Sugar by any other name...

If you talked to your average schmuck on the street, they would agree with you that sugar is bad. But they would only be thinking of table sugar or candy, not the fact that most of the food they feed themselves and their kids gets readily converted to glucose during digestion, the same as sugar. As far as the body is concerned, foods like wheat, rice, barley, oats, potatoes, corn, bananas, pineapple, grapes, mangos, and raisins may as well be table sugar. Sure you can use whole wheat or brown rice and slow the sugar down a bit, but how is it any better to eat a cup of sugar in one gulp or to eat half of it now, and the other half a little bit later? It's still all sugar.

Sugar is bad. Plain and simple. Aside from the fact that it rots your kid's teeth right out of their cute little heads, it has been linked to cancer cell growth, obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, atherialsclorosis, alzheimer's disease, and premature aging.

People who go on a low carbohydrate diet cut sugars and other carbohydrates down to a very low level. By doing this, they lessen their blood glucose levels and reduce the amount of insulin rampaging around their blood streams. This helps them lose weight, get off of diabetes medication, lower their blood pressure, and generally look and feel better. Unfortunately for those of us who recognize the dangers of sugar, sugar can be hard to eliminate from our diet because, often, it is in disguise.

If you really want to avoid sugar, get used to reading labels. Sugar by any other name is still bad for you.

Different Names for Sugar
Sugar
Glycogen
Mannitol
Sorbitol
Balactose
Monosaccharides
Polysaccharides
Honey
Molasses
Maple syrup
Maple sugar
Date sugar
Brown sugar
Raw sugar
Turbinado sugar
Corn sweetener
Dextrose
Fructose
Glucose
Honey
Lactose
Maltose
Malt syrup
Molasses
Sucrose
High fructose corn syrup
Corn syrup
Beet sugar
Turbinado Sugar
Galactose
Xylose
Amylose
Amylopectin

Might As Well Be Called Sugar
Wheat
Flour
Corn
Corn Gluten
Rice
Brown Rice
Oats
Arrowroot
Tapioca
Arracacha
Buckwheat
Cassava
Oca
Sago
Sorghum
Kudzu
Banana
Barley
Dates
Grapes
Raisins
Nectarines
Pears
Pasta
Grits
Corn Starch
Bread
Cookies
Cake
Donuts
Bagels
Crackers
Breakfast Cereal
Fruit Juice
Carrot Juice
Milk
Ice Cream
Anything with a cartoon character on the label