Raising A Toast
NATURAL SUGAR SUBSTITUTES
By : MR SHYAMAL PANCHMATIA - Managing Director of L B Industries
Y
ou opt to drink your Starbucks
cappuccino without sugar and
even made a conscious effort
to skip the breakfast muffin. 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.
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.
What is more shocking here is that
the most processed foods which are
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.
Natural sugars are
present in most fruits
and vegetables and
are healthy sources
of sugar intake as
the body absorbs
them more slowly
Drink Asia
28
March-April 2019
shelved in the supermarket aisles were
found to contain hidden sugar. Over
the past few years, we have become
more health conscious and we have
shifted our diet habits to low-fat foods/
beverages. But many of those foods
are loaded with sugar. That is the place
where our problems have multiplied.
We have fallen for the idea of a low-
fat diet without seeing the harm of the
sugar that has been put in our foods
in order to compensate for the loss
of taste.
Added sugar is probably the single
worst ingredient in the modern diet.
Most of the packaged processed foods
contain added sugar. The amount of
added sugar will not only make the