Sugar-Free Lent: Day Thirty

Sugar-Free Lent: Day Thirty!

Sugar is quite an interesting topic. There is so much to know about sugar. I don't want to bore you with the chemical side of it apart from the information that cane sugar and beet sugar are chemically the same. Some people say that there is a difference in taste and how they react in jams, chutneys and preserves. I never really paid attention to that when I was making my jams.

Sugars are described as small, sweet and soluble carbohydrates.

I've learnt that there are various types of sugars, no I don't mean lemon sherbets, caramel and toffee. We can talk about that later.

I'm talking about saccharose which is glucose, the fuel our body needs, and fructose, the stuff which causes addiction.

Then we have glucose and fructose separately and then there is lactose which is the sugar in milk. It was interesting to learn that there is 4,5% of lactose in cow's milk and about 7% in human milk.

Maltose is another type of sugar which consists of two molecules of glucose.

I found that information somewhere on the Internet. If you want to know more about it, just google "Chemistry of sugar" or look in the attic for your old chemistry books.

It is really weird. I never ate much of the jams I make but they do get used in baking and cooking. Sometimes I have some on a buttered roll or on peanut butter. 

Now that I'm committed to not eating any sugar for 40 days I really do want some of my apricot jam or the lovely marmalade we made recently.

Is that a bit like you would want what you cannot have? I know I always felt inclined to touch wet paint to see if it is really still wet.