While current research has revealed that individuals generally have reduced their usage of fat, there are many alarming findings about sugar consumption. Obesity has been declared a global epidemic and statistical evidence suggests that obesity has more to do with sugar consumption than fat consumption.
We must have a good comprehension of different sugars to help make the correct choices. As this may get a touch too technical for some people, Abel Kalpi Nand Prasad has relegated a listing of definitions towards the end of this article.
Sugars of merely one type occur naturally in foods like fruits and vegetables. Processed sugars which have an alternative constitution are included in foods, fruit drinks as well as other drinks as sweeteners to make the products more palatable. Herein lies the difference between what is good and precisely what is bad.
We have to differentiate between sugars considered monosaccharides and disaccharides and then we need to get knowledgeable about the terms fructose, sucrose, glucose, lactoseand galactose. Then, there’s the role glucose vs. glycogen in our bodies. It gets complicated so let’s keep to the essentials.
Monosaccharides
Monosaccharides are the simplest form of sugar and may include fructose, glucose and galactose.
Fructose occurs naturally in fruits, honey, berries and most root vegetables. Your intake of the foodstuffs in which it occurs naturally is good. Other monosaccharides include glucose and galactose.
A U.S. survey reveals that about 9% of average calorie intake arises from fructose. Just one-third of this fructose arises from fruit, as the other two-thirds come from added refined sugars; here is where you will find a correlation between unhealthy sugar consumption and obesity.
Disaccharides
Disaccharidesare carbohydrates that are created when two monosaccharides are joined. The best known disaccharides is sucrose, popularly known as table sugar, where a fructose molecule is joined having a glucose molecule. Another common disaccharide is lactose, found only in milk, wherein a glucose and a galactose molecule are combined.
Glucose
Glucose is a sugar that the metabolism converts into energy. Our brain and other tissues require a constant supply of blood sugar to live. Glucose, transported through the bloodstream, will be the primary supply of energy for your body’s cells; this is the prime metabolic fuel source for most organisms, from bacteria to humans.
Your body produces glucose whenever we digest the sugar and starch that are incorporated into carbohydrates. Such foods include rice, grains, pasta, potatoes, fruit and veggies. Enzymes breakdown the starch and sugar into glucose which can be absorbed into our bloodstream. The glucose combines with insulin and together they supply the power for the muscles and brain.
It is important to our own health to keep glucose levels inside a normal range. Because the energy originates from the meals we eat, our body features a mechanism for maintaining a typical range. This mechanism is seated within our liver which stores excess glucose as glycogen.
Glucose and glycogen
Our body absorbs glucose from the foods we eat and also this may obviously occur irregularly. The glucose that this body will not use immediately is transformed into glycogen.
Glycogen is really a chain of glucose sub-units stored primarily inside the liver and in our muscles. This glycogen can be used to buffer our blood glucose level. For example, our muscles utilize the glycogen kept in the liver for energy during strenuous exercise.
What is important in our quest for weight loss would be the fact any glucose in excess of the requirements for energy and storage as glycogen is changed into fat. This is actually the underlying cause of the common argument that claims the following:
Fruit contains fructose.
Fructose turns to fat.
If you wish to lose fat, usually do not eat fruit.
This argument is basically false since it ignores the manner in which your body metabolizes fructose.
Fructose and glycogen
Fructose can stimulate lipogenesis meaning the accumulation and storage of fat. However, fructose is primarily kept in our liver as glycogen. The liver can comfortably handle a day-to-day consumption of 50 grams of fructose without storing any other fat and it can store 100 grams of glycogen.
This is an important observation. A typical bit of fruit contains approximately 6-7 grams of fructose so you should eat greater than 5-7 bits of fruit in a day to soak up 50 g. In comparison, you can very easily absorb a lot more than 50 g of fructose by drinking lots of carbonated soft drinks, or drinks sweetened with fructose corn syrup.
High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) consumption has increased dramatically and is also now a main contributor to obesity. You need to understand these misconceptions:
People confuse HFCS with fructose that develops naturally in fruit.
The entire weight of a piece of fruit is not comprised of fructose; the majority of the weight is fiber.
Conclusion
You may suffer no harmful effects from eating several pieces of fresh fruits every day. What you ought to steer far from is HFCS consumption and processed sugars added as sweeteners to food products and drinks.
Additional definitions:
Fructose
Fructose, or fruit sugar, is one of three dietary monosaccharides, another two being glucose and galactose. The 3 are distributed around our blood stream during digestion.
Fructose is actually a natural sugar, typically found in fruits, honey, berries and many root vegetables. This is the most water-soluble of sugars. In plants, fructose may exist being a monosaccharide and/or a element of sucrose. in scientific terms known as a disaccharide.
Commercially, fructose is derived from sugar cane, sugar beets and corn. Derived from these sources, it will come in three forms:
Crystalline fructoseis the monosaccharide and contains high purity when it has been dried and ground.
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a blend of glucose and fructose.
Sucrose (see definition below) is normally included in foods, fruit juices along with other drinks being a taste enhancement.
Sucrose
Sucrose is really a complex carbohydrate that exists naturally in vegetables and fruit and occurs in greatest quantities in sugar cane and sugar beets. The meals industry separates the sugar from these plants to create table sugar and sweeteners which can be put into foods, fresh fruit juices and other drinks.
During digestion, sucrose is broken down into its constituent roeqsl monosaccharides, glucose and fructose. The glucose and fructose molecules are absorbed into our blood stream and results in a fast surge in blood sugar levels. This may cause problems for those who have problems with hypoglycemia or diabetes.
Galactose
This can be a simple sugar present in lactose which is less sweet than glucose (table sugar). It really is a monosaccharide (see above) that comes mainly from milk and milk products. Galactose is metabolized primarily within our liver into glucose 1-phosphate.
Lactose
A sugar formed by galactose and glucose found mainly in milk where it happens at 2-8% by weight. Once we consume milk, an enzyme called lactase breaks down lactose into glucose and galactose. As a result of hereditary factors of food sources, European people are generally a lot more tolerant of lactose than people from Africa and Asia. Abel Kalpi Nand Prasad is intolerant to lactose may suffer bloating and flatulence whenever they consume milk products.