Clipping of news on Brazilian Culture, Law and Citizenship
 


Health

Advantages and disadvantages of different types of sugar

03/15/2016

This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.

 

 

transparent image

 

refined sugar, crystal, organic, brown, demerara ... In this interview, the nutritionist Sabrina Feitosa explains where are the differences between them and what the healthier option.

iSaúde Bahia - What are the main problems that sugar can cause to health? Sugar by itself is harmful to health or becomes problematic only when consumed in excess?

Sabrina Feitosa - Sugar itself is not necessarily a villain and can also be eaten by overweight individuals, since in moderate amounts. The concern, in fact, should be consuming it too, because then the dangers lie!

To understand why, you need to know what is sugar, what their sources and how your digestion. The composition is basically the sugar sucrose - a disaccharide containing two glucose molecules. After digestion, the latter molecule is falling in our bloodstream and is popularly known as "blood sugar". Glucose is the fuel used by cells to produce the energy needed for its operation. It is present in many other foods, such as fruits (rich in another sugar, fructose), and the carbohydrate food source of this molecule.

However, for cells that are able to utilize glucose it is blood, insulin is essential. It is the hormone regulating blood sugar and is produced in the pancreas and is released into the bloodstream in accordance with the amount of sugar present therein. Its function is to transport glucose from the blood into the cells so that then can be used as energy.

In other words: if, in the digestive process, a food turns into sugar (glucose) very quickly, the sugar goes into avalanches for blood, the pancreas is immediately informed of the need to produce a lot of insulin . Foods with which this occurs are those rich in simple and poor carbohydrates in fiber, such as sugars (especially refined and crystal), candy, soda, plain bread, white rice, flour, potatoes - high glycemic index foods (IG).

When, instead, the digestion of foods that turn into sugar is slow, the amount of sugar that passes into the blood is small and it happens slowly. In this case, the pancreas is warned that should go producing insulin in small amounts. These foods are whole in general, vegetables (except potatoes, manioc, yams, sweet corn) and oats, as they are rich in fiber and they, in turn, has the power to make the absorption of slower glucose .

So what happens when you consume too much sugar? The body begins to react negatively. At first, the pancreas tends to produce more insulin to normalize blood glucose rates, however, with time, it starts to not account for so much demand. The insulin's ability to bind to glucose is being reduced and the person develops glucose intolerance. Moreover, the production of the hormone itself begins to come into partial failure (pancreas begins to produce too little insulin) or total (the hormone ceases to be synthesized) that characterizes diabetes. If the insulin does not work, glucose is in excess in the blood and consequences of diabetes are many, such as hypertension, cardiovascular disorders, neurological, eyes and kidneys.

 "Refined sugar, sweets and soft drinks (...) are on the list of foods known as empty calories."

Another important aspect of the excessive consumption of sugars is overweight and the risk of obesity. Refined sugar, sweets and soft drinks (which contain high amounts of sugar) are on the list of foods known as empty calories. You may have heard of empty calories at some point. They are foods that are quickly absorbed by the body and converted into energy, but are not nutritionally adequate when viewed in terms of fiber content, vitamins and minerals. Summarizing, many calories and little or no nutrient! In addition, the body uses only a part of that energy, mostly converted to fat because the body does not need all of these calories, and then they are converted to adipose tissue for storage. Besides a possible dissatisfaction with appearance, the accumulation of body fat can lead to serious diseases such as hypertension and other heart diseases.

ISB - What advantages for our health, has brown sugar, compared to refined sugar?

Sabrina Feitosa - All! Refined sugar, as has been said, is an empty calorie food said. It is a sugar made from the dilution (followed by various processings) Crystal sugar which, in turn, comes from sugarcane juice, through purification processes, evaporation, crystallization, centrifugation, and Finally, drying. Remaining as an end product, approximately 99% sucrose and no nutrient! That is, only calories.

But the brown sugar contains 90% sucrose and other constituents such as calcium, iron, phosphorus, magnesium and potassium (see table in the article "Does the organic sugar is the most beneficial to health?"). Why not go through the refining process, its nutritional quality is better compared to refined sugar, as well as brown sugar, whose appearance resembles the crystal, but it is light brown and does not alter the taste of foods such as brown.

Check out the second part of the interview: Does organic sugar is the most beneficial to health?

 

Source: iBahia

To access the iBahia site, click here.

Our news are taken in full of our partner sites. For this reason, we can not change their content even in cases of typographical errors.

This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.

Important:
The JurisWay site does not interfere in the work provided by doctrine, why only reflect the opinions, ideas and concepts of their authors.


  Subjects list
 
  Copyright (c) 2006-2009. JurisWay - All rights reserved.