I thought I knew a lot about food and in particular carbohydrates and sugar. However, I attended a diabetes support group recently that sent my head spinning in confusion.
You see, I always thought that the word "carbohydrate" referred to the group of foods that have the most influence on blood sugars and that "sugary" foods would be part of that group. So when a gentleman remarked that white bread was full of sugar my head slowly exploded.
Inside my head I was asking so many questions;
- do you mean sugar as in table sugar and that it's an ingredient of bread?
- or do you mean in comparison to wheat/brown bread?
- are you talking about carbohydrate and not sugar?
- are people confusing those two words?
- when dietitians talk about sugar; are they talking about sugary foods, table sugar or a subgroup of carbohydrates?
I started second guessing my knowledge and I couldn't respond to the comment which was then followed with other remarks about other foods, such as bananas that are also full of "sugar". Help! But of course none of us had the knowledge to sort all of this confusion out.
So off I went to Google university to try and figure out my confusion and find out once and for all what the word "sugar" actually means. I'm still not very wise but my opinion is that the word is being used in all sorts of contexts and that most of the other general public are confused too.
There's sugar as in table sugar, complex sugar or carb which is a type of carb (obviously) and the other one which is simple sugar/carb, sugars as in my blood sugars.
We have invited a dietitian to our next support group meeting and I think it's going to make for a very interesting evening and hopefully be enlightening.
You see, I always thought that the word "carbohydrate" referred to the group of foods that have the most influence on blood sugars and that "sugary" foods would be part of that group. So when a gentleman remarked that white bread was full of sugar my head slowly exploded.
Inside my head I was asking so many questions;
- do you mean sugar as in table sugar and that it's an ingredient of bread?
- or do you mean in comparison to wheat/brown bread?
- are you talking about carbohydrate and not sugar?
- are people confusing those two words?
- when dietitians talk about sugar; are they talking about sugary foods, table sugar or a subgroup of carbohydrates?
I started second guessing my knowledge and I couldn't respond to the comment which was then followed with other remarks about other foods, such as bananas that are also full of "sugar". Help! But of course none of us had the knowledge to sort all of this confusion out.
So off I went to Google university to try and figure out my confusion and find out once and for all what the word "sugar" actually means. I'm still not very wise but my opinion is that the word is being used in all sorts of contexts and that most of the other general public are confused too.
There's sugar as in table sugar, complex sugar or carb which is a type of carb (obviously) and the other one which is simple sugar/carb, sugars as in my blood sugars.
We have invited a dietitian to our next support group meeting and I think it's going to make for a very interesting evening and hopefully be enlightening.
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