Did you know that the highest GM food crops are Corn, Soybeans, Canola,
Cottonseed, Sugar Beets, Hawaiian Papaya (most) and a small amount of Zucchini
and Yellow Squash? And that many others
are hybrid crops (in this case hybridized by man and not nature)? Did you know that the majority of the sugar
in your foods, as well as your “sugars” are either GMO or hybrid or produced in
non-vegan methods? Did you know that if
a non-organic product made in North American lists “sugar” as an ingredient
(and NOT pure cane sugar), then it is almost certainly a combination of sugar
from both sugar cane and GM sugar beets?
Did you k now that the bone char used to process most sugar is from cows
injected with GM bovine growth hormone? And that this sugar will not contain
labels stating No rBGH, rBST, or artificial hormones? Did you know that date sugar is a type of sugar made from dried dates? But that again, in the US, we have to be
super careful, because many dates available in the US are man-made hybrids,
especially medjools?
SUGAR was first cultivated in India 2500 years ago and
called karkara in Sanskrit. Sugar
derives from Arabic form of word sakkara and appeared in the 13th century in
England. The recorded history of cane sugar began when a member of Alexander's
army mentioned in 325 BC. Sugar remained expensive until Haiti, in the west
indies in 1493. Despite setbacks, its cultivation spread throughout the islands
and cane sugar became and still is a main source of sweetness.
Half of the white table sugar manufactured in the United
States is cane sugar and the other half is beet sugar. Beet sugar accounts for
about 40% of the world's sugar, and the United States is the third largest
producer. Sugar beets, which naturally contain 16 to 18 percent sucrose,
flourish in temperate climates where the soil is rich and the growing season is
about five months long. Thirteen U.S. states currently grow sugar beets.
Sugarcane, which contains 12 to 14 percent sucrose, is a tropical grass and is grown
in four U.S. states: Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, and Texas. Both cane sugar and
beet sugar are considered to be among the "purest" foods available
because they are 99.9 percent sucrose.
The primary distinction between cane sugar and beet
sugar, other than being derived from different plants, is the processing
method. Unlike beet sugar, cane sugar processing typically takes place at two
locations, the sugar mill and the refinery. During the final purification
process, cane sugar is filtered through activated carbon (charcoal) which may
be of animal (cow or pig), vegetable, or mineral origin. This step is
unnecessary for beet sugar and therefore is never done.
In the United States, genetically modified sugar beets,
engineered for resistance to glyphosate, a herbicide marketed as Roundup, was
developed by Monsanto as a genetically modified crop. Glyphosate-resistant
sugar beets contain a biosynthetic gene that protects it from the effects of
glyphosate when it is applied to the crop as a means to control weeds. In 2005,
the US Department of Agriculture-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
(USDA-APHIS) deregulated glyphosate-resistant sugar beets after it conducted an
environmental assessment and determined glyphosate-resistant sugar beets were
highly unlikely to become a plant pest. Sugar from glyphosate-resistant sugar
beets has been approved for human and animal consumption in multiple countries,
but commercial production of biotech beets has been approved only in the United
States and Canada. Studies have concluded the sugar from glyphosate-resistant
sugar beets has the same nutritional value as sugar from conventional sugar
beets (not genetically modified or non-GMO).
Glyphosate-resistant sugar beets play an important role
in the United States' sugar industry. The United States imports 30% of its
sugar from other countries, while the remaining 70% is extracted from
domestically grown sugar beets and sugarcane. Of the domestically grown sugar
crops, over half of the extracted sugar is derived from sugar beets, and the
rest from sugarcane. After deregulation in 2005, glyphosate-resistant sugar
beets were extensively adopted in the United States. About 95% of sugar beet
acres in the US were planted with glyphosate-resistant seed in 2011
Over half of the cane refineries in the United States use
bone char (charcoal made from animal bones) as their activated carbon source.
The bone char used in this filtering process is so far removed from its animal
source that cane sugar processed in this method is deemed kosher pareve, which,
according to Jewish dietary laws, means that it contains no meat or milk in any
form as an ingredient. A number of vegans disagree with this perspective.
Consumers cannot discern any differences between beet
sugar and cane sugar in taste, appearance, and use. Beet sugar is frequently
not labeled as such -- the packaging may just list "sugar." Cane
sugar is more often labeled specifically, but not always. For consumers wishing
to differentiate, the issue has become convoluted. Many vegans prefer to avoid
white table sugar altogether rather than chance using a product that was
filtered through bone char.
