Are natural sweeteners like Stevia and Manuka honey safer than white sugar? Explore the health impacts of sugar addiction, the dangers of aspartame for kids, and why high fructose corn syrup is restricted in certain regions.
When fruits ripen, their starch content turns into sugar, according to the "Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition." Naturally occurring sugars like those in apples should account for most of your sugar intake. Apples provide a better source of important nutrients than most foods with added sugars.
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Your intestines are sensitive to inflammation, which can cause pain, diarrhea and bleeding. One thing that can affect the health of your intestines is what foods you eat. Sugar alcohols are a type of carbohydrate in the diet that can cause intestinal problems, though they do not directly cause inflammation.
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Sucrose is the chemical name for white sugar, according to Boston University. Other forms of sucrose are brown sugar and powdered sugar, and sucrose is also in honey. Sucrose has many uses, and it is in many foods, but too much can lead to obesity and type 2 diabetes.
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If you are trying to reduce your sugar consumption or cut back on calorie intake, you might be looking for foods and beverages made with sugar substitutes. Among the many different types of artificial sweeteners are sugar alcohols.
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Refined sugar is made from sucrose extracted from raw sugar cane or sugar beets. Often added to processed foods and beverages, refined sugar has several forms such as granulated white sugar, brown sugar, fructose, sucrose, dextrose, high fructose corn syrup and malt syrup. The average American consumes about 22 tsp.
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Determining whether carbs, fats or sugars are worse isn’t as clear-cut as you might think. Both carbohydrates and fats, though often cited as unhealthy dietary components, are macronutrients that play a vital role in maintaining your overall health.
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Tomatoes have a place in hundreds of culinary applications including spaghetti sauce, pizzas and as sandwich toppings. Tomatoes contain naturally occurring sugars, as do all fruits.
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Honey and maple syrup may both be sweeteners sold as more natural alternatives to refined sugar, but their similarities practically end there. For starters, maple syrup is man-made, produced from heating the sap of the maple tree, while honey is a natural product produced by bees from pollen as a food source.
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Honey has been used by humans for thousands of years as a food and for medicinal reasons. Honey has been recognized for its positive benefits as a food in scientific research since 1892.
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Sweetening foods can be tricky if you’re trying to clean up your diet. A pure, natural sugar such as pure maple syrup could seem like the perfect healthy substitute, and in fact, pure maple syrup does have something to offer in terms of nutrition.
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Lactose is the type of sugar that occurs naturally in milk. It is found in the milk of animals such as cows and goats, as well as human breast milk. Plain cow’s milk purchased in your local grocery store doesn’t contain added sugar.
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The naturally sweet and tart flavor of seedless red grapes make them the ideal snack for any time of the day. One cup of red seedless grapes meets half of your daily recommended fruit intake and contains only 104 calories, 0.24 g fat and 27.33 g carbohydrate.
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Agave nectar is a natural alternative to refined sugars and artificial sweeteners. This honey-like sap comes from the leaves of the blue agave, a succulent plant widely grown in Mexico. With its thin, light consistency, agave nectar can serve as a topping for fruit salads, pancakes or ice cream.
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Sugar is a naturally contained, or processed carbohydrate your body needs and uses for energy. While naturally occurring sugars are found in unrefined foods, processed sugars are added to a product.
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Hydromet is a brand name for a prescription cough syrup that contains the antimuscarinic homatropine and the narcotic hydrocodone bitartrate. The use of homatropine in the syrup helps prevent people from deliberately taking too much of the narcotic.
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You can add a number of products to foods to make them sweeter. Honey, stevia and table sugar are three such products, each with different properties. Although each of these products can be deemed "natural," they affect your body in different ways, so you need to look at several factors to determine which one to use.
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A report given by the United States Department of Agriculture in 2010 states that the amount of sugar used by the average American since 1970 has increased significantly.
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Simple sugars are carbohydrates that are quickly absorbed by the body to produce energy. They are also classified as “simple” because they contain only one or two units of sugar or saccharides. Also referred to as simple carbohydrates, these sugars are found naturally in a variety of foods that we consume daily.
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Consuming sucrose and other types of sugar appear to raise energy levels in proportion to the amount consumed. In fact, consuming sugar in large enough amounts can result in a burst of energy known as a sugar high that ends in a sharp drop in energy levels, termed a "crash."
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Stevia, a natural sweetener native to South America, is a plant much sweeter than sugar and considered to be beneficial for many health conditions, including obesity and hypertension. Stevia was approved for sale as a sweetener in the United States in 2008. However, stevia may cause allergic reactions in some people.
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