eli5: Sugars are carbs. What is different about sugar that requires it to be listed separately on a nutritionql label?
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The idea is that we need to have sugar called out specifically because its the type of carb that we most often consume too much of. The callout is for awareness, education, and tracking your intake of sugar. “50 carbs, but 45 of them are sugar” versus “50 carbs, 5 of which are sugar”. Very important to be able to see the difference, hence the callout.
i think it’s more accurate to say that carbs are broken down into sugars in your stomach that your body can use for energy. foods that are high in sugar give you energy too, but the human body isn’t meant to digest these processed, already broken down sugars, which is why it messes with people’s insulin levels and pancreas. in other words, they list sugar separately because it’s so harmful to the body
Sugar is made up of glucose and fructose. Fructose can only be processed by the liver, while the whole body can utilize glucose.
Carbs are long chains of glucose only and when digested, they are only converted to glucose.
Not all carbs are equal. The two act very differently when consumed.
There are some carbohydrates humans cannot even digest because we lack the enzymes, don’t chew our cud, and lack the hind-gut fermenting microbes horses and pigs possess.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0q4XMzuzV4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0q4XMzuzV4)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWWTpe86ja](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWWTpe86ja4)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yg5_SmLCps](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yg5_SmLCps)
If you eat an amount of refined sugar equal to what is in an apple, it’s absorbed in the stomach in minutes, but if you eat an apple, those intra-cellular carbohydrates are still being absorbed in the distal small bowel hours later. The gut bacteria treat it differently, the liver treats it differently, the pancreas treats it differently, and on top of that, you get vitamins, other anti-oxidents, and fiber.
It’s true there is little practical difference between refined sugar and something like refined white flour, which is too prevalent in the Western diet, but between, say, sugar and a yam, there is a whole cascade of enzymes, hormones, and time that make a difference.
It has to do with the number of carbon atoms linked in a chain. Sugar is usually disaccharides or monosaccharides meaning very few carbon molecules in a chain. These are things like fructose, glucose or sucrose.
Your cells can burn purr sugar without having to break down the complex carbohydrates. So straight from your stomach into the bloodstream and into your cells for power, energy and hyperactivity in children.
In order for your body to use complex carbohydrates your digestive system needs to break them down into sugar for your cells to use. This takes time and your body can only process so much at any given time. As a result there is a slower controlled release of sugar into your blood and cells.
The most important statistic for your health about a type of carbohydrate is the Glysymic Index (GI). The GI will tell us how fast that type of carb is absorbed by the body. The faster the absorption rate the higher the spike in blood sugar. The larger the spike the more insulin is released. Insulin regulates the uptake of sugar and the higher the insulin the more sugar is converted into fat. Additionally, you can develop a resistance to insulin which is known as type 2 diabetes. On top of this high GI carbs lead to cycles of high energy followed by crashes which messes with the hormones that control hunger. Low GI carbs will contain the same number of calories as high GI carbs but they are significantly more healthy for you because they are absorbed slower and keep you “fuller” for longer. Sugar (glucose) is the highest GI carb there is.
I think it is also significant to add here, that fibre is a carbohydrate. Your body can’t process it and it just passes right through your system so it doesn’t really have an effect on your body or your blood sugar levels if you are diabetic or just trying to stick to a low carb diet.
It’s about politics more than it is about sugar.
Nutritional labels are something that politicans can change easily. Government organizations like the Food & Drug Administration (USA) and similar are who regulate nutritional labels, and they have limited oversight from legislation. The people in charge of this organization can unilaterally do a thing and go “we’re doing something about obesity”.
Measures that would actually curb obesity are typically wildly unpopular and/or would cause more problems than they solve. The result of enacting such policies is a sweep from government of the party that enacted them and a complete reversal of the policies by the new government. So the politicians do these feel-good measures to say they’re doing something without enacting wildly unpopular and oppressive policies to curb obesity.
Sugar damages your veins and other parts of your body. The other carbs don’t. Sugar is listed on nutritional labels to help you choose foods that have less sugar
Sugar is half part fructose and half part glucose. When you ingest sugar, it’s absorbed immediately by our body. The glucose is used up by our bodies as fuel. Our bodies can’t use the fructose part in any bodily function. It goes to the liver and is converted into fat and stored. Lot of sugar consumption with limited physical activity continues to build this fat up which isn’t good.
Repeated exposure of high levels of sugar in bloodstream can cause our bodies to develop resistance to insulin which ultimately causes diabetes which can further cause cardio vascular diseases.
To be healthy keep intake of refined carbs like sugar or refined flour to minimum. If you have carbs, make sure you have lot of fiber along with it. Having fiber with carbs reduces the amount of carbs the body absorbs.
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