Heather Little-White, Contributor

You may have a craving for sweets and feel guilty about eating sugary foods. Although sugars add to the pleasure of eating, they continue to get a bad rap.

There is nothing wrong with eating measured portions of sweets occasionally instead of depriving yourself for days and weeks, then end up eating far more than you would, adding loads of calories to your diet.

The inclusion of sugary foods in a diet should relate to the balance of foods in your daily meal plan. If you have a sweet tooth, you should make every attempt to curb your craving as sugar can carry excess calories which are converted to fat. This may eventually lead to obesity. A slice of pound cake, as one sweet, has many more calories than a bunch of grapes, another sweet with naturally occurring sugar.

History

Sugar has been around from as early as 500 BC, originating with the Indians. After trade and conquest, sugar found its way to Europe and was later introduced to North Africa and Spain. It was Christopher Columbus who brought sugar cane to the Americas. Slave labour was responsible for the production of sugar in the West Indies.

Addiction to sugar dates to the days of hunter-gatherers, when sweet taste was a way to determine if food was safe to eat. Bitter foods were rejected as unsafe. As such, they enjoyed the sweetness of berries and other fruits. As far back as the Stone Age, primitive drawings showed humans collecting honey.

Processing

The processing of sugar cane, through boiling cane juice and allowing the water to evaporate, would leave crystals behind. The crystals were rich in protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals. Centuries later, sugar was refined and stripped of its nutrients so that

production could become profitable. Processing removed the fibre and nutrients that existed in the original crystals, resulting in food high in calories with little nutritional value.

Sugar is a concentrated source of carbohydrate. Sugars belong to the nutrient category of carbohydrates, which also include starches. Carbohydrates are the body's main source of fuel.

Starches and fibre are more complex than sugars and are referred to as complex carbohydrates. During digestion, carbohydrates are broken down to the simplest sugars - glucose, galactose and fructose. In the bloodstream, single sugars move into the cells and are converted to energy.

Sweeteners

Sweeteners fall into two categories - traditional and intense. Traditional sweeteners - sugars and sugar alcohols - are nutritive sweeteners which provide energy for the body. Intense sweeteners are artificial, non-nutritive and, many times, sweeter than sugar, but supplying few, if any, calories.Table sugar, or sucrose,

a simple carbohydrate, is one of several sugars, and

may naturally be found in some fruits and vegetables. Lactose is found naturally in milk and fructose is found in fruit and honey. Maltose is sugar from malt and dextrose is sugar from starch 'corn sugar'.

The selection of sugars in a diet relates to the number of calories. Adding sugar to your food is a cheap way of making it taste good. A common sweetener is high-fructose corn syrup, which is made from cornstarch and is three times sweeter than table sugar or glucose. It is less expensive. Corn syrup is used in soft drinks and other beverages labelled as 'natural' but uses high-fructose corn syrup. It is important to read labels before purchasing.

Health risks

Health experts agree that the overuse of sugar is linked to many growing health risks, including obesity and tooth decay. Increase in sugar consumption is linked to an increase in soda consumption, which may be associated with the worldwide increase in adult and childhood obesity, a growing health concern.

Excess sugar intake may lead to suppression of the immune system, impairing defences against infectious diseases. Sugars are said to feed cancer cells associated with cancers of the breast, ovaries, prostate, rectum, pancreas, gall bladder and stomach. Sugars may cause a decrease in insulin sensitivity, causing abnormally high insulin levels and, eventually, diabetes.

Artificial sweeteners

Artificial sweeteners have blossomed into a market of their own with three major players - Sweet 'N Low (saccharin or cyclamate); NutraSweet/Equal (aspartame, maltdextrin) and Splenda (sucralose). However, some sweeteners have been associated with cancers and some countries have banned the sale of these products.

Sugars in a healthy diet

Make changes to reduce your sugar intake and these can easily be accommodated into planning your meals.