Erythritol- All you need to know about this natural sugar healthy alternative
What if people having sweet tooth can have sugar without adding the calories? Sounds like dieters or people with fitness goals dream right? Well, the sugar alcohol “Erythritol” claims to have everything same as sugar without the side effects. However, is it actually safe and healthy? Let’s analyze and understand erythritol, its benefit, and side effects.
Are you a conscious eater? If you are then you likely read the ingredient list before consuming anything. If so, you would have come across the term erythritol at some point. This natural zero calories sugar alternative is gradually becoming more prominent in the ingredients lists. Especially in products like sports drinks, energy drinks, zero calorie sodas, and even chocolate bars.
Understanding Erythritol
Erythritol is a type of sugar alcohol. No, it will not make you drunk because it is not same as other alcohol-containing beverages like beer, wine, etc. It acts as a calorie-free artificial sweetener. It is known to contain almost zero calories, 70-80 percent sweetness as that of table sugar and a mild flavor.
This popular sugar alternative is naturally found in fruit and fermented foods. It is found in very small amounts in fruits such as grapes, pear, watermelon and in fermented foods such as cheese, beer, sake, and
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Eating normal food and sugar helps the brain to understand that an individual has eaten and signals the release of hormone thereby decreasing the appetite of an individual. However, sugar alcohol passes through the body without undergoing metabolism or changing its form. Therefore, it remains undigested for the most part and will not help the person consuming this to experience satiating signals. Thus, the individual will not stop feeling hungry and in turn, will eat more. Hence, it fails the purpose of eating less sugar or low-calorie
National Academy of Sciences (U.S.). Sweeteners: Issues and Uncertainties. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences, 1975.
Aspartame, or more commonly known as NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful and Equal Measure; was discovered purely by chance in 1965 by a chemist named James M. Schlatter, who was testing an antacid drug (Prantini; 2014). The commercial industry believed that “a wonder product” had been discovered, which stood to revolutionise the food industry as an artificial sweetener. Aspartame is an artificial sweetener which is found in many of our foods and beverages universally. Aspartame is two-hundred times sweeter than sugar and is commonly used as a tabletop sweetener, a sweetener in prepared foods, diet foods or drinks, flavored waters, chewing gum, condiments and is even found in flavoring of medicines. It is found in majority of our food products marketed for weight control (Prantini; 2014). Aspartame has a sweeter taste in comparison to sugar, and therefore less of the sweetener can be used in food products in order to achieve the same level of sweetness as if sugar was used; which results in an individual consuming fewer calories and less sugar (American Cancer Society; 2014).
There are drugs out there that are really dangerous, and I’m sure you know that but there is a type of drug that out there that people we trust are giving it out to people. Those people are our doctors! And they are giving out prescription opioids that are really dangerous and highly addictive.
Today many people are substituting normal meals with energy bars in hopes of losing weight. These energy bars seem to be an easy way to diet without having to hunt down the proper nutritional meals; the meal is already prepared for you in the bar. There are a few questions being raised about this method of dieting however. The issue addressed in this paper is the use of energy bars that either have low carbohydrate levels or that use lower glycemic index carbohydrates. The idea behind using an energy bar of this type for dieting is to lower the levels of insulin in the blood, reduce cholesterol levels, and prevent the drop in blood glucose that is thought to be associated with feeling hungry.
This is a no-nonsense drink," Sperber said. It is not a fashion statement. It doesn't have a cool name; it is just a simple grab-and-go product to help busy adults when they can't afford a letdown." Each 2-ounce bottle contains zero grams of sugar, about the same amount of caffeine as in a small coffee, and 4 calories. This drink also contains about a dozen ingredients that have been broken down into vitamin B, and the manufacturer lists it as the “energy blend.”
Reynolds, Coriena . Sugar Alternatives, Not So Sweet. James Madison University. 23 Jul. 2007 .
Would it not be great to find an alternative to sugary drinks that are actually harmful for your health? There are millions of energy drinks that you will find in stores, but most of them are filled with caffeine, a lot of sugar and artificial stimulants that could be detrimental to your health. When you need to optimize your energy levels, choose supplements that are 100 percent natural. If you want to have lots of energy you can choose from a selection of all natural energy drinks that are specifically formulated to give you the benefits you
“there’s a fundamental difference between the sugar that you find in fruits & vegetables and the sugar that you find in a large Mountain Dew. The sugar in a lot of these carbonated drinks is highly concentrated simple sugar, the kind that will spike your blood glucose levels, reduce your insulin response over time (leading to Type 2 diabetes) and almost immediately get stored in your body as fat.” There is a difference between sugar from nature and sugar that is processed. Sugar that is processed is highly concentrated because of this it tends to increase your blood glucose levels higher than natural sugar. With high
Dietary supplements: Do they help or hurt? What you need to know before taking a vitamin or mineral supplement. Harvard Women's Health Watch [serial online]. 2013;20 (5):1-7. Available from: CINAHL Plus with Full Text, Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 11, 2014.
Do you do drugs? Well you shouldn’t because it can really affect not only you but the people around you such as family and friends. The “Drugfreeworldcinci” gave the public a PSA about how drugs can really mess a person’s life up in more than one way. The PSA uses pathos, ethos, and logos to get their point across to the people but use pathos as their strongest tool.
The three basic nutritional components found in food--carbohydrates, proteins, and fats--are used as energy after being converted to simpler products. Some alcoholics ingest as much as 50 percent of their total daily calories from alcohol, often neglecting important foods. Even when food intake is adequate, alcohol can damage the mechanisms by which the body controls blood glucose levels, resulting in either increased or decreased blood glucose (glucose is the body's principal sugar. As a result, alcohol causes the brain and other body tissue to be deprived of glucose needed for energy and function. Although alcohol is an energy source, how the body processes and uses the energy from alcohol is more complex than can be explained by a simple calorie conversion value. For example, alcohol provides an average of 20 percent of the calories in the diet of the upper third of drinking Americans, and we might expect many drinkers who consume such amounts to be obese. Instead, national data indicate that, despite higher caloric intake, drinkers are no more obese than nondrinkers. Also, when alcohol is substituted for carbohydrates, calorie for calorie, subjects tend to lose weight, indicating that they derive less energy from alcohol than from food
Most alcoholic drinks are not composed solely of pure alcohol. Beer, wine, mixed drinks, spritzers, cocktails, and frozen drinks all contain additional ingredients and additives that often add lots of sugar and calories to your drink. To keep sugar levels balanced, use diet sodas, plain club soda, or water as mixers, and for some kick, add a spritz of lemon or lime to taste. If you enjoy the flavor of liquor on its own, try ordering your drink neat or on the rocks. If liquor is not your drink of choice, opt for light beers and steer clear of sweet dessert wines.
The health topic I’m covering today is epilepsy which is a neurological disorder that is caused by excessive or abnormal activity in the neural areas of the brain. Epilepsy causes a series of seizures and it does not discriminate when it comes to the person, age, or race. This disease can have a major effect on a person by interrupting their daily lives and health. In ancient times there was very little knowledge about epilepsy.
The worldwide demand for high potency sweeteners is expected to rise especially with the new practice of blending various sweeteners; the demand for alternatives is expected to increase. The sweet herb of Paraguay; Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni produces; in its leave;, such an alternative with the added advantage that stevia sweeteners are natural products. The sweet steviol glycosides have sensory & functional & properties superior to those of other high potency sweeteners. Stevia is to become a major source of high potency sweetener for the increasing natural food market in the coming future.