Guest guest Posted November 23, 2001 Report Share Posted November 23, 2001 The following information is provided by: fidyl If you forward, please leave the credit on. Sweeteners GENERAL Cook's Thesaurus: Sugar http://www.switcheroo.com/Sweeten.html GUIDE TO NATURAL SWEETENERS http://www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/vlsweet.htm In a Vegetarian Kitchen http://www.vegkitchen.com/sweeteners.html Note on the use of sugar and honey http://www.boutell.com/vegetarian/sugar-honey.html Table of Sugars http://www.efn.org/~sundance/Sweeteners.html The Ultimate Sweetener, Ingredients & Benefits http://www.everetthc.oaktree.co.uk/sweet1.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sugar Facts In one form or another, the average American eats 149 pounds of sugar per year. This related to over 10 pounds of sugar per month, or over 40 teaspoons per day. This over consumption has lead to problems of epidemic proportion including obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Poor health is often blamed on eggs, sweet rolls and coffee. Some say it is blamed on red meat and other say salt. But sugar (and bad fats) are also to blame!Sugar, pure, white, innocently clothes itself in many deceptive forms. How could something so good, be so bad? Where does it hide itself? Sugar makes its way into food products we would normally not be suspicious of. For example, sugar is added to hamburgers in restaurants to prevent shrinkage. It is in breading for foods and canned salmon. Fast food poultry may be injected with a honey solution. Luncheon meats, bacon, and cannet meats all contain sugar. Sugar is in bouillon cubes and dry roasted nuts. It is also in alcohol -- beer, wine, and hard liquor. Sugar is in canned fruits, peanut butter, and many dry cereals. Half the calories in ketchup comes from sugar. Each 12 oz. soft drink contains approximately 10 teaspoons of sugar. Refined sugar is 99.7% pure calories; no vitamins, minerals, protein or fiber, just simple carbohydrate. A simple carboyhdrate is a short chain molecule, like glucose, with six carbons, six oxygen and 12 hydrogen. A complex carbohydrate is made by hooking up several of these structures together in long chains. The simple burn fast like gasoline on a fire and the complex burn longer like a log on the fire.Our body needs only two seapoons of blood sugar at a time to funtion properly. This is easily obtained from digesting complex carbohydrates, proteins and fats, which release their energy slowly over time. Every extra teaspoon of refined sugar that you eat works to throw your body out of balance and compromise its health.Lets look at a typical candy bar. If you look on the label of a Peanut Butter Cup the sugars are divided into simple and complex. In a 1.8 oz. treat there are 24 grams of simple carbohydrate. There are 4 calories per gram of sugar, so 24 x 4 = 94 calories due to sugar. Sugar has 15 calories per teaspoon, so 96 divided by 15 = 6.4 teaspoons of sugar in each package!! WOW!What is the practical effect of this? See the chart below:1 = Tsp. of sugar eaten at one time.2 = Number of bacteria killed by white blood cells after 30 minutes of ingesting.3 = Percentage of decreas in effectiveness of white blood cells. One Two Three 0 14 0 6 10 25 12 5.5 60 18 2 85 24 1 92 Uncontrolled 1 92 Diabetic It is now easy to understand why it is important to decrease the amount of refined sugar, especially when one has an infection!The bottom line is, just say no to that white packaged crystal sugar, and any food that has fructose, dextrose, corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) on its ingredient label. And yes, honey is a sugar. Be careful, but at least it is a whole food. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - REFINED SUGAR Refined sugar is avoided by some vegetarians because its processing may involve a bone char filter. An activated carbon filter, sometimes made of bone char, decolorises sugar to make it white through an absorption process. While the bone char filter is used by some major sugar companies, it is not used to produce all refined sugar. The two major types of refined sugar produced in the United States are beet sugar and cane sugar. CANE SUGAR Cane sugar is mainly grown in Florida, California, Louisiana, Hawaii and Texas. Beet sugar is grown in states located in the middle part of the U.S. Much sugar cane is actually imported. According to beet sugar producers, beet and cane sugar are Nutritionally equivalent and one cannot usually taste any difference between them. They are both composed of sucrose. The production and sale of each type of sugar are approximately equal (1). BEET SUGAR Beet sugar refineries never use a bone char filter in processing because this type of sugar does not require an extensive decolorising procedure. Beet sugar can be refined with a pressure lead filter and an ion exchange system. Beet sugar is popular in the Midwest because it is grown in this area. It is often labeled Granulated Sugar. Beet sugar is becoming more prevalent in the United States because