everybody welcome back it is 2 a .m. and this
is thoughts if it were you food for thought by
neogentics now in the last podcast I did cover
pregnancy and wellness and it was because it
was mostly because it was Rick it was requested
but I figured with the information I'm covering
now it'd be a better time to cover it now than
later and I did talk about quickly enough illnesses
that women go through during their pregnancy
now I'm gonna continue on with the health skills
that I'm going through right now for those who
want to diet and keep themselves healthy, but
I'm gonna go back and cover infections and pregnancy
as well in a little more depth because I feel
like it's a very important general topic that
a lot of women need to know about, okay? Especially
the ones who already do know but can't remember
all of it. So anyway, we're gonna continue where
we left off with sugar. Like, what is it? Is
it good? Is it bad? You know, there has been
a lot of media attention recently about sugar
in our diets, and it affects upon our health.
So there are so many different types, names,
and classifications for sugar, and it can be
hard to relate these claims to our own choices.
You know, sugar is the name for a group of carbohydrates
which have a short chain, okay? Just so you know.
Generally, cyclic structure and... they have
a sweet taste. However, there are a number of
other substances that can be used for sweeteners
in food other than just that. The simplest of
all the sugars is called monosaccharides, and
these form the building blocks of the other types
of carbohydrates. You remember we covered that,
although Actually, when looked it up, it is monosaccharides.
They can be found on their own, and they are
commonly found bonded in pairs to form the rest
of the range of different sugars, okay? There
are three common monosaccharides. There's glucose,
like I covered before, fructose, and galactose.
Yeah, I know, they sound weird. Known sometimes
as dextrose, glucose is the primary energy source
for our biological organisms. Fructose is, or
a fruit sugar, is the sweetener and most water
-soluble of all the sugars, being about 1 .7
times sweeter than table sugar, and is found
mainly in fruit. The other one is galactose,
does not commonly occur in its free source, but
it can be found in peas and other legumes. So
it's less sweeter than the others, but it's just
as good. Okay, and with that being said Most
of the common sugars that we eat are known as
disaccharides or this Yeah, disaccharides because
they are a mixture of two or more monosaccharides
Factors like how sweet they are how fast they
get absorbed and how they affect our bodies depends
largely on which two are combined of the monosaccharides
so Common combinations of monosaccharides would
be one of them is sucrose. That is the sugar
we use in our homes to add to drinks or for baking,
whether granulated, castor, which would be superfined,
or icing, which would be powdered sugar. It's
form of glucose and fructose molecules combined.
That's basically what it is. Although sucrose
is found in many mini plants only sugar cane
grown in tropical climates and sugar beets grown
in colder regions contain sufficient quantities
to make extract actually viable so next is inverted
sugar it's similar to sucrose but with while
the glucose and fructose molecules are bond together
in sucrose they both they're both free and inverted
sugar okay This makes inverted sugar taste significantly
sweeter than sucrose, but not necessarily healthier.
Golden syrup, or trickle, or trickly, however
you wish to pronounce it. These are a by -product
sugar, refined, and they're a mixture of inverted
sugars and sucrose. It's thick, it's amber -colored,
known as what they call light syrup. and while
it is darker while um treacle is darker it has
a more distinctive flavor than golden syrup okay
next would be brown muscovado barbados molasses
demedira turbinado sugar All of them are different
types of sugar. These sugars are essentially
the same as the white sugar or sucrose, but are
either less refined so that the molasses component
of the sugar cane extracted has not been entirely
removed, or refined by white sugar with molasses
added back into it. They are all brown in color
and have a caramel flavor. The degree of both
depending on how much molasses is in the final
product is to be determined. Nutritionally though,
brown sugars have very, very little difference
for white sugar. Moving on to the next one, lactose,
is the sugar found in milk. Although all infant
mammals can tolerate lactose, only humans carry
this ability to maturity. Even so, this trait
is generic and it varies between individuals
and races around about maybe five percent of
north europeans and 90 percent of some africans
and asian countries are lactose intolerant okay
they suffer bloat and abdominal pains if they
adjust milk or any kind of milk products this
is not to say that they all are that way just
scientifically speaking it's been proven that
it's around that much but currently it may be
a lot less Next is maltose. It's mostly found
in germinating grains, particularly barley, and
is less sweet than glucose, fructose, and sucrose.
