The truth about sugar

With Brits consuming over one millions tonnes of sugar, pressure is constantly mounting on food manufacturers to reduce the amount of sugar in their products.

But is brown sugar healthier than white sugar, and is agave syrup healthier than regular sugar? Channel 4’s Food Unwrapped show attempted to answer these questions earlier this week.

The answer: no.

During the programme on ‘The Truth About Sugar’, the presenters discovered that brown and white sugar derive from the same cane sugar plants, and it’s in fact the molasses that give brown sugar it’s darker colour. However, there’s actually no difference in terms of the amount of calories each variant has, it’s simply down to personal preference.

Next, the presenters uncovered the way agave syrup is made – syrup is extracted from the agave plant and cooked at a slow temperature, which is then reduced down. Although it tastes sweeter than regular sugar, agave syrup is said to have a less dramatic effect on our blood sugar levels.

The programme also touched on the European Union’s proposed abolition of sugar beet quotas, which is due to come into effect in October 2017. It will mean sugar beet manufacturers will be able to produce as much sugar as they want, however, farmers in sugar cane producing countries such as Mauritius are worried, with 200,000 of them expected to lose their jobs as a result.

So although we’ve got the answers to two questions, it seems there’s still a lot to discover about sugar and its effect on our bodies.

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