Sugars Naturally sweet-toothed, Man has explored many sources of natural sugar and with his innate ingenuity has found many. Germinating seeds produce a disaccharide, maltose, to serve as food for the potential young plant; honey, a combination of dextrose and fructose which are split away from flower nectar by the enzymes which occur naturally in bee saliva; manna, a substance found on some plants and trees; palm sap, used to manufacture the strong, sweet jaggery found in southern India; corn syrup, produced by breaking down the starches found in maize. But the two main sources, used throughout the modern world, are cane sugar (saccharin officinarum), thought to be a descendent of a now extinct grass originating in New Guinea, and beet sugar (beta vulgaris). Sweetest : lactose (milk), maltose (germinated grains), glucose (honey, fruit & vegetables), sucrose (cane and beet), fructose, fruit and honey. India seems to be the only place where sugar has always been as popular as honey. So, being able to gather supplies from vegetable sources, they were less reliant on bees. Archaeologists also believe that the Dravidians, the early inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent, knew how to make a form of treacle from sugar cane, which they called guda and that they may even have learned this process from even earlier ancestors. So sophisticated had their sugar processing become by 1,000BC, that they had developed a machine for extracting cane sugar juice and a sugar and spice mix was used to produce a milk-curd recipe called payasyâ. Alexander the Great (BC 334-324) sent some cane sugar back to his Mediterranean headquarters, telling of yet another wonder of the mysterious Indies; “a solid honey not made by bees”. The earliest written reference to sugar is thought to be a love poem in the Atharra-veda, and a Persian tablet, dated at around 510BC, refers to solid sugar from the Indus Valley. In fact the Persians were the next society to make an improvement in the refining process, in the 7th century AD, by introducing the use of lime to remove proteins and impurities, producing the first ‘white’ sugar. Europe was largely dependent upon honey as its main sweetener and what little sugar trickled through was so expensive and rare that it was used almost exclusively as a medicine. After the arrival of the Moors in Spain in the 8th century, sugar cultivation began there, but the product was still regarded as a medicinal resource rather than a culinary one. The Iberian explorers took canes to their outposts, the Spanish establishing crops in the Canaries and the Portuguese, Madeira. In 1493 Columbus took sugar cane to the Caribbean, where it has thrived and become a main cash crop. In England, the demand for sugar only grew with the introduction of tea and coffee a mere two hundred years or so ago, honey having served well as medicine, sweetener and popular drink base for much of its history. The Venetians, ever ready to exploit new demands for the exotic and valuable commodity, added sugar to its already expansive range and were the main suppliers for most of northern Europe. Slowly, as crops began to thrive in the various colonies, cane sugar became more plentiful, but still quite expensive, having to be transported from such distant places, and so other sources of sweeteners were still explored. In 1590 a French botanist, Olivier de Serres, managed to extract the first sugary syrup from beet, but it was not seen as a viable process at the time and nothing much happened until 1747, when German chemist, Marggraf extracted the first sugar. Even then, it took a student of his, Karl Franz Achard, to gain the necessary patronage to produce sugar from beets in any great quantity. In 1800 he persuaded Frederick the Great of Prussia to set up the first beet refinery in Silesia - more than 200 years after the first syrup had been extracted. Another step forward for beet sugar came when in 1812, at the height of the Napoleonic Wars, supplies of cane sugar to France were cut off, triggering a direct order from Napoleon to cultivate and exploit the alternative source from beet. Today much of the sugar eaten in northern Europe is that derived from beet. Modern medicine may not see sugar as a curative, but early medical texts, such as those of Ayurveda, value sugar as a diuretic and apurient, promoting the excretion of waste products. Ayurveda also sees it as a useful tool for those suffering from kidney disease, being protein free and easily digested. Similarly, in cases of hepatitis, Ayurveda sees sugar as offering some protection to liver cells unable to tolerate fats or proteins during the illness. Another benefit is that of the sweetness ‘telling the brain’ that the appetite has been satisfied when eating something sweet at the end of a meal, triggering a feeling of satiety and suppressing hunger. Sugars exist, in one form or another, in all living things. Together with the other carbohydrate group, starch, they provide energy. They are broken down by the body’s digestive processes to form glucose, which is carried in the bloodstream to provide fuel for organs, muscles and body cells. The level of glucose is controlled by the action of two hormones; insulin (reduces glucose), and glycagon, (increases glucose). It is estimated that around one-fifth of the middle-aged population of Britain is glucose intolerant to some extent. That is, their blood sugar levels are slow to return to normal after a high carbohydrate meal, indicating that they are at risk of developing diabetes and/or heart disease. Glucose is the main fuel for the brain, which cannot store its supply and so relies on a consistent source from the bloodstream. A sudden drop in levels, or hypoglycaemia, can lead to mood swings, irritability and, in very severe cases, coma and death. Most sugars, especially the simple monosaccharides are digested quickly and provide a quick boost of energy. However, the quicker blood sugar levels rise, the faster they fall afterwards, which can lead to a drained, lethargic feeling - sometimes within as soon as 20 minutes. This can be avoided by eating small, regular meals which are higher in complex carbohydrates which take longer to be broken down by the body. This means that the glucose created is released more slowly into the bloodstream, providing a more sustained, consistent flow of energy. The ideal is to eat small, regular meals using plenty of complex carbohydrates to help the body to maintain normal blood sugar levels. No links have been found to suggest that excess sugar causes heart or kidney disease, or that it leads to diabetes. Studies have even been carried out in which thin people have been found to eat more sugar than those who are fat, leading to doubts even that it causes obesity. Although excess sugar which is not secreted or stored in the liver can end up helping to form fatty deposits around the body. To help in the tricky balancing act required in estimating a healthy intake, nutritionists have developed the Glycaemic Index, which is used to measure the rate at which blood sugar levels rise when a particular carbohydrate bearing food is ingested. Low level GI foods are more complex and hence digested more slowly, ensuring a longer feeling of satiety, longer term energy maintenance and keeping blood sugar levels constant. This group include unrefined, high fibre, high proteins foods such as beans, lentils, grains, dried fruits and pasta. High scoring foods, such as sugar, processed foods, potatoes, fruit juices and white breads should be offset with lower scoring foods. One recent theory linking diets high in refined sugar with hyperactivity has caused a certain amount of controversy. Chromium, necessary for the metabolism of sugar, is removed during refining and without it, insulin is less effective in reducing blood sugar levels. This led the researchers to suggest that this could increase the symptoms of hyperactivity such as aggression and behavioural problems. However, with a lack of firm scientific evidence with which to back this up, the medical establishment have yet to accept this theory. The most common proven worry with excess sugar, however, is that of tooth decay. All starches contribute to this and gum disease, because bacteria in the mouth break them down into acid that destroys tooth enamel, so sugar itself is not seen to be particularly detrimental to the health - as long as the overall diet is adequately balanced.