Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site Navajo.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!decwrl!Glacier!Navajo!billw From: billw@Navajo.ARPA Newsgroups: net.cooks Subject: Re: Sugar substitutes Message-ID: <196@Navajo.ARPA> Date: Sat, 5-Oct-85 19:42:39 EDT Article-I.D.: Navajo.196 Posted: Sat Oct 5 19:42:39 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 7-Oct-85 07:17:24 EDT References: <1554@shark.UUCP> Organization: Stanford University Lines: 63 AAARRRGGGHHH!!! Humans are so illogical. "Composition of Honey: (percent) Water 17 Fructose 38 Glucose 31 Sucrose 1.5 Other Di-saccarides 7 Higher sugars 1.5 Acids 0.6 Minerals 0.2 It is worth noting briefly that despite the claims of some "natural" food advocates, honey is no wonder food. Its vitamin content is negligible; bees get most of theirs from pollen. Also, because the B vitamins are a part of the machinery that liberates energy from carbohydrates and fats, a given amount of honey actually uses up more B vitamins than it supplies. It contains only about 3% of the thiamine and 6% of te niacin necessary to convert its sugars to energy. : : In the last few decades, great claims have been made for the nutritional excellance of molasses. Though it is true that, compared to 99.8% pure sucrose, molases contains large amounts of minerals and B vitamins, it is also true that in absolute terms, these amounts are minor. A table- spoon of blackstrap molasses - which, given its flavor, is a lot - contains less than a thirtieth of the recommended daily dose of B vitamins and about a sixth of the iron and calcium allowances. Premium molasses carries about half these amounts. : Similar claims of nutritional value have been made for brown sugar, which is essentially a mixture of white sugar, and so even a less likely candidate than molasses. It is also thought that brown sugar is somehow less "Processed" than white and therefore more healthful. : Brown sugar IS refined. It is made by adding special syrups that have undergone the ideal amount of browning to refined, redisolved sucrose. : Truly "raw", unrefined sugar contains soil, microbes, and other contami- nants, and the FDA classifies it as unfit for direct use in food. "Turbinado" sugar whichis edible, is partially refined by washing the initially crystalized sucrose with steam in the centerfuge, but is not redisolved or treated further. Turbinado has much the same composition as brown sugar. : : Perhaps because its name invokes fruit, fructose has been praised as more "natural" than table sugar, more healthful, and less conductive to weight gain. However, any fructose sold in crystalline form as a replacment for table sugar is likely to be even more refined and less "natural" than sucrose, since it is usually obtanied by dividing pure sucrose into its glucose and fructose halves, and then isolating the latter. It is true that because fructose tastes sweeter than sucrose but contains only half the calories - it being only half of a sucrose molecule - fructose supplies more sweetness per calorie consumed." [Source: "On Food and Cooking" by Harold McGee, Carles Scribner's Sons, 1984. An excelant book - highly recomended. It was voted one of the best reference books of the year, and so is likely to be in your local library. Otherwise it's $29.95 at better bookstores. ] BillW