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> You may be surprised how close many candies are to being pure sugar with food coloring. Grab a fistful of whatever candy you're thinking about when you say t

> You may be surprised how close many candies are to being pure sugar with food coloring. Grab a fistful of whatever candy you're thinking about when you say that and put it in your mouth. Then once you've done that, try doing the same with pure sugar. Tell me if you think you got different amounts of sugar in your mouth or not. It's not the first time I hear this soundbite, and while it perhaps sounds cool as a TikTok comment, it really doesn't make much sense in reality.

saagarjha 1y ago
You can literally read the nutrition facts for Nerds or Jolly Rancher lol
- CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
  I literally don't have those in my country :) Based on labels I found online, seems "Jolly Rancher" is more or less 61% sugar of its total weight.
  - saagarjha 1y ago
    I'm not sure what you're looking at, the nutrition labels I see are like 17g sugar out of an 18g serving size
    - CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
      From https://www.myfooddiary.com/foods/143911/jolly-rancher-hard-candy https://www.myfooddiary.com/foods/143911/jolly-rancher-hard-... (maybe the wrong one?) Then I did something like "3 pieces weigh 18g with ~11g total sugars and 17g total carbs so about 61% sugars"
      - saagarjha 1y ago
        Ah yes I you're right, I was reading too quickly and read the carbs as sugar. That said having candies that are like 60-70% sugar is basically sugar in my book, especially since the rest is corn syrup.
        CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
        Hence my tiredness of that soundbite, because it's almost never actually true. But I guess it depends on if you see "60% of contents is sugar" as "pure sugar with food coloring" or not, at least for me it's a difference but I understand for others it's basically the same.
        dahart 1y ago
        There is a difference between 60% sugar and 100% sugar. Why is the difference between pure sugar and Jolly Ranchers meaningful to you? Is there a different outcome or recommendation? It’d certainly help to explain what difference you see and how that difference impacts your choices, rather than state that once exists without elaborating. So what is the difference, exactly? Depends on what’s in the other 40%, right? It would be a bigger difference if the other 40% was made of fats or proteins or fiber, but in the case of Jolly Ranchers and many other candies, the other 40% of calories is cornstarch, which isn’t sugar but is made of glucose chains and breaks down into sugar when digested. Cornstarch, like sugar, is 100% carbohydrate. https://www.soupersage.com/compare-nutrition/cornstarch-vs-white-sugar https://www.soupersage.com/compare-nutrition/cornstarch-vs-w... @saagarjha didn’t claim candies are pure sugar, they said it’s surprising how close they are to pure sugar. And 60% sugar + 40% flavorless cornstarch + flavoring and food coloring is close to pure sugar with food coloring. Close is a relative term, so when arguing about it, it’d be helpful to provide a baseline or examples or definitions. Jolly Ranchers are much closer to pure sugar than meat or broccoli is. Jolly Ranchers are much closer to pure sugar than even a banana, which is also 100% carbohydrate calories. I don’t know how to argue that Jolly Ranchers aren’t close to pure sugar. Maybe you can give an example? BTW, the current product website says Jolly Ranchers are 72% sugar: https://www.hersheyland.com/products/jolly-rancher-original-flavors-hard-candy-7-oz-bag.html https://www.hersheyland.com/products/jolly-rancher-original-...
