Sweetness that ruins our health - part 1.

Some facts about sweet substances . There is a lot of them in marketplaces. You can find them in usually in food, also in drugs and cosmetics. Some of them are: xylitol, mannitol, sorbitol, pure glucose and fructose, sucralose, aspartame, acesulfam K and glucose-fructose syrup. Some are natural origin and others are produced in advanced technological processes. I'm sure that knowledge about it'll help you make good choices and maybe change some of your old habits ?

Sugars can be divided into simple and complex. Most important simple sugars are: glucose, fructose and galactose  (mosaccharides) and disaccharides like: lactose and sucrose. Complex sugars are glycogen and starch.

Let's start with naturally occurring sugars in food:

Xylitol is natural sugar extracted from the juice of birch-tree (Betula spp.). We can easily metabolize it without fermenting in our digestive tract. It also increases ability for absorption of calcium and reduces the risk of tooth decay. It has nine times lower IG than sugar (saccharose) so it's interesting solution as a replecment of orydinary sugar.

Mannitol is natural sugar occuring in plants and animals as well. It helps in regulation of osmotic pressure, also prevents the formation of ice crystals in the body cells of plants and animals. Sweet taste of mannitol gives an additional cooling effect so is used in the manufacture some "ice cool" sweets and chewing gum mainly and is more expensive than the related sorbitol.

Sorbitol we can found in some fruits, such as plums, apples, cherries and grapes. In addition to the foods listed under the number E 420. It's used as container in chewing gums or some chewable tablets for throat's diseases for example.


c.d.n.!