What nutritional impact does refined white sugar have on my

diet? Refined white sugar is pure sucrose, a carbohydrate.

Carbohydrates provide energy, contain no fat, and like protein contribute 4 calories per gram in your diet (as opposed to the 9 calories per gram contributed by fat).

Your body treats sucrose in the same way regardless of its source. In fact, your body uses all sugars in the same way, so eating refined sugar, or honey, or sugars from any other source has the same effect on your body -- it is converted into glucose and used by the cells for energy.

How does brown sugar differ from white sugar? Brown sugar is sugar crystals in specially prepared molasses syrup with controlled natural flavor and color components. A number of sugar refiners make brown sugar by preparing and boiling special syrup containing these components until brown sugar crystals form. Others produce brown sugar by blending special flavored syrup with white sugar crystals.

How much sugar do Americans really eat? Not as much as reported. Using information from a 2001 report as illustration, a general statement like "Americans consume more than 150 pounds of sugar in a year" is not only thoroughly misleading, it is completely wrong. Such false assertions perpetuate the myth that "Americans eat too much sugar." The fact is the average American consumes no more than 1.6 ounces of sugar per day or less than 40 lbs. annually.

Sugar is only one component of the total sweetener supply. When tabulated by ERS, total caloric sweeteners include all the corn syrups + honey products + miscellaneous edible syrups, like sorghum, as well as sugar. Total caloric sweetener is cumbersome to say or write repeatedly, thus the term sugars was adopted for convenience [note the s on sugars]. Although the term sugars was coined to represent all caloric sweeteners, some continue to write and talk about sugar [pure sucrose from sugar cane and sugar beets] instead of sugars. This is more than semantics. Continued misrepresentation of total caloric sweeteners [sugars] as sugar [no s] is not only flawed but damages America's hardworking farmers and the stability they bring to their local economies.

molasses − патока

perpetuate − сохранять навсегда, увековечивать

assertion − утверждение

cumbersome − нескладный, неуклюжий, объёмный