Amount of sugar in product.

[IrishEnigma]

Been a while since I've posted, but I have been lurking a lot in the last, oh probably year and a half? But I'm still here, and still making liquor

So a topic came up with my wife and I. It was about why America is fat. She had just got done watching a documentary on it, and she had told me that a lot of companies are bringing calories, fat, and all that bs down in foods, but adding sugar. I thought to myself, well wouldn't calories go up if you added sugar? Anyways im not a nutritionist. Than my head went towards alcohol.

So I have done some searching on this, without success. Now we all now that sugar is used to make alcohol, and sugar is one of the number 1 reasons why America is fat.

So how much sugar is in our final product?

After being ate by the yeast, then distilled once or twice, is there still sugar in our product?

I imagine commercial products add sugar to make their product taste better, but am I getting sugar out of my still, and if so how much?

Does it depend on how much sugar I used for my fermentation?

This thread is mostly for other readers. I don't really care to be honest, but it would be another nice thing to know about my product!

[MitchyBourbon]

You live on sugar and nothing else, other than a few vitamins and minerals. Your body turns everything you eat into sugar. It then uses some as energy right away anything not used is stored as fat. You consume proteins, fat, carbohydrates and fiber. Proteins , fat and carbohydrates are all 9 calories per gram. Sugar and alcohol are carbohydrates. I'm a software engineer not a nutritionist.

[ranger_ric]

Mitchy I agree EXCEPT, Fats are 9 calories/gram
proteins and Carbohydrates are 4 calories/gram

[Youngn]

And alcohol is 7 per gram.

[IrishEnigma]

So the only way to measure it is in calories, @ 7cal./gram?

[MitchyBourbon]

Damn, another senior moment... did I say I'm a software eng?

[zach]

So how much sugar is in our final product?

If your product is over 80 proof wiskey, gin, vodka, or rum, the answer is approaching zero sugar. (unless you added it after the distilling process.)

One of the reasons I developed a taste for wiskey is the absence of sugar. No sugar. I come from a family of diabetics and I purposely avoid all simple carbohydrates and most other carbs.

Your body can metabolize alcohol into an acetate and use the energy. No sugar involved.

If you restrict your carbohydrates, your body can also metabolize fats into ketones to the use the energy. No sugar or insulin response involved.

If you eat too much sugar you liver can convert the excess energy into triglycerides or fatty acids which can be stored for latter use. The fatty acid can be later turned back into glucose.

Sugar consumption is responsible for the epidemic of obesity and diabetes in the US.

Nutrition taught 40 years ago, the food pyramid and low fat diets have been cause of most the confusion about nutrition.

[MitchyBourbon]

In the 90's I wrote software to calculate all the nutritional properties of base ingredients for a large food manufacturer. This was then used to print those values on cereal boxes and what not. Calories were based on the weight of base dry ingredients. Alcohol as a nutritional property was never measured because it is not regulated by the FDA. Alcohol is regulated by the TTB (tea totaling basterds) and they don't require nutritional labels. Hence my mistaken assertion, sorry folks. Alcohol is not a carbohydrate and apparently is the one thing that is not converted into sugar. Alcohol is converted to a number of intermediate substances (none of which is sugar), until it is eventually broken down to carbon dioxide and water.

[bearriver]

I always thought sugar is a solid, therefore stays in the boiler (if present).

[IrishEnigma]

I thought the same. So when commercial alcohol has sugar in it, I'm guessing they put it in after distillation.

Everyone says alcohol makes u gain weight like crazy, and I hear liquor is one of the biggest culprits from what I hear.

[still_stirrin]

This from Webmed MD:
"While moderate amounts of alcohol can cause blood sugar to rise, excess alcohol can actually decrease your blood sugar level -- sometimes causing it to drop into dangerous levels.
- Beer and sweet wine contain carbohydrates and may raise blood sugar.
- Alcohol stimulates your appetite, which can cause you to overeat and may affect your blood sugar control.
- Alcohol may also affect your judgment or willpower, causing you to make poor food choices.
- Alcohol can interfere with the positive effects of oral diabetes medicines or insulin.
- Alcohol may increase triglyceride levels.
- Alcohol may increase blood pressure.
- Alcohol can cause flushing, nausea, increased heart rate, and slurred speech."

And alcohol affects your liver's ability to do one of its jobs....to regulate blood glucose levels. Reducing alcohol in the blood becomes the liver's top priority and sugar levels can fluctuate irradically (dangerous).

But gosh, it does taste good, huh?
ss

[Mikey-moo]

+1 what Zach said

[Bobdoe]

Ethanol itself has calories, and when EtOH is metabolized, one of the by-products are triglycerides. In other words, even if consuming pure 100% EtOH, it is converted (indirectly) into fats.

Bd