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Food Values and Adulterations: Sugar

Sugar, like starch, is fattening since, when taken in excess, it may be transformed into fat and stored as reserve fuel. On this account sugar should be used sparingly by persons who tend to become corpulent.

Sugar, confectionery, and the various sweet table sirups and molasses are not luxuries. They are not only valuable as flavors. They have high food value and may properly be regarded as economical sources of heat and energy. Well-to-do families in our country consume about 2 pounds of sugar per week per person. Most of the bad effects sometimes ascribed to sugar are due to its use in excess.

Sugar is not any more harmful to the teeth than other foods. If allowed to cling to the teeth after eating it rapidly ferments and forms acids that may be injurious. But this is true of all starchy foods. The remedy is to be found in proper care of the teeth as elsewhere recommended. Neither does sugar produce gout; although it may be injurious in large quantities in certain classes of illness.

In addition to being used as a flavor in cooked foods and otherwise, considerable quantities of sugar are taken in fresh fruits-of which it sometimes forms one-tenth or moreand dried fruits such as figs, dates and raisins, of which as much as 50 per cent may be sugar.

Large quantities of sugar are also taken as confectionery. Cheap candies are made largely from glucose. This is no longer considered an injurious adulterant, although it is not quite so digestible as sugar. It may, therefore, overload the stomach more easily. The best authorities seem to agree that, while sugar is a valuable food for growing children, it should be withheld from infants under two years of age. Nor should it be used for older children to sweeten cereal foods which form their staple food.

Mush, porridge, and similar preparations of wheat or other grain, should be eaten only with milk or cream.

They are then in the same class as bread and milk and form the simple, wholesome basis of a meal. Sugar should preferably be given afterward in a simple pudding, or dessert, or in the form of lump sugar or homemade candy. Indeed, the best manner and time for giving candy to children is in the form of a few bonbons for dessert rather than at all hours of the day between meals.