mentioned upthread, many fruits and vegetables have sugars. But the body can more easily digest a fruit or vegetable sugars along with its fiber -- so it is easier on our system than eating a processed food with added refined sugars.

 

[Barbaro]

well, all plants produce carbs- starch and sugar- in their leaves- through the action of sun, carbon dioxide and water. Sugar comes in many forms. "ose" indicate sugar at the end of chemical words. I read a book- the report came from the Institute of Health Policy and Practice "in 1821, the average sugar intake in America was 10 pounds per person per year; today it is 170 pounds per person, representing over one-fourth the average caloric intake. Another large portion of total calories comes from white flour and refined vegetable oils."

I really don't like drinking juices. I am told that most healthy people is at around 50 grams of fructose per day. Excess fructose can lead to insulin resistance in the liver as well as fatty liver disease. A guy mentioned that he ate 6 fresh tomatoes, and next day, his canker sore broke out. If you have a gout, you can't consume any vegetables (spinach and carrot) and fruit that contain high levels of fructose.

 

[kokonut]

I didn't learn this until last year, but apparently the molecular structure of sucrose (table sugar) is the combination of a glucose molecule added with a fructose molecule. The HFCS in drinks are just high amounts of fructose. It's sort of easier to recognize from the molecular structures.

In essence, I think this is how it works: if you drink a can of juice with 100g of sucrose, half of them are glucose molecules (which is fine and good for you), the other half of them are fructose (which you want to stay away from). That is equivalent to drinking a can of soda with 50g of HFCS for example.

Aspartame however, is a complete other story.

Yeah, a mirror image of the sucrose molecule. Not much nutritional value and calories.

 

[Cheetah]

I am continuing to learn more and more about sugars. Thanks for the education Naisho and Jazzberry!

 

[Barbaro]

I think kids with behavioral issues drinking fruit juices is not recommended. Freshly juiced juice has all the benefits of the nutrients and enzymes, but it can cause blood sugar spike. I've had a personal experience that I used to make fruit juices from scratch and drink, but I get hungry afterwards. I decided to research why it does to my body. Eating a fresh fruit is the best way to make you feel full, because the pith contains fiber and starches. Fiber can also help out by keeping blood sugar levels under control. Diabetics are encouraged to eat an orange. Juices are popular in modern society, because many people try to lose weights, and parents encourage their kids eat fresh fruits, but find simple ways for kids to drink juices by consuming the nutrients and enzymes.

As for vegetable juices, you will not be consuming a beneficial fiber, either. Vegetable juice has much less effect on blood sugar and insulin levels than fruit juice, except for beets and carrots.

 

[naisho]

No worries, I am still learning myself. I used to hear "Juice is bad! Soda is bad! Aspartame is bad!" and I didn't know why except people's opinions. Now I am more well-informed to make a judgement about it.

It makes sense why people get overweight from soda. A bottle of juice, depending on manufacturer, say a big bottle of 64 fl oz Mott's apple juice (original is the left)

compared to a 20 fl oz. regular bottle of mountain dew:

That's: 224g glucose/sucrose for 64 ounces, whereas the 20 ounce bottle of Mtn dew is 77.5g of HFCS mix.

If you drink the volume of mountain dew to equal the amount of 1 big bottle of mott's apple juice, you have drank 248g of fructose compared to 224g / 2 = 112g of fructose in the apple juice.

 

[DeafCaroline]

I think kids with behavioral issues drinking fruit juices is not recommended. Freshly juiced juice has all the benefits of the nutrients and enzymes, but it can cause blood sugar spike. I've had a personal experience that I used to make fruit juices from scratch and drink, but I get hungry afterwards. I decided to research why it does to my body. Eating a fresh fruit is the best way to make you feel full, because the pith contains fiber and starches. Fiber can also help out by keeping blood sugar levels under control. Diabetics are encouraged to eat an orange. Juices are popular in modern society, because many people try to lose weights, and parents encourage their kids eat fresh fruits, but find simple ways for kids to drink juices by consuming the nutrients and enzymes.