the Federal government subsidises this industry. Almost all cane sugar refineries require the use of a specific filter to decolorise the sugar and absorb inorganic material from it. This whitening process occurs towards the end of the sugar refining procedure. The filter may be either bone char, granulated carbon, or an ion exchange system. The granular carbon has a wood or coal base, and the ion exchange does not require the use of any animal products (2). Bones from cows are the only type used to make bone char. According to the Sugar Association and several large sugar producers, all of the cows have died of " natural causes " and do not come from the U.S. meat industry. Bone char cannot be produced or bought in the United States (3). Bone char is derived from the bones of cattle from Afghanistan, Argentina, India and Pakistan. The sun-bleached bones are bought by Scottish, Brazilian, and Egyptian marketers, who sell them to the U.S. sugar industry after the bones are first used by the gelatin industry (4). Bone is heated to an extremely high temperature, which results in a physical change in the bones composition. The bone becomes pure carbon before it is used in a refinery. Refined sugar does not contain any bone particles and is therefore kosher certified. The bone char simply removes impurities from the sugar, but does not become a part of the sugar. Individual pieces of bone char, like granular carbon, can be used for several years. They must be continuously washed to remove the sugar deposits. Companies that use bone char claim that the char is more economically feasible and efficient than other types of filters (4). Many cane refineries use bone char. Domino, the largest sugar manufacturer, uses bone char in the filtration process. The cane refineries of Savannah Foods, the second largest sugar manufacturer, also use bone char. California and Hawaiian Sugar employs bone char filters in addition to granular carbon and ion exchange filters. All these companies use the bone char in the refining process of brown sugar, powdered sugar (sugar mixed with corn starch) and white sugar. Some cane refineries do not use bone char. Refined Sugar, producers of Jack Frost Sugar, claim to use a granular carbon instead of bone char for economic reasons. Florida Crystal sugar is a cane sugar which has not passed through the bone. Although Florida Crystals sugar has a straw color, the impurities still have been removed. Some labels on sugar packages seem to indicate that the product is raw sugar, but all commercial sugar has undergone some refining. Genuine raw sugar cannot be bought and sold to the general consumer in the United States according to FDA regulations, as it is considered unfit for human consumption. If your sole reason for not consuming refined sugar is because of the use of bone char, then you should consider buying sugar which has not passed through the char. Refined beet sugar, which never involves bone char, is often labeled fine granular sugar. C & H produces one sugar which has not gone through the bone char. It is labeled Washed Raw Sugar. Cane sugar, which sometimes uses bone char, is distinguished as cane sugar on the package. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - BROWN SUGAR Brown sugar is basically refined sugar with added molasses. The brown sugar produced by the beet industry uses cane molasses, but this molasses has not gone through the bone char. Cane sugar companies which use bone char will utilize bone char to refine brown sugar (6). CARAMEL COLOR Caramel color is not a flavor; it is a food coloring agent. Caramel color is used in almost any product that is brown. The top two consumers of the color are Coca Cola and Pepsi. It is also used in rye and pumpernickel bread, cereal, iced tea, syrup, dog food and pancake mixes. Caramel color is based on a carbohydrate raw material. Most producers of caramel color prefer to use glucose syruvp as the initial carbohydrate. Glucose syrup is almost pure dextrose. While U.S. glucose syrup is usually corn syrup, it can also be derived from potatoes, wheat or other sources. Caramel color has no animal-derived components. Although lactose (a milk sugar) is one of the permitted raw carbohydrate reactants, we are told by Sethness, the world's largest caramel color company, that lactose is not used by any caramel color producer in the world. Almost all industries begin the process with glucose syrup. Caramel color is exempt from government certification, which means that it is an approved food ingredient that can be added to foods without obtaining government permission. The initial carbohydrate reacts with chemicals such as food-grade acids, alkalies and salts. It is then heated to a high temperature, put under high pressure, and then processed to burn. The resulting product is a burnt-colored liquid which has a high level of coloring power. For example, according to a caramel color technician, * teaspoon of caramel color would be used in a bottle of Pepsi. Refined beet or cane sugar can be used to make caramel color, but it is not