Maltose consists of two different glucose molecules
bound together, usually the same. High fructose
corn syrup, on the other hand, HFCS, is a sugar
replacement that is slightly sweeter than sucrose.
In Europe, it is known as glucose fructose syrup,
or isoglucose. It is an inverted sugar produced
from corn and maize starch. And although the
production process is quite lengthy, the sweetener
is much cheaper to produce than regular sugar
and is produced as a liquid. So it is easier
to blend with other food stuff. It is generally
used in its HFCS. 55 form containing about 55
percent fructose and 45 percent glucose you've
heard most people have heard of this but don't
know what it means and it's found extensively
in processed food soda drinks in the US although
it is less widespread in Europe okay typically
only Americans do this I don't know why next
is the natural sweet natural sweeteners are sugar
-based natural products you know used from both
their sweetness I'm sorry they're used for both
their sweetness and their flavors One of the
most commonly known ones is honey. It's produced
by bees. It's probably the first substance to
be added to any food to make them sweeter. The
flavor of the honey, though, depends largely
on the species of pollen that's collected by
the bees in addition to being used as a sweetener.
Honey is also, and this is a good thing for a
lot of people, it has antiseptic qualities. It
contains mostly fructose and glucose in it, though,
however. Next is the natural maple syrup it comes
from the sap of a maple tree slightly less sweet
and it more runny than honey It's mainly consists
of sucrose. That's what makes it what it is Okay,
I'm gonna stop here for a second. I'm gonna take
a short break and then I'm gonna come back talking
about rice malt syrup for those who don't know
what that is Now we're back. A rice malt syrup.
It's also known as brown rice syrup. Yes, you
can make syrup out of rice. It's made from the
fermented cooked rice, and it consists mainly
of maltose and glucose. Rice malt syrup is more
calorific and less sweet than sugar, and has
been reputed to be basically the higher than
desirable. How do I put this? It has higher than
desirable arsenic levels. It contains higher
levels of maltose than furtose and glucose. So
it's not exactly the most healthy of them all,
but it does taste fairly good. Agave nectar,
which is becoming more and more popular nowadays,
is made from the sap of the agave plant and semantically
processed into a syrup. It is very high in fructose,
about maybe approximately 85%, and therefore
it's very, very sweet. It does not have an identifiable
flavor like honey and maple syrup, so it kind
of tastes like, well, let's put it this way,
it's not as bad as casserole oil. For those who
know what that is, I know all too well. Next
are non -sugar sweeteners. Sugar are not the
only sweet -tasting substances we can use in
our food. There are a number of other sweeteners
that are originally used. They can either be
natural in origin, coming from a plant's extract,
for example, or artificially synthesized solely
for their role as a sweetener. One of those everyone
knows pretty well is stevia. It's the extract
from the stevia rebundia plant. It's used to
produce an artificial sweetener, so it's not
exactly as healthy as the others because of the
way it's processed, but it still tastes really,
really good and it is 100 % natural, so it's
actually healthier by far than processed sugar.
The sweetness is processed by a group of chemicals
called glycosides and is used up to 150... it's
basically... 150 times sweeter than sugar. And
different manufacturers extract and purify this
stevia plant in different ways, which leads to
the slightly different products that we have
and some of them having a more pronounced and
slightly bitter aftertaste, like the liquid stevia.
I don't recommend that. Next would be sugar alcohols.
Yeah, you heard me right. They're derived from
plants. Sugar alcohols are sweeteners that are
related to sugars but have fewer calories because
they are not fully metabolized. As they have
less effect on the blood sugar levels, but can
have a laxative effect if they are taken in large
amounts, sugar alcohols include... all sound
great and all, they're actually really, really,
really not good in high quantities, okay? Interesting
enough, sugar alcohols are often found in products
labeled sugar -free and no sugar added, like
your diet sodas and such. This is why a lot of
people don't recommend them, because they're
not actually as healthy as they're portrayed
to be. Alright? Next on our list would be the
artificial sweeteners. They're low or zero calorie
products often used instead of sugar to sweeten
foods and or drinks. They're not just used in
so -called diet foods. Notice I said so -called
since many, many regular ready -made meals and
other products also contain artificial sweeteners.
