Spis treści:
Sugar is, for many people, an essential dietary ingredient without which they cannot imagine daily functioning. Sugar is a crystalline, very sweet-tasting substance obtained most often from the popular sugar beets, or from sugar cane. It is added to all kinds of sweetened beverages. Due to its very good solubility in water, we often don’t even realize how much of this substance can be hidden dissolved in bottles of sweetened drinks.
Classic sugar
We are talking here about sucrose. Chemically, it is a carbohydrate belonging to disaccharides made up of glucose and fructose. The nutritional value itself for the human body is marginal, imperceptible…. For in 100g of sugar there is a minimum of 390kcal. There are no valuable food ingredients in it, minimal amounts of micronutrients making it contribute practically nothing but taste to human nutrition. Such sugar, and mainly fructose, which the human body is not well adapted to digest, will cause a number of negative effects carrying many diseases. Among the most common are:
– Increased uric acid levels – can lead to gout, risk of heart disease.
– It causes metabolic problems causing a very popular diagnosis among doctors these days – metabolic syndrome. It’s a series of overlapping symptoms like obesity, an increase in bad (LDL) cholesterol and a decrease in good (HDL) cholesterol, an increase in TG(triacylglycerols). These all can contribute to the deposition and formation of atherosclerotic plaques in the blood vessels, which can cause blockages and even heart attacks.
-Significant weight gain – sugar, as it were, is able to trick the body by affecting its hormones. After eating dishes rich in sugar, the satiety hormone is not secreted properly which causes rapid and successive reaching for food causing an increase in kcal and numbers on the scale also causing insulin resistance in the long run
-Damages the liver – fructose is metabolized in this very organ, so providing large amounts of sugar will put additional strain on it
Replacements
However, everything is for people, and not everyone is always limited to one product. There are substitutes on the market thanks to which the taste of food can still be sweet, and no longer so unpleasant in the effects. There are many products with a much lower glycemic index and lower calories that are a better option than classic sugar. They will often provide an equally high or even higher level of sweetness. These include:
- Xylitol – obtained from birch bark which is a sugar alcohol. As a result, the pathway of its metabolism is different from that of classical sugar – it is a very desirable and suitable product for diabetics. It has as much as 40% fewer calories than regular sugar.
- Stevia – sweeter than white sugar! It can even induce health-promoting properties such as anti-inflammatory or immunosuppressive effects. It is a perennial plant belonging to the asteraceae family. This plant produces sweet steviol glycosides – the popular , “stevia”. A very low-calorie and healthy solution!
- Erythrol – a little less sweet than regular sugar but virtually calorie-free! 1 gram of erythrol counts about 0.3kcal, so it is about 10 times less caloric than regular sugar. In the human body there are no enzymes responsible for digesting this substitute so it will be largely excreted with urine. Very helpful in diets and weight loss
- Agave syrup – derived mainly from Mexico from the cactus plant. Healthier than sugar, but contains more fructose and calories than its predecessors. It is characterized by its natural flavor and as long as it is used in reasonable amounts it is all right.
- Sweeteners with aspartame – stirs up a lot of controversy due to the chemical origin of its main product labeled E951. However, contrary to popular opinion, it is not harmful to health as long as it is not eaten with ladles. Occasional use of aspartame in small amounts as a food or beverage additive as a substitute for regular sugar will not adversely affect human health to any extent.