the preferred method. The only time sugar would be used is Passover, when Jewish laws do not permit the use of corn syrup. Products containing caramel color derived from refined sugar would be labeled as such (9). CORN SYRUP Corn syrup is the main ingredient of most pancake syrups. Pure maple syrup will have a grade label and state " 100% Pure Maple Syrup. " (8) It may be difficult to determine whether a particular brand of syrup has an animal or vegetable based defoamer. Most syrups do not use lard, with the exception of certain small-scale products. Brands which are kosher certified, such as Spring Tree or Maple Groves, are unlikely to contain animal products in their defoamers. Holsum Foods, which produces pancake syrup, also uses vegetable oil as a defoaming agent, and their product is labeled by food chains such as Dominick's, Supervalue and Superfine. MAPLE SUGAR Maple syrup is another sweetener which may sometimes be a concern to vegans. The process of making maple syrup requires an agent to reduce the foam on the syrup by adding a small amount of fat to the liquid. The traditional process of reducing the foam in maple syrup has included the use of lard. Previously, local producers would hang pork fat over a tub of maple syrup and let drops of fat drip into the syrup. Others used milk, cream or butter. If animal products are used in the form of lard or milk, the amount is minute. For example, eight to ten gallons of syrup will involve a quarter of a teaspoon of cream or a pea-sized drop of butter. Vegetable oil is a common defoaming agent. It can be applied to the end of a wooden stick and dipped into the foaming part of the maple syrup. Most manufacturers of maple syrup now use vegetable oil or synthetic defoamers instead of lard. One commercial defoamer (called Atmos300K) is composed of monoglycerides and diglycerides. According to WITCO, the producer of this defoamer, these glycerides are derived from " edible meat and/or vegetable sources. " Another leading brand of defoamer, Reynolds Magic Syrup Defoamer, also contains acetylated monoglycerides as an ingredient (7). Well known brands of pancake maple syrups, such as Mrs. Butterworths or Log Cabin, usually contain only 2-5% maple syrup. MOLASSES One of the by-products of sugar refining is molasses. Molasses that is consumed by humans is derived only from cane sugar. Some molasses is produced by directly boiling the sugar cane. Many different grades of molasses correspond with the flavor and level of processing of molasses. Blackstrap molasses is the lowest grade of molasses available because of its dark bitter qualities. All the molasses in graded foods is unsulphured (6). Beet sugar molasses is not fit for human consumption because it is too bitter. Beet sugar molasses is fed to dairy cows and cattle. The syrup is added to their food to make it taste sweeter. The beet molasses is also sold to yeast-making industries (1). The molasses syrup which is consumed by humans has not gone through any bone char or carbon filter. About 95% of the molasses is removed before the sugar travels through the bone char or carbon filter. Any molasses which has gone through the char is used in animal feed or for fermentation purposes. Molasses companies often buy their initial product from sugar refineries and then further refine the syrup. They do not use any type of char filter because they do not desire to eliminate the brown color (5). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ALL ABOUT SUGARS Sugar has become an ingredient so widely used in everyday cooking and eating that many people take it for granted. But sugar was once so costly that only the wealthy could afford this sweet luxury. While sugar had been cultivated in Persia and Arabia in the 4th century B.C., it never made it to the western world until the 8th century. This early sugar bore little resemblance to the fine snowy white grains we now commonly stir into our coffee cups. Instead it ranged from off-white to light brown in color and came in the form of large solid blocks that had to be chiseled to yield the sweet substance that was then ground finer with a mortar and pestle. Using sugar is much more convenient today, and supplies are cheap, so there's no need to horde it. It's nice to know, however, that if you find a good sale on sugar, it can be stored for an indefinite period. Just keep it in a tightly sealed container in a cool dry place. Sugar comes in so many different forms it might seem confusing. Here is a breakdown of the most common types of sugars and their uses: White or Granulated Sugar is a highly refined cane or beet sugar. The most common and widely used form of sugar, it is also available in cube form. Castor or Caster Sugar is white sugar with a superfine grain, which allows it to dissolve almost instantly. Caster sugar can be substituted for white sugar in a direct one to one ratio. Because it dissolves so quickly, Caster sugar is great for sweetening cold liquids and works especially well in meringues. Coarse Sugars or Sugar Crystals have grains about 4 times the