Sugar is...

"Sugar is poison," said Gloria Swanson (1). Sugar is addictive. Sugar is ubiquitous. Did you know there's sugar in toothpaste? Think about that. Just as an exercise in awareness, the next time you go to the supermarket, check the ingredients lists of the foods you buy and look for the presence of sugars and other sweeteners, "natural" and chemical. Notice how close to the top of the list the sugar (or sugars) are. That will tell you that there is more sugar than any of the ingredients following. Think you are not eating much sugar? Think again.

To help you recognize what things are sugars, here is a partial list of all the names that sugar comes under (adapted from "The 99 Names of Sugar," Food Addicts Anonymous, Inc.):
All-natural sweetener (cane sugar is a natural substance that has been highly refined)
Au Miel
Baker's special
Barbados molasses
Barbados sugar
Barley malt
Beet juice
Blackstrap molasses
Brown rice syrup
Brown sugar
Cane sugar
Cane syrup
Caramel
Caramel color
Coarse sugar
Clarified grape juice
Cncentrated fruit juices
Confectioner's (or powdered) sugar
Cooked honey
Corn sugar
Corn sweetener
Corn syrup
Dark brown sugar
Date paste
Date sugar
Date syrup
Dehydrated cane juice
Demerara sugar
Dextrin
Dextrose
Disaccharides
Dried fruits such as dates, raisins, figs, apricots
Evaporated cane juice
Fig syrup
Filtered honey
Fructooligo saccharides (FOS)
Fructose
Fruit juice concentrate
Fruit sugar
Fruit sweetener
Galactose
Glucose
Granulated, fine, or extra fine sugar
Heavy syrup
High-fructose corn syrup
Honey
Hydrogenated glucose syrup
-ides, any additive with this suffix: saccharides, trisaccharides, etc.
Invert sugar
Invert sugar syrup
Jaggery
Lactose
Levulose
Light brown sugar
Light sugar
Light syrup
Lite sugar
Lite syrup
Lo-sugar
Low sugar
Malt (any kind)
Malt syrup
Malted
Malted grains (corn, barley, rice)
Malto-anything
Maltodextrin
Maltodextrose
Maltose
Mannitol
Maple sugar
Maple syrup
Miel
Molasses
Mono- and disaccarides
Muscovado
Natrual cane sweetener
Natural fruit concentrates
Natural honey
Natural sucrose
Natural syrup
Naturally malted organic corn and barley extract
Naturally sweetened
Nectar (any kind)
-ol, any additive with this suffix: mannitol, sorbitol, inversol, hexitol, etc.
Organic brown rice syrup
Organic malted cereal strup: barley, corn, oat, rice
Organic sugar
-ose, any additive with this suffix: manose, polydextrose, polytose, ribose, zylose, etc.
Pineapple juice
Pineapple powder
Polysaccharides
Powdered sugar
Pure honey
Pure natural sweetener
Pure sweetener
Raisin juice concentrate
Raisin juice
Raisin paste
Raisin syrup
Raw honey
Raw sugar
Ribbon cane syrup
Robose
Rice malt
Rice syrup
Sanding sugar
Sorbitol
Sorghum molasses
sorghum syrup
Stevia
Succanat
Sucralose
Sucrose
Sugar (any type)
Sugar cubes
Sugar packets
Superfine, ultrafine, or bar sugar
Sweetener
Turbinado sugar
Unbleached water-filtered beet sugar
Uncooked honey
Unfiltered honey
White grape juice
White sugar

Sort of makes you queasy just reading this list, doesn't it? I added a few more names to the original list which was published in 1993. You have to admire the inventiveness of man in coming up with all these various compounds and the also the many ways to hide the fact that our food is full of sugar. BTW, I am not a member of the FAA and I am not endorsing their program. In fact, I got their list from Mildred Seelig's book, The Magnesium Factor, and I can recommend that.

OK, you say, I know that refined white sugar has no nutritive value, but it just passes through, doesn't it? It doesn't cause any harm. Wrong. At the least, it causes our bodies to lose precious magnesium and potassium and it also causes insulin levels to rise which can lead to a host of other problems. At the worst... well, look it up for yourself. If you can manage to limit your sugar intake, you will find that you get your normal taste buds back. Sweet peppers actually do taste sweet and even broccoli tastes sweet. Another book I can recommend which talks about this subject along with a lot of other things is Michael and Mary Dan Eades's, Protein Power Lifeplan.