Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
TwitThisThe Type of Sugar -- or Why Fruit Is A-Okay
Sugar is the molecule that makes up carbohydrates, but there is more than one kind. There's table sugar (sucrose) as well as the kind found in fruits and grains (fructose), the kind in milk (lactose), and the kind in malted barley (maltose).The sugar in milk and fruit tends to be absorbed more slowly than other sugars since it needs to be converted into glucose by the liver first, which is why these foods are gentle to your blood sugar.
Ironically, table sugar, which is half fructose and half glucose, is turned into blood sugar more slowly than some starches, like bread or potatoes. That doesn't make sugar good for you, of course. One reason is that fructose, especially in the amounts contained in packaged foods loaded with high-fructose corn syrup, raise triglycerides, blood fats that increase the risk of heart attack. (Fruit, by contrast, contains a little fructose plus plenty of water, fiber, and nutrients.) The other reason is that sugar packs a lot of carbohydrate calories in a small package.
That's why one 32-ounce (1-liter) cola drink contains a whopping 400 calories -- and will send your blood sugar soaring.
Advertisement 
feeds instead
