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Which Sweeteners are Better For You?
| Posted on 29 February, 2012 at 12:45 |
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 Agave, Sucralose, Asulfame potassium, Sugar, Honey, Aspartame, Saccharin, Stevia, which to choose from? Here is my advice: as a whole we need to cut down on sugars and sweeteners, and get used to things not tasting so sweet. All sweeteners do undergo processing to make them palatable, and easy to sell and use. The recommendations are to get no more than about 6 teaspoons added sugars in your diet per day! That applies to table sugar, honey, maple syrup. As far as the other sweeteners,using them sometimes is ok but remember that they are all still processed. All are generally recognized as safe by the FDA. Agave is chemically like high fructose corn syrup (yes, really). Just remember that it still contains high amounts of fructose. Some people do like it for it's lower glycemic index than sugar (especially for diabetics). My advice here: choose wisely. Using the artificial sweeteners sometimes is ok. But wouldn't you rather lose some of that sweet tooth that keeps you wanting more and more sweets? Can't we just be satisfied with a little sweetness from honey or table sugar? Start cutting down by 1 teaspoon per day, a week at a time. Read your labels. 5 grams of sugar is equivalent to one teaspoon of sugar. Just some sugar for thought here! Enjoy! |
BEWARE of the Sugar Replacers
| Posted on 6 December, 2011 at 12:13 |
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Some food companies will replace sugar with many different types of sugar replacers. Today, I am going to enlighten you on the alcohol sugar replacers and why they might not make you feel so good. These appear on the food label as: mannitol sorbitol xylitol maltitol isomalt lactitol Where might you find these? Many products that state "low sugar" contain one or more of these. In addition, these sweeteners appear often in sugar free gum, protein bars, protein powders, sugar free candy, cookies, many, many products. Basically, they are all over the place in foods that we like a sweet taste for. These products offer fewer calories than sugar. Why BEWARE? Because the alcohol sugars can have a laxative effect, yes you heard right. They can cause mild gastrointestinal upset- diarrhea, stomach ache. You may notice on the label "excess consumption may have a laxative effect". A little bit might not bother you, but some people are more sensitive to these sugar replacers than others. Also, some people can tolerate these in small amounts, some cannot. In general if the product is "Low Sugar" or "Sugar Free" it probably contains these. A good rule of thumb to remember if you see the -ol at the end it is probably one of the above mentioned alcohol sugars. Feel free to post any questions or comments you might have! |