Consuming too much sugar is very easy to do. Sugar is in so many foods that people eat each day, often without them even realising it!
Many breakfast cereals, pasta sauces, bread, simmer sauces and numerous other foods contain added sugar. Soft drink/soda consumption has rapidly increased among children and teenagers. Fruit juice, cordial, sports drinks and energy drinks all add even more sugar to the average person’s diet.
Eating sugar is known to raise the risk of heart disease. A study published in the journal The Lancet found that men who had a heart attack ate almost twice the amount of sugar as men who haven’t had a heart attack.
Of course, it is normal for almost everyone to desire or even crave very sweet foods at different times of the day.
Cravings can become particularly strong if –
We are highly stressed
Blood sugar levels are low or unstable
Blood insulin levels are high
When considering all the potential health problems which arise from over consumption of sugar, it would seem that the best idea is to remove sugar from your diet as much as possible.
The good news is that there are some great natural alternatives to sugar – yes, you can still enjoy something sweet without all the nasty carbohydrates which can seriously affect your health.
It is however vital that you do your research and ensure that you are not replacing a natural product for a chemical one (one which may cause more health problems than a spoon of sugar now and then might do.)
Sweeteners – the good, the bad and the ugly
The Good
Nature Sweet Sugar Substitute – it tastes like sugar!
This granulated sugar substitute contains –
- Maltitol is derived from tapioca and has 70-90 % the sweeteness of sugar. It is not metabolised by oral bacteria, so it does not promote tooth decay.
- Erythritol is naturally found in fruits and vegetables including grapes, melons and pears and is 60-70% as sweet as table sugar. It is almost non-caloric and does not affect blood sugar and does not cause tooth decay.
- Inulin is a natural polysaccharide. Nature Sweet’s inulin comes from chicory root. Inulin promotes growth of good intestinal bacteria (is a prebiotic) and is a form of soluble fibre.
- Stevia comes from a herb and is approximately 300 times sweeter than sugar; it has no effect on blood sugar levels.
Benefits of Nature Sweet Sugar Substitute
- Extremely low carbohydrate
- 100% natural – no additives
- Ideal for use in weight loss programs
- Gluten free
- Not cooling in the mouth, like Xylitol is
- Great in tea/coffee
- Perfect for everyone, including diabetics and children
- Does not cause tooth decay
- Easy to use in all your favourite recipes (check out the recipe section at www.weightlossdetective.com.au)
- Stevia is a safe non-caloric herbal sweetener which is extracted from a South American plant called Stevia Rebaudiana and has a very long history of worldwide use.
- Stevia leaves have been used by diabetic patients to sweeten foods and beverages for many years in Japan, South America and Asia. No side effects have been observed.
- Stevia is 300 times sweeter than sugar – thus only very tiny amounts are needed.
- Stevia is an exceptional aid to those trying to lose weight because it has ZERO KILOJOULES!
1 teaspoon (4g) of sugar contains 68kJ and it is not uncommon for an average person to put 2 teaspoons of sugar in their cup of tea or coffee.
If they consume just four cups of tea or coffee throughout the day, that is an extra 544kJ every day!
By replacing the sugar with stevia, an individual will have a valuable aid to long-term weight control.
Research has shown that stevioside does not cause tooth decay or tooth cavities. This is because the substances in stevia that provide its sweetness do not ferment in the presence of bacteria.
The Bad
Fructose
Well, some people say it is bad but Dr Cabot says that fructose is dose dependent and has its place in the wonderful world of sweeteners.
The natural sugar called fructose has been given a bad name by a few health experts who almost consider it to be the number one health enemy of modern society and the cause of most obesity.
This is not logical or scientific for the following reasons-
- Fructose has a low Glycemic Index (GI) of only 23, compared to glucose, which has a GI of 100. This is according to the Sydney uni glycemicindex.com website. The Glycemic Index is defined as the rate at which a food raises blood sugar levels.
- All sugars, including fructose are only unhealthy if you consume excess quantities. (Some doctors recommend limiting fructose to no more than 15 grams per day)
- Fructose is the predominant sugar found in fruit
The reason we sweetened our meal replacement Quickloss with fructose is that –
- It enabled us to use less glucose (which has a higher GI)
- It enabled us to make Quickloss a suitable meal replacement for diabetics. Meal replacement shakes must have a minimum amount of carbohydrates to prevent hypoglycaemia and to provide adequate energy for daily functioning.
- Fructose is natural
- Fructose is delicious
QuickLoss contains a modest amount of fructose = 0.10413mg of fructose per gram of Quickloss. Therefore one Quickloss meal shake (50 gram dose) contains 5.2 grams of fructose. Two meals per day with QuickLoss will give yout 10.4 grams of fructose.
Other sources of fructose to compare are –
- 1 medium pear contains 11.8 grams of fructose.
- 1 banana has 7.1 grams of fructose. (That looks good, but bananas contain amylopectin – which is a starchy compound that raises blood sugar rapidly.)
- 1 apple has 9.5 grams of fructose
Dr Cabot says “don’t become too obsessed about fructose, it’s only unhealthy if you consume large amounts as high fructose corn syrup is found in many processed foods and soft drinks or if you really binge out on sugary fruits!”
The Ugly
(yes, chemical sweeteners can cause some really ugly health issues)
Many artificial sweeteners such as saccharin, aspartame and acesulfame have many unwelcome health implications such as increasing the risk of Parkinson’s disease and memory problems, and some are so new that the long term implications are unknown.
Chewing gum and diet products often have aspartame in them and, due to the high consumption rate of these products it is very easy for people to ‘overdose’ and have many health issues.
Please take the time to check out this website – www.dorway.com – because once you know more about the dangers of artificial sweeteners you can take steps to remove them from your life . . . before any damage to your health occurs.
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