Natural Sugar Substitutes

You opt to drink your Starbucks cappuccino without sugar and even made a conscious effort to skip the breakfast muffin.

- Mr Shyamal Panchmatia

But don’t yet pat yourself on the back! Because it is rightly said, “Know thy enemy”. So it is important to know the demonised sugar as well as its numerous alternatives.

Sugar has been given new labels such as: “the new smoking”; and “sugar is the new tobacco”. Because it is not only causing glucose levels to spike and plummet but also its high consumption leads to mood swings, fatigue and headaches. It has also been associated with many serious diseases such as: obesity; heart disease; diabetes; and cancer. Studies have proved that consumption of excess sugar results in poor cognition in children.

What’s more, to say, sugar is addictive. It causes dopamine to be released in the brain’s reward or pleasure centre, in a similar way after having addictive drugs. Sugar consumption also leads to cravings and can even drive overeating. In fact, many studies have found a strong link between sugar and obesity.

We can control the sugar intake but what about the added/hidden sugar. This is the one which we are consuming unknowingly. But now the question arises; how to identify added sugar from natural sugar in your food?

Natural Sugar vs Added Sugar

Natural sugars are present in most fruits and vegetables and are healthy sources of sugar intake as the body absorbs them more slowly. On the other hand, the so-called free sugars which are added to food are not good at all, if you have them in excess. As per the National Health Service (NHS), added sugars should not take up more than 5 percent of the calories you eat on a daily basis.