What is Sugar?

Dictionary.com gives us the following definition:

Sugar (noun): a sweet, crystalline substance, C1 2H2 2O1 1, obtained chiefly from the juice of the sugarcane and the sugar beet, and present in sorghum, maple sap, etc.: used extensively as an ingredient and flavoring of certain foods and as a fermenting agent in the manufacture of certain alcoholic beverages; sucrose. Chemistry. a member of the same class of carbohydrates, as lactose, glucose, or fructose.

Following is an excerpt from William Dufty's book "Sugar Blues".

"The use of the word carbohydrate to describe sugar is deliberately misleading. Since the improved labeling of nutritional properties was required on packages and cans, refined carbohydrates like sugar are lumped together with those carbohydrates which may or may not be refined. The several types of carbohydrates are added together for an overall carbohydrate total. Thus, the effect of the label is to hide the sugar content from the unwary buyer. Chemists add to the confusion by using the word sugar to describe an entire group of substances that are similar but not identical.
Glucose is a sugar found usually with other sugars, in fruits and vegetables. it is a key material in the metabolism of all plants and animals. Many of our principal foods are converted into glucose in our bodies. Glucose is always present in our bloodstream, and is often called blood sugar.
Dextrose, derived synthetically from starch, also called 'corn sugar'.
Fructose is fruit sugar
Maltose is malt sugar
Lactose is milk sugar.
Sucrose is refined sugar made from the sugar cane and the sugar beet.
Glucose has always been an essential element in the human bloodstream. Sucrose addiction is something new in the history of the human animal. To use the word sugar to describe two substances which are far from being identical, which have different chemical structures, and which affect the body in profoundly different ways compounds confusion. It makes possible more flimflam from the sugar pushers who tell us how important sugar is as an essential component of the human body, how it is oxidized to produce energy, how it is metabolized to produce warmth, and so on. They're talking about glucose, of course, which is manufactured in our bodies. However, one is led to believe that the manufacturers are talking about the sucrose which is made in their refineries. When the word sugar can mean the glucose in your blood as well as the sucrose in your Coca-Cola, it's great for the sugar pushers but it's rough on everybody else."

Since beginning the experiment, I am often met with incredulity on the part of my friends and acquaintances. "How can you give up sugar? It's in everything! There's sugar in fruit, in milk, in vegetables . . . . and your body needs sugar!" This is when I try to explain that I am giving up refined sugar, and added sugar. If God put it there, it's OK. If man put it there, it's not.

Signing off,
JamiK