And the lactose in milk comes with a healthy serving of protein that provides sustained energy, so you feel full longer than after a sugar-packed soda. Added sugars , like the ones in doughnuts and soda, are the ones to be more concerned about. Put simply, added sugar is any sugar that gets added to a food — either by you, a chef, or a food manufacturer — before it goes in your mouth, notes the U.
Added sugars include the high fructose corn syrup lurking in some ketchups and breads, as well as the honey or agave you might add to a mug of tea or smoothie. Because they don't necessarily come packaged with other good-for-you nutrients, like protein and fiber, our bodies digest them more quickly, which can cause a rapid increase in blood glucose sugar.
And over time having consistently high blood glucose contributes to health problems such as obesity , type 2 diabetes , and heart disease , according to a study publishedin the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. The high amounts of refined and added sugars in snack foods, sweets, and sodas have been linked with weight gain and the development of obesity in the United States, as they tend to be calorie dense with none of the nutritive benefits, says Voltolina.
These types of sugars can cause rapid increases in blood sugar, which may increase the risk of insulin resistance and eventually type 2 diabetes.
Extra sugar may also increase risk of developing nonalcoholic fatty liver disease , as well as increased triglyceride levels , which may contribute to cardiovascular disease.
In a statement published in February in the journal Circulation , the American Heart Association AHA linked high intakes of added sugars with heightened rates of obesity and heart disease. To avoid these risks, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans — recommends limiting added sugar to less than 10 percent of your daily calories.
The AHA recommends women consume no more than 6 teaspoons tsp of added sugar daily 25 grams [g] or about calories , and that men should limit their added sugar intake to 9 tsp or less 36 g or about calories. Blackstrap molasses is also one of the best food sources for easily absorbable iron. Stevia, or Stevia Rebaudiana, is not a chemical sugar substitute but a natural herb from the sunflower family native to Paraguay and parts of Brazil.
It is about to times sweeter than table sugar, yet contains no actual sugar or carbohydrates. It has been safely used by natives for over years as a culinary sweetener or simply as a treat to tame a sweet tooth. The locals would add the leaves to their local teas and medicines to temper the bitterness. Nowadays, stevia has become easily accessible as its use as a commercial crop has grown. Only needing a temperate climate with lots of sunshine and rain, it offers a pretty sustainable crop for farmers.
In China, monk fruit, or luo han guo, has been used for hundreds of years in medicine and as a natural sweetener. In traditional Chinese medicine, the fruit and extract are used due to its touted anti-inflammatory properties, along with helping to relieve allergies and boosting your immune system.
It belongs to the gourd family with pumpkin, squash, cucumbers, and melons , and like stevia is in the non-caloric natural sweetener category. The sweet taste in Monkfruit comes from mogrosides, a group of cucurbitane-type triterpene glycosides that make up about one percent of the fruit and is about times sweeter than table sugar. And if you have an allergy to any member of the gourd family then it is advised to steer clear.
Made from the African katemfe fruit, thaumatin is a rich protein source as well as a sweetener. Like stevia, thaumatin has been used for centuries and shows no signs of danger to human health. Thaumatin is digested like any other protein. Beloved by many in the organic food space, agave is highly processed with a chemical process for manufacturing that is nearly as rigorous as the corn refiners used in making high-fructose corn syrup from corn starch.
This places an overwhelming load on our liver. The unnatural form of D-fructose can also raise triglyceride levels and increase adipose tissue. Fresh sugarcane has been consumed traditionally for years for its benefits, either consumed fresh by chewing the stalks or as a juice more recently. Sugarcane is also processed and refined into a sugar form. Raw cane sugar is not technically raw, it still has to be refined and heated to make the sugar. The juice is boiled until it crystallises, before being moved into a centrifuge where the water from the crystals is removed.
The natural molasses remain which gives the sugar the golden colour. White sugar used to be mainly made from cane sugar. When the cane sugar is processed, the crystals are transferred to a refinery, and the fibres and molasses in the sugar crystals are separated. The crystals are then melted, which removes the impurities and colour, and a sugary syrup is created. Another round of crystallisation then makes refined sugar. Most refined white sugar is grown with pesticides, while chemicals are added to bleach the sugar, making it white and absorbing any impurities.
Nowadays, a lot of brown and white sugar is made out of beet sugar. This sugar is nearly always genetically modified. Beet sugar contains no nutrients and can be detrimental to our gut bacteria as most contain glyphosate residue, a weedkiller which has been banned by some countries. Beets themselves are nutritious but by processing the beets to make beet sugar, it produces the same results as sugar cane i.
The process of converting sugar beets into white sugar can also include chemical flocculants, animal bone char, and bleaches. An artificial sweetener, Splenda, or sucralose, can trigger migraines in susceptible individuals. Large scale population studies have also linked the consumption of artificial sweeteners especially in fizzy drinks , with increased weight gain and abdominal fat gain over time. Take a conscious effort not to stock up on these, or to put these out of your reach.
Choose brown rice whenever possible. Brown rice has more fibre than white rice, which means it sits in your tummy longer, helping you to feel fuller for a longer period of time. Wholegrains such as brown rice also help lower the risk of developing diabetes and heart disease.
Opt for sugar-free or less-sweet drinks instead of sugary soft drinks if you must have something other than water. Related Articles Related Stories. Health Promotion Board Mushrooms, Mushrooms! Related Articles Related Stories More. Learn to dine out the healthy way with this 7-day guide. Lose To Win Kick-start your journey towards a healthier you.
Know your shape and shape it up with the right diet and fitness fixes. Browse Live Healthy. Sugar is a type of carbohydrate, a macronutrient that provides energy in the form of calories from foods and beverages we consume. Carbohydrates are classified into two subtypes of sugar: monosaccharides, or "simple sugars" consisting of one molecule and disaccharides two molecules.
The monosaccharides include glucose, fructose, and galactose. The major disaccharides include sucrose one glucose molecule and one fructose molecule , lactose one glucose molecule and one galactose molecule , and maltose two glucose molecules. Fructose, glucose, and sucrose are found naturally in fruit and some vegetables, while lactose is found in dairy, and maltose is found in germinating grains. Fructose and glucose are also found naturally in honey as well as in common table sugar.
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