7 ms·

What's the deal with milk? I've recently noticed most milk contains 5 percent sugar. Is that ok for some reason?

• gpderetta 7y ago
  Lactose is a sugar and, as the name implies, it is naturally present in milk.
  • sideshowb 7y ago
    Lactose free milk still has around 3g sugar though
    • BubRoss 7y ago
      That might be added sugar or it could be the result of the enzyme reaction used to take the lactose out.
• BubRoss 7y ago
  When people talk about sugar being harmful, they mean fructose. Sugar is used as a shortcut, but then some people mix it up or play semantic games by talking about other sugars.
  • sideshowb 7y ago
    Does the research on harms of sugar really only apply to fructose?
    • BubRoss 7y ago
      Basically yes. Other sugars don't have nearly the same effect. It might be a blend of pragmatic reasons in combination with biology (not as sweet, more filling, etc) but the result is still that the focus is fructose.
      • sideshowb 7y ago
        I happened to speak to a friend this evening who is a biochemist She reckoned refined glucose was the real bad guy, as it's what your muscles actually burn, while other sugars need converting first. Therefore its distribution within the body is unregulated - you eat it, it gets burned, no question. Contrasting the others, for which the conversion process serves as some form of regulation and is likely to run slower when you don't actually need it. She also acknowledged fructose as a problem, primarily when its in corn syrup (or vast quantities of fruit juice) as you don't have to digest cell walls etc to get it. Whereas in fruit the absorption is slower (though for something juicy like an orange I can't imagine that much slower) I'm sure this is an oversimplification and any errors are mine!
        • BubRoss 7y ago
          I'm not an expert but I'll say a few things. First glucose is a molecule, so I don't think there can be a 'refined' version. Also if glucose was immediately burned it wouldn't have a chance to be turned into fat, though I don't know if that is actually true. If you watch 'sugar the bitter truth' you can see a lot of scientific studies condensed into a good presentation.
          • sideshowb 7y ago
            Agreed on glucose, I should have written glucose aka refined sugar.
            • BubRoss 7y ago
              I don't know what 'refined sugar' means but I have never heard glucose called that.
  • slavik81 7y ago
    ...but they were replying to a post talking about glucose.