        1y ago
      - mjevans 1y ago
        As far as my doctor's diet guidelines go, that'd be 'effectively 17g of "sugar"'. I've been told to use an offhand rule of fiber vs sugar as a ratio. For every 1 gram of fiber 'up to' 50 of carbs ~ calories, with lower better. Fiber also has other benefits https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/healthy-eating/fiber-helps-diabetes.html https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/healthy-eating/fiber-helps-diab... (plus some other quick search results) https://www.calculatorultra.com/en/tool/carbohydrate-to-fiber-ratio-calculator.html#gsc.tab=0 https://www.calculatorultra.com/en/tool/carbohydrate-to-fibe... https://www.everydayhealth.com/diabetes/the-ratio-of-fats-carbohydrates-protein-for-diabetics/ https://www.everydayhealth.com/diabetes/the-ratio-of-fats-ca...
        thaumasiotes 1y ago
        > As far as my doctor's diet guidelines go, that'd be 'effectively 17g of "sugar"'. > I've been told to use an offhand rule of fiber vs sugar as a ratio. For every 1 gram of fiber 'up to' 50 of carbs ~ calories, with lower better. I don't think this really captures the concept of "sugar". Here's ordinary sourdough bread: https://beckmannsbakery.com/collections/sourdough-breads/products/california-sourdough-loaf https://beckmannsbakery.com/collections/sourdough-breads/pro... Serving size 38g, 22g carbohydrate, 0g fiber. By the time you're saying that most of what everyone eats is nothing but sugar, you've taken things too far. Grain isn't sugar. (I'm really curious what the rest of the bread is. The nutrition facts note 4g of protein, but that leaves 12 grams, or 32% of the bread (!) unaccounted for.)
        mjevans 1y ago
        Probably various forms of plant carbon compounds that don't count as fiber? Filler? Maybe other minerals, salt is some but not 12g of it.
        thaumasiotes 1y ago
        > Probably various forms of plant carbon compounds that don't count as fiber? The difficulty I have with this idea is that they would have to also not count as "carbohydrate". > Maybe other minerals, salt is some but not 12g of it. Sodium is reported to the microgram, so we know that salt is 0.5g of it. For one third of the bread to be "minerals", I'd start to worry that it'd be more like eating a rock than eating bread. EDIT: it has been brought to my attention that the missing weight is water.
Anonbrit 1y ago
Now take pure sugar, add a dash of mint essence and a little oil, dissolve in hot water then dry in a warm oven. Kendal mint cake. Take pure sugar, add to hot water to make a thick syrup, add food colouring, cook at two hundred and something degrees. Hard candy. Most other candy recipes are similar, and over 50% sugar by weight. Sugar is the main ingredient by weight after water of many drinks. You're being deliberately obtuse if you continue to insist on comparing a bag of sugar to something made mostly of sugar. It's like saying "You like steak? Ok, go lick that cow then tell me you like steak!" - it's a straw man argument.
dahart 1y ago
The difference you’re tasting is primarily flavoring, not sugar density, so that’s not a great test. People can’t really tell the difference by taste between hard candy made of pure sugar and hard candy made of sugar plus cornstarch, especially when other flavors are added. But anyway, candy generally tastes insanely sweet and sugary to me. What is the point here? The fact that candy is mostly sugar and people say so predates TikTok by a bit… centuries? Isn’t candy defined as anything sweet where sugar is the primary ingredient?