Now this brings up this question and it's still
under the topic of our sugars. What are sugars
and are they healthy for you? Are artificial
sweeteners safe? There have been... a lot of
debate and research and controversy around this
topic about the safety of them. Let's put it
this way, the U .S. National Cancer Institute
and the Cancer Research Unit in the UK currently
state that there is no evidence that artificial
sweeteners can cause cancer in humans and they
must all undergo rigorous testing before being
licensed to even be used in food in the first
place. So... Keeping that in mind, you should
still stay up to date with the current research
into health effects of artificial sweeteners
to make your own decision as to whether or not
you really want to eat them at all. And one of
the well -known ones is aspartame. It's a low
-calorie artificial sweetener based on joining
the protein amino acids, aspartic acid, and phenylene
together. Aspartame is also one of the most common
sweeteners and is still Uh, that way today, it's,
uh, sold under a variety of trade names, including
NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, Equal Measure, Kanderol,
Bonivia, Aminosweet, and Natrasweet, if you've
heard of any of those. It has been the subject
of a number of health scares and has been linked
with brain tumors, leukemia, uh, lymphonomia,
migraines, and a number of other things, but,
um... However, after a number of reviews, for
example, by the US National Cancer Institute,
like I said before, back in 2006, and the European
Food Safety Authority back in 2013, we don't
have any actual evidence that this is true. And
the acceptable daily intake is set at 100 times
lower than the amount that might actually cause
health concerns from laboratory studies. It's
basically about 40... milligrams per kilo of
your body weight. Just convert that to pounds.
An example of that would be 75 kilograms is about
165 pound adult. It equates to somewhere in the
region of 19 cans of diet soda or 363 sweetener
tablets a day if you actually eat that. I don't
recommend it. So we'll take a short break and
then I'll talk about the last four of them. Alright,
and we're back. Next is Saccharin, S -A -C -C
-H -A -R -I -N. It was discovered in, I do believe,
1879. It was the first artificial sweetener.
Sold as, and you'll probably recognize this,
sweetenlo or sucron. It is up to 300 times sweeter
than sugar, although some find it... has a slightly
bitter and metallic aftertaste. It's used in
products including foodstuffs, drinks, chewing
gum, toothpaste, lip gloss, and vitamins. That's
why they taste the way they do. But to keep that
in mind, you're not supposed to be eating and
swallowing chewing gum, toothpaste, or lip gloss.
The vitamins... okay. It was suspected of causing
bladder cancer back in 1970, but since then it's
been disproved. Actually, it was disproved back
in 1999. That's when they reevaluated it, but
it's been concluded that it does not have a possible
human carcinogen in it. However, the acceptable
daily intake is five milligrams per kilo of body
weight, and we already covered that. Next is
Sucralose. It was discovered also in 1996. It's
much sweeter than both saccharin and aspartame
and is more heat stable. It is solid under the
brand name Splenda. Zerocal, if you've heard
of that. Sucrana, Sucreplus, Candies, Cochrane,
and Novello. It's only acceptable daily. It'll
take its 15 milligrams per kilo also. The next
is Aesopame K. It is often used blended with
sucralose to decrease the bitter aftertaste of
aspartame in a range of low calorie foods and
drinks. And for this one, it's nine milligrams
per kilo of body weight. as the recommended amount
to eat. Next and last on my list is Neotain.
It was approved by the FDA back in 2002 and made
by NutriSleep. Neotain is a derivative of Aspartame.
It is, however, much sweeter than Aspartame and
is therefore used at much lower levels. As all
sweeteners, there is a controversy over its safety.
However, again, the consumer adversity. Advocacy
Group Center for Science in the Public Interest
has ranked it as safe so That's one of the things
that you don't have to worry about So with that
being said I've pretty much covered everything
I can about sugars and whether or not they're
healthy food Like I said in the last episode
I did cover pregnancy and wellness so with that
hopefully you'll know what sugars you can and
cannot eat Again, thank you for listening and
tune in next time as we will cover sugars and
your diet. We'll go a little more in depth on
sugar.