Disadvantages of sugar and benefits of sweeteners
Sugar tastes delicious and is popular. He is cheap and always available. He is not healthy.
What happens to the sugar in the body?
Sugar is just an energy supplier. It does not contain vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals or other healthy nutrients. Therefore, its contained energy (4 kcal / gram) is also called "empty calories".
If we eat sugar, it is split in the course of digestion into grape (glucose) and fructose (fructose). As soon as glucose enters the bloodstream, the body releases insulin. In healthy people, this hormone and glucagon ensures that the blood sugar level remains at the same level (80 -120 mg glucose / 100 ml blood). If no or too little insulin is formed or the cells react insensitive to it, then there is a diabetes, ie diabetes I (hereditary) or II. The latter accounts for 90% of diabetes cases and was originally referred to as adult-onset diabetes, as until recently it occurred predominantly in the elderly and was usually caused by obesity. Even today, 90% of all type II diabetics weigh too many pounds and sugar has a significant share in it!
Beware of diabetes yourself!
Type II diabetes now affects children. However, the serious illness can be treated or disappeared in 40% of all cases only by a change in diet.
If diabetes is not treated optimally, it leads over time to kidney failure, blurred vision, even blindness, painful nerve damage, and even blood vessel diseases. A dreaded complication is stroke, which is about five times as common in diabetics as it is in healthy people.
Caution? Sugar free ?!
Many industrially processed foods contain sugar for technical or flavor reasons. So many Eulenspiegel declares the food still with "no sugar", or even "sugar free"? or? crystal sugar-free ?. But beware! That means only? Without table sugar?, Technically sucrose. The food can therefore contain sugar in the form of glucose, fructose, glucose syrup, invert sugar, maltodextrin, malt extract (= malt syrup), malt sugar (= maltose) and milk sugar! Even honey you can possibly find there and on the packaging is "without sugar". And not only that: with some foods, sugar is included, without actually coming up with the idea, such. Tomato ketchup or canned vegetables.
Fructose a natural sugar replacement?
For the metabolism of fructose (fructose) no insulin is required, so it was assumed for decades that it is also suitable as a sweetener for diabetics. However, part of it is converted into glucose (glucose) mainly in the liver and kidneys, so insulin is needed again. This simple sugar is also not healthier, since it has the same amount of calories as glucose, without supplying essential nutrients. In addition, the fructose apparently affects the blood lipids unfavorable and promotes fatty liver.
Sweetening yes, but not with unhealthy sugar!
On certain days, you simply do not want to miss out on the sweet taste. So it's good that there are natural sugar alternatives that not only taste sweet but, in contrast to sugar, even have health benefits.
An example is the so-called sugar alcohol erythritol. Although it is more expensive than sugar, but calorie-free and you even get delicious chocolates with it! It is almost usable like industrial sugar and looks like it.
Stevia is also calorie-free and even lowers blood pressure in higher amounts! Finally, you can still sweeten calorie-free with rubusoside. The sweet substance comes from the leaves of sweet Chinese blackberry. It is heat stable, calorie free, does not affect blood sugar levels, but has a slightly bitter aftertaste. You can buy it over the Internet, where it costs the equivalent of a little more than sugar. In its country of origin, China, puffed tea is used as a folk medicine for hypertension and diabetes.
Editor's tip:
For detailed information on sugar and sweeteners, we recommend the following book: Buy Now 
Really sweet !: Healthy sugar alternatives compared With nutrition tips (vak vital) 10,95 ?