size of granulated sugar. Coarse sugars are often available in a rainbow of decorative colors in supermarkets and cake decorating supply shops. Brown Sugar is made from a mixture of white sugar and molasses and is generally available in light or dark varieties. The darker the sugar, the more intense the molasses flavor. You substitute brown sugar for white in equal measure, the only difference is that the brown sugar should be firmly packed in the measuring cup. Brown sugar has a tendency to harden with age or when it exposed to air for too long, so try to store in tightly sealed plastic. If you brown sugar has hardened, you can soften it by storing it in a plastic bag with a raw wedge of apple for 2-3 days - it will be as good as new. Raw Sugar, while light brown in color, should not be confused with or substituted for brown sugar. Raw sugar is what's left after sugarcane has been processed and refined. Some people believe that raw sugar has superior nutritive qualities, although most of the raw sugar marketed in the US has been purified to such a degree, it pretty much negates this theory. Popular types of raw sugar include Demerara Sugar from Guyana and Barbados Sugar, a moist, fine textured sugar. Turbinado Sugar is raw sugar that has been steam cleaned to remove contaminates, leaving a light molasses flavored, tan colored sugar. Confectioner's Sugar or Powdered Sugar started out life as granulated sugar before it was crushed to a superfine powder which is mixed with a small amount of corn starch to prevent clumping. Confectioner's sugar is most often used to make icings and candies. It's also useful to add a quick decorative touch with a light dusting of the snowy white powder on cakes and other desserts. Confectioner's sugar is known as Icing Sugar in the UK and Sucre Glace in France. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - STEVIA http://www.fastlane.net/~kirkland/stevia/stevia.htm http://www.nowvitamins.com/stevia.htm http://www.kombuchapower.com/stevia_desc.htm Stevia Leaf – Too Good To Be Legal? http://ibiblio.org/herbmed/faqs/medi-2-6-stevia.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - SUCANAT Wholesome Foods - ORGANIC SUCANAT http://www.wholesomefoods.com/manufact/orgsucanat.htm TRUTINA DULCEM Sweet Balance - About Nature Sweet Inc. http://sweetbalance.com/001/info.htm Trutina Dulcem Glycemic Response Information http://www.trutina.com/glycemic.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - TURBINADO Turbinado sugar is a product which is made by separating raw cane sugar crystals in a centrifuge and washing them with steam. According to Domino Sugar, turbinado sugar does not pass through a bone char filter because its brown color is desirable. Refining sugar involves a series of steps, including clarification and an initial step where sugar syrup is added. The clarifying agents are calcium hydroxide, phosphoric acid, and polyacrylomite. The sugar used in the initial syrup is an intermediate, raw sugar which has not yet gone through the bone char filter. Bibliography 1.Western Sugar, personal interview July 1996. 2.Refined Sugar Inc., personal interview July 1996. 3.The Sugar Association, personal interview July 1996. 4.Domino Sugar, personal interview July 1996. 5.Malt Products, personal interview July 1996. 6.California and Hawaiian Sugar, personal interview July 1996. 7.Richards of Ohio (maple), personal interview July 1996. 8.Proctor Maple Research Center, personal interview July 1996. 9.Sethness, personal interview July 1996. Caroline wrote this article while doing an internship with The Vegetarian Resource Group - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The following appeared in a subsequent issue of Vegetarian Journal: Editor's note: In the March/April 1997 issue of Vegetarian Journal, we printed an article on sugar and other sweetners. In that article we stated that beet sugar is often labeled " Granulated Sugar " or " fine granular sugar. " We also stated that cane sugar is distinguished as " cane sugar " on the package. While these statements are true, they may be misleading to some readers. Because of misinterpretations of these statements, we contacted several sugar manufacturers to clarify the issues. This is what Domino Sugar Corp., Savannah Foods & Industries, Inc., California & Hawaiian Sugar Co., and Florida Crystal Co. said: The terms " Granular Sugar " and " fine granular sugar " may apply to sugar derived from either beets or sugar cane. The processing of sugar cane, but not sugar beets, often involves decolorization by cow bone char. Secondly, there is no legal requirement that the source of the sugar appear on the label. " Sugar " is sufficient. The manufacturer must be contacted in order to determine the source and the processing method. We can say, however, that beet sugar is more popular in the midwest (where the beets are grown) than elsewhere in the United States. ===== Fidyl Live Simply So That Others May Simply Live Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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