As for vegetable juices, you will not be consuming a beneficial fiber, either. Vegetable juice has much less effect on blood sugar and insulin levels than fruit juice, except for beets and carrots.

Most people who juice tend to be health-conscious so they have much better diets that are higher in fiber. So, whatever fiber they didn't get from a freshly squeezed cup of fruits/veggies, they are getting from elsewhere like grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes, beans, etc etc. The huge advantage of juicing is that it allows you to consume far more than the daily recommended minimum servings of fruits and veggies in just one glass. This summer, I drank on average two cups of freshly squeezed juice of fruits and veggies a day - the equivalent of a large sized mixing bowl overflowing with fruits and veggies. If you have a kid who doesn't enjoy eating big plates of fresh fruits and veggies, the fresh squeezed fruit/veggie cocktail is a fantastic substitute.

I'm a big juicing fan. Sugar spikes are not bad when you need one - say mid-afternoon between lunch and supper or after a workout at the gym.

However, being that it's as liquid as water and has only 100 calories, it's not expected to make you feel full at all. If you have a child who obviously reacts to sugar spikes - first ask yourself what did they just drink? Coca cola with caffeine and high fructose syrup? Processed juice with/out food dyes? Once you eliminate those possibilities and see that the child is still reacting to a sugar spike, then you could serve the fresh squeezed juice along with solid foods high in fiber and/or fats and/or proteins, they would slow down the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream.

 

[dogmom]

I do love a fresh/raw veggie juice from my health food co-op.
they have one that has beets, apple, carrots, kale and ginger, and you can add other things like wheat grass....I drink one of those sometimes as a treat!

 

[deafskeptic]

Keep in mind that tomatoes do have natural sugars. In fact, ALL simple and complex carbohydrates have sugar.

100 grams of broccoli has 1.7 grams of sugar
A bag of spinach (10oz) has 1.2 grams of sugar
1 medium red tomato has 3.2 grams of sugar


Classico may not actually list sugar as one of their individual ingredients, one should also look at the nutrition label for that breaks down the percentages of fats, protein and sugars of all ingredients listed. So, according to the nutrition label, there's 5 grams of sugar per half cup of Classico tomato sauce.

Nutrition labels tell you more than ingredient labels.

Average woman
recommended caloric intake = 1800 calories a day
recommended sugar intake - 180 calories (45 grams of sugar a day)

1/2 cup of Classico tomato sauce

= 5 grams of sugar
= 20 calories
= 9% of recommended daily sugar intake
= excellent!

That's correct. I'm a diabetic so I have to be on the watch out for added sugar as I have to limit my carb intake at meal time. I try to keep my carb intake around 45 g or less to take into account for natural sugars.

 

[deafskeptic]

That's correct. I'm a diabetic so I have to be on the watch out for added sugar as I have to limit my carb intake at meal time. I try to keep my carv intake around 45 g or less to take into account for natural sugars.

I don't think many would eat a bag of spinach in one siting.

 

[deafskeptic]

Most people who juice tend to be health-conscious so they have much better diets that are higher in fiber. So, whatever fiber they didn't get from a freshly squeezed cup of fruits/veggies, they are getting from elsewhere like grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes, beans, etc etc. The huge advantage of juicing is that it allows you to consume far more than the daily recommended minimum servings of fruits and veggies in just one glass. This summer, I drank on average two cups of freshly squeezed juice of fruits and veggies a day - the equivalent of a large sized mixing bowl overflowing with fruits and veggies. If you have a kid who doesn't enjoy eating big plates of fresh fruits and veggies, the fresh squeezed fruit/veggie cocktail is a fantastic substitute.

I'm a big juicing fan. Sugar spikes are not bad when you need one - say mid-afternoon between lunch and supper or after a workout at the gym.