saagarjha 1y ago

You can literally read the nutrition facts for Nerds or Jolly Rancher lol

CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
I literally don't have those in my country :) Based on labels I found online, seems "Jolly Rancher" is more or less 61% sugar of its total weight.
- saagarjha 1y ago
  I'm not sure what you're looking at, the nutrition labels I see are like 17g sugar out of an 18g serving size
  - CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
    From https://www.myfooddiary.com/foods/143911/jolly-rancher-hard-candy https://www.myfooddiary.com/foods/143911/jolly-rancher-hard-... (maybe the wrong one?) Then I did something like "3 pieces weigh 18g with ~11g total sugars and 17g total carbs so about 61% sugars"
    - saagarjha 1y ago
      Ah yes I you're right, I was reading too quickly and read the carbs as sugar. That said having candies that are like 60-70% sugar is basically sugar in my book, especially since the rest is corn syrup.
      - CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
        Hence my tiredness of that soundbite, because it's almost never actually true. But I guess it depends on if you see "60% of contents is sugar" as "pure sugar with food coloring" or not, at least for me it's a difference but I understand for others it's basically the same.
        dahart 1y ago
        There is a difference between 60% sugar and 100% sugar. Why is the difference between pure sugar and Jolly Ranchers meaningful to you? Is there a different outcome or recommendation? It’d certainly help to explain what difference you see and how that difference impacts your choices, rather than state that once exists without elaborating. So what is the difference, exactly? Depends on what’s in the other 40%, right? It would be a bigger difference if the other 40% was made of fats or proteins or fiber, but in the case of Jolly Ranchers and many other candies, the other 40% of calories is cornstarch, which isn’t sugar but is made of glucose chains and breaks down into sugar when digested. Cornstarch, like sugar, is 100% carbohydrate. https://www.soupersage.com/compare-nutrition/cornstarch-vs-white-sugar https://www.soupersage.com/compare-nutrition/cornstarch-vs-w... @saagarjha didn’t claim candies are pure sugar, they said it’s surprising how close they are to pure sugar. And 60% sugar + 40% flavorless cornstarch + flavoring and food coloring is close to pure sugar with food coloring. Close is a relative term, so when arguing about it, it’d be helpful to provide a baseline or examples or definitions. Jolly Ranchers are much closer to pure sugar than meat or broccoli is. Jolly Ranchers are much closer to pure sugar than even a banana, which is also 100% carbohydrate calories. I don’t know how to argue that Jolly Ranchers aren’t close to pure sugar. Maybe you can give an example? BTW, the current product website says Jolly Ranchers are 72% sugar: https://www.hersheyland.com/products/jolly-rancher-original-flavors-hard-candy-7-oz-bag.html https://www.hersheyland.com/products/jolly-rancher-original-...
      - 1y ago
    - mjevans 1y ago
      As far as my doctor's diet guidelines go, that'd be 'effectively 17g of "sugar"'. I've been told to use an offhand rule of fiber vs sugar as a ratio. For every 1 gram of fiber 'up to' 50 of carbs ~ calories, with lower better. Fiber also has other benefits https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/healthy-eating/fiber-helps-diabetes.html https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/healthy-eating/fiber-helps-diab... (plus some other quick search results) https://www.calculatorultra.com/en/tool/carbohydrate-to-fiber-ratio-calculator.html#gsc.tab=0 https://www.calculatorultra.com/en/tool/carbohydrate-to-fibe... https://www.everydayhealth.com/diabetes/the-ratio-of-fats-carbohydrates-protein-for-diabetics/ https://www.everydayhealth.com/diabetes/the-ratio-of-fats-ca...
      - thaumasiotes 1y ago
        > As far as my doctor's diet guidelines go, that'd be 'effectively 17g of "sugar"'. > I've been told to use an offhand rule of fiber vs sugar as a ratio. For every 1 gram of fiber 'up to' 50 of carbs ~ calories, with lower better. I don't think this really captures the concept of "sugar". Here's ordinary sourdough bread: https://beckmannsbakery.com/collections/sourdough-breads/products/california-sourdough-loaf https://beckmannsbakery.com/collections/sourdough-breads/pro... Serving size 38g, 22g carbohydrate, 0g fiber. By the time you're saying that most of what everyone eats is nothing but sugar, you've taken things too far. Grain isn't sugar. (I'm really curious what the rest of the bread is. The nutrition facts note 4g of protein, but that leaves 12 grams, or 32% of the bread (!) unaccounted for.)
        mjevans 1y ago
        Probably various forms of plant carbon compounds that don't count as fiber? Filler? Maybe other minerals, salt is some but not 12g of it.
        thaumasiotes 1y ago
        > Probably various forms of plant carbon compounds that don't count as fiber? The difficulty I have with this idea is that they would have to also not count as "carbohydrate". > Maybe other minerals, salt is some but not 12g of it. Sodium is reported to the microgram, so we know that salt is 0.5g of it. For one third of the bread to be "minerals", I'd start to worry that it'd be more like eating a rock than eating bread. EDIT: it has been brought to my attention that the missing weight is water.

Anonbrit 1y ago

Now take pure sugar, add a dash of mint essence and a little oil, dissolve in hot water then dry in a warm oven. Kendal mint cake. Take pure sugar, add to hot water to make a thick syrup, add food colouring, cook at two hundred and something degrees. Hard candy. Most other candy recipes are similar, and over 50% sugar by weight. Sugar is the main ingredient by weight after water of many drinks. You're being deliberately obtuse if you continue to insist on comparing a bag of sugar to something made mostly of sugar. It's like saying "You like steak? Ok, go lick that cow then tell me you like steak!" - it's a straw man argument.

dahart 1y ago

The difference you’re tasting is primarily flavoring, not sugar density, so that’s not a great test. People can’t really tell the difference by taste between hard candy made of pure sugar and hard candy made of sugar plus cornstarch, especially when other flavors are added. But anyway, candy generally tastes insanely sweet and sugary to me. What is the point here? The fact that candy is mostly sugar and people say so predates TikTok by a bit… centuries? Isn’t candy defined as anything sweet where sugar is the primary ingredient?