Each day the average American adult consumes about 23 tsp. of sugars added to foods and beverages in processing, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. This equals roughly 460 calories daily that do not provide added nutrients. Healthier sources of sugar abound and include fruits and milk products, honey, syrups and plant crops such as sugar beet and sugar cane.
Fruits and Milk
Sugars are found widely in nature and are the building blocks of carbohydrates. Glucose and fructose are monosaccharides and are composed of only one sugar molecule. Known as simple sugars, glucose and fructose are found in fruits, one of the main sources of natural sugar. Another monosaccharide, galactose, is found only in milk. The total sugar present in milk and milk products, lactose, is made of glucose and galactose.
Raw Honey
Glucose and fructose comprise honey and are produced by bees from plant nectar or from the secretions of other living parts of plants. There are more than 300 kinds of honey in the United States from floral sources such as orange blossoms, thyme flowers, clover, buckwheat, soy, acacia, fireweed and eucalyptus.
Agave Nectar
Agave nectar comes from the fleshy leaves of the agave plant, originally cultivated in Mexican semi-arid soils. The sweet and sticky juice in the leaves is about 90 percent fructose in its natural form. Agave nectar is sweeter than table sugar, can be used by diabetics and has a low-glycemic level, however, can raise blood sugar if eaten after a large meal.
Plant Crops
Table sugar is derived from two plant crops, sugar beets and sugar cane. This is the most abundant sugar in nature and, when refined, produces molasses, confectioners' sugar and brown sugar. The sugar maple tree, found throughout the northeastern United States, produces maple sugar, a combination of saccharose and glucose. Sugar is also extracted from the fruit of the date palm and from the seeds of more than a dozen species of sorghum grasses native to Eastern Africa.
Corn Syrup
High-fructose corn syrup is chemically similar to table sugar and is the sweetener found in sodas and fruit-flavored drinks. Although sweeter than sugar, high-fructose corn syrup contains high amounts of isolated fructose the body has difficulty digesting. The website MayoClinic reports that large amounts of high-fructose corn syrup, as well as any type of added sugar, has been linked in some research studies not only to weight gain but to a greater risk of heart attack.
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