However, being that it's as liquid as water and has only 100 calories, it's not expected to make you feel full at all. If you have a child who obviously reacts to sugar spikes - first ask yourself what did they just drink? Coca cola with caffeine and high fructose syrup? Processed juice with/out food dyes? Once you eliminate those possibilities and see that the child is still reacting to a sugar spike, then you could serve the fresh squeezed juice along with solid foods high in fiber and/or fats and/or proteins, they would slow down the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream.

I don't often drink juice because it can cause sudden spikes in my blood sugar and then a crash in my blood sugars but they're useful for diabetic emergences and it's more nurtiuious than a packet of sugar or candy.

 

[deafskeptic]

That's correct. I'm a diabetic so I have to be on the watch out for added sugar as I have to limit my carb intake at meal time. I try to keep my carb intake around 45 g or less to take into account for natural sugars.

Usually Less when eating foods with natural sugars.

 

[saywhatkid]

I don't many would eat a bag of spinach in one siting.

They would most definitely be sitting soon after eating a bag of spinach.

 

[Babyblue]

No worries, I am still learning myself. I used to hear "Juice is bad! Soda is bad! Aspartame is bad!" and I didn't know why except people's opinions. Now I am more well-informed to make a judgement about it.

It makes sense why people get overweight from soda. A bottle of juice, depending on manufacturer, say a big bottle of 64 fl oz Mott's apple juice (original is the left)

compared to a 20 fl oz. regular bottle of mountain dew:

That's: 224g glucose/sucrose for 64 ounces, whereas the 20 ounce bottle of Mtn dew is 77.5g of HFCS mix.

If you drink the volume of mountain dew to equal the amount of 1 big bottle of mott's apple juice, you have drank 248g of fructose compared to 224g / 2 = 112g of fructose in the apple juice.

Wow, That is an eye opener!!

 

[saywhatkid]

No worries, I am still learning myself. I used to hear "Juice is bad! Soda is bad! Aspartame is bad!" and I didn't know why except people's opinions. Now I am more well-informed to make a judgement about it.

It makes sense why people get overweight from soda. A bottle of juice, depending on manufacturer, say a big bottle of 64 fl oz Mott's apple juice (original is the left)

compared to a 20 fl oz. regular bottle of mountain dew:

That's: 224g glucose/sucrose for 64 ounces, whereas the 20 ounce bottle of Mtn dew is 77.5g of HFCS mix.

If you drink the volume of mountain dew to equal the amount of 1 big bottle of mott's apple juice, you have drank 248g of fructose compared to 224g / 2 = 112g of fructose in the apple juice.

If you go strictly by serving size (8 oz) these numbers are pretty similar between the 100% apple juice and the soda. There are obvious benefits from the apple juice, since it contains vitamin C. However, it does not look like a much better choice.

 

[Jazzberry]

If you go strictly by serving size (8 oz) these numbers are pretty similar between the 100% apple juice and the soda. There are obvious benefits from the apple juice, since it contains vitamin C. However, it does not look like a much better choice.

When one of my friends first told me that fruit juice wasn't healthy I didn't believe her. This was years ago and I just thought she was nuts.

I believe it now though. I eat fruit instead of drinking fruit juice. One exception though -- I do drink half a glass of Cranberry-Raspberry juice for breakfast. Cranberries are suppose to prevent bladder infections but I'm not eating the berries.

I also drink a glass of V-8 juice most days. It's not as healthy as actually eating the veggies but its better than nothing. And its only 7 grams of sugar for 2 grams of fiber -- plus the vitamins. The company says its considered two servings but after thinking about it its probably really equivalent to one serving. IIRC, most single servings of fruits or veggies usually has about 2 grams of fiber.

I try to aim for 5 servings of veggies and 4 servings of fruits most days. Usually get about 7, well 6 now that I rethought how many servings a glass of V-8 really is.

 

[DeafCaroline]

I don't think many would eat a bag of spinach in one siting.

Hahaha! That's true!