Brown sugar consists of sugar crystals (cane sugar or
beet sugar) combined with molasses for taste and color. Confectioner's sugar
(also known as "powdered sugar") is white table sugar that has been
pulverized into a very fine powder and sifted.
Some vegans replace white table sugar with unbleached
cane sugar or dehydrated and granulated cane juice, both of which are available
in natural food stores. Most of these products can replace white sugar measure
for measure for general use (such as on cereal or in beverages) and in recipes.
These products are typically darker in color than white table sugar -- ranging
from light amber to rich brown -- due to their naturally higher molasses
content. This can sometimes alter the flavor of recipes and may also affect the
color of the finished product.
Unbleached cane sugar is considered by some to be more
healthful than white table sugar. Although it may contain minimal trace
nutrients, one would have to eat massive quantities of this sugar in order to
obtain any reasonable nutritive value. And, of course, there are numerous
drawbacks associated with the overconsumption of sugar including tooth decay
and obesity.
There are many reasons why vegans avoid white table
sugar, why some purchase only organically-grown unbleached sugar, and why still
others eschew sugar products altogether. A prudent approach may be to reduce
our use of all types of sugar, including sugary processed foods, and to train
our taste buds to more fully appreciate the natural sweetness of fresh and
dried fruits, grain sweeteners, and other whole foods.
Some vegans opt to forego sugar all together and purchase
optional sweeteners, such as maple sugar, granular fruit sweetener, and date
sugar, or to use natural liquid sweeteners such as pure maple syrup, agave
syrup, malt syrup, brown rice syrup, and mixed fruit juice concentrates.
But, there may be more than meets the eye about these
products.
Brown rice syrup is expected to have a glycemic index
higher than table sugar, as it is composed of glucose, maltose and
maltotriose. Glucose has a glycemic
index of 100. It quickly passes through the stomach into the small intestine
where it is absorbed into the bloodstream.
Maltose, which has a higher glycemic index of 105, is digested and
absorbed as blood glucose even faster.
The more complex trisaccharide, maltotrios , has a glycemic index in the
high-60s about the same as whole, cooked brown rice. The exact glycemic index for brown rice syrup
appears to be unknown.
Brown rice is a hybrid rice product. http://www.livingfoodsinstitute.com/resources_articles_3.php
Hybrid rice is any genealogy of rice produced by crossbreeding different kinds
of rice. As with other types of hybrids, hybrid rice typically displays
heterosis (or hybrid vigor) such that when it is grown under the same
conditions as comparable high-yielding inbred rice varieties it can produce up
to 30% more rice. High-yield crops, like hybrid rice, are one of the most
important tools for combating world food crises. The earliest high-yield rice was cultivated
by Henry 'Hank' Beachell in 1966, but it was not until the 1974 that the first hybrid
rice varieties were released in China.
In crop breeding, although the use of heterosis in
first-generation seeds (or F1) is well known, its application in rice was
limited because of the self-pollination character of that crop. In 1974,
Chinese scientists successfully transferred the male sterility gene from wild
rice to create the cytoplasmic genetic male-sterile (CMS) line and hybrid
combination. The first generation of hybrid rice varieties were three-line
hybrids and produced yields that were about 15 to 20 percent greater than those
of improved or high-yielding varieties of the same growth duration.
In addition, brown rice, as well as white rice, has high
levels of arsenic. Though the FDA has
stated that the levels won’t kill you “today”..
one should still be cautious of consuming too many rice products.
http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2013/09/fdas-reassurance-on-arsenic-in-rice-not-so-reassuring
Many Maple syrup brands are artificial, so make sure you
are purchasing true maple syrup.
Agave nectar is not natural.. My personal opinion is that
it should be avoided.
Watch out for fake stevia as well as truvia
My suggestion would be to try vegan cane sugar that is
grown and processed ethically.
Coconut sugar may also be a better choice. I don’t really like the flavor… However, to produce coconut sugar from the
sap of the tree, means that the coconuts themselves aren’t able to be produced
from that same tree. This results in a
shortage of coconuts for the meat, the milk and the oil. This being the case, coconut sugar is not
really a sustainable sweetener.
