Saccharides--The Not-So-Sweet Story

Saccharides…sound like it has something to do with sugar, right? Well, it does. Not sugar in the five pound bag sense, but sugars both naturally occurring and processed.

Maybe you’ve heard of the diet book Sugars That Heal, or even read it. The sugars that heal are called saccharides. Here’s how saccharides affect your body, and how to choose the right ones.

Saccharides are sugars that are found in carbohydrates. There are three types:

· Mono-saccharides
· Di-saccharides
· Poly-saccharides

Monosaccharides are sugars that contain one saccharide (sugar) molecule. Your body can easily absorb these through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream because they are the same size as the holes in your intestine for absorption. Monosaccharides are found in ripe fruit, honey, vegetables, nuts, and meat. These are the foods the body can readily make use of with minimal waste, because they don’t need digestion.

Di-saccharides are sugars that contain two saccharide molecules. These sugars cannot pass readily into the bloodstream from the intestine without first being broken down into two monosaccharides. Your body produces enzymes to split the molecules into single units, making them more easily absorbed and used by the body. Di-saccharides are found in table sugar, brown sugar, and milk. Some people don’t produce enough of the necessary enzymes to break down the sugars into single units, and consequently end up with such problems as lactose intolerance. The unused sugars end up as waste product.

Polysaccharides are sugars that contain many sugar molecules. These are even bigger, and require more enzyme action to break down into useable units. To do this, the pancreas release a fluid which contains an enzyme that helps to break these down into di-saccharides, which are then broken down into the one-molecule units for ready use. Starches mainly contain poly-saccharides (potatoes, legumes, pasta, etc.) Diabetics have a pancreas problem, and cannot release enough fluid to begin the long breakdown process of these sugars into the single unit molecules, and usually require the use of insulin for this process. For some diabetics, the limitation or avoidance of these foods is enough to keep insulin use at bay. For others, it may take large amounts of insulin to aid the breakdown process, and still huge amounts of poly-saccharides may wind up as waste, while unused saccharides get stored as fat.

Meanwhile, their cells are crying out for sugar in the form of useable mono-saccharides, which they never seem to get enough of due to lack of adequate cellular exchange.

Now comes the unpleasant end of the digestive party: intestinal bacteria. They are the last to feed on the gustatory delights of your diet, and eagerly await the inflows of unused disaccharides and polysaccharides. Their digestive process includes producing large amounts of gas and acid. This gas is what makes us burp and fart. It also sends false signals to the stomach that more digestive acids are needed, resulting in heartburn, nausea, and vomiting. The acids start to degenerate the intestinal lining, its absorbing cells, and the enzyme-producing cells. They also create what some have experienced as “flaming diarrhea”.

By cutting down on refined starches and selecting more mono- and di-saccharide foods, we can control numerous digestive tract health problems, control weight gain, and better enable our bodies to use the foods we eat to maintain health. Examples of unrefined starches include beans, peas, corn, regular oatmeal, any pasta made with durum wheat flour, barley, brown rice, and anything on the low glycemic index scale.

Examples of refined starches are sugar in the bag, any pasta made with semolina flour, and anything processed (in a box, can, or jar) and NOT on the low or medium glycemic index scale. Examples of hidden refined sugars are sucrose, dextrose, fructose (or any other –ose ending sweetener), as well as the range of artificial sweeteners available to the general public. Food additives are not required to be inspected or tested by the FDA, so nobody but the occasional researcher really knows the long-term effects these substances have on our bodies and minds. Why put yourself at risk when you don’t need to?

It really does pay to read labels. The more junk you leave on the store shelves, the less junk can build up in your system and create problems (cancer, hypertension, hardened arteries, etc.)

Sugars are essential to the cellular communication and exchange within the body, but the modern diet overloads us with two types of sugar—glucose and fructose. The other seven essential sugars we need for proper cell communication and cellular activities are typically found in raw vegetable matter and nutritional yeast (NOT the kind for making bread). This yeast can be bought in health food stores and in bulk. To use nutritional yeast in daily diet, it can be added to soups, salads, sauces, and the flour canister (no matter what composes your "flour") for baked goods. Drinking beer or wine will not help, because the yeast has been removed from the product before bottling or canning. Supplement pills will have a bitter taste, and will need rapid washing down after swallowing. The best method is simply to add it to your food or in the "flour" canister, so every baked good produced will have some yeast in it. Add it to soups and sauces, your meatloaf mix, ground beef for tacos, and casseroles. There are many ways to use nutritional yeast.

Why should we be worried about our sugar intake? The current excitement over health care reform--reform should begin at HOME by limiting the amount of sugar in your diet to prevent diabetes (one of the more expensive-to-treat avoidable diseases). The absolute MAXIMUM level of intake is 40 grams daily of added sugar--I haven't found a minimum level yet, unless you count my dietitian's recommendation of no more than 6 grams per serving PER DAY (for processed foods) to head off borderline diabetes. Read your labels--there isn't a whole lot out there that meets this criteria, unless you count real, whole foods.

The American Heart Association's recommended intake is no more than 1/8 cup per person daily for added sugars.

Limiting our sugar intake to avoid diabetes and obesity would lower health care costs to the tune of $147 billion annually. This limit includes honey, molasses, and any other form of sugar (whether it ends in "-ose", "-ol", or not). This is why sugar alcohols have been invented for diabetic use--they're not actually sugar. Stevia makes a nice substitute, but it too has problems--some of us are allergic to it.

If you factor in the OTHER things lowering our sugar intake prevents (like cancer), the cost savings spiral upward from there.