Natural, reined and artificial sweeteners – what should we actually be eating?

swetener

Talking about sugar, sweeteners and syrups is like entering a very sticky minefield because there are so many options and countless opinions on what’s best and worst. Bear in mind that any sweetener is an extract and what follows applies only to these concentrated extracts, not to naturally occurring sugars, such as those in fruit.

A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR

Glucose, fructose and sucrose are all simple sugars that can’t be distinguished by taste alone – they’re all very sweet.

• Glucose

Glucose is a simple sugar naturally present in many foods and serves as the main source of energy for our metabolism. When we talk about blood sugar, it means glucose – in response to eating glucose, our bodies release the hormone insulin to feed it through to our tissues and cells. Excess glucose is stored in the form of glycogen in our muscles, but can also be turned into fat.

• Fructose

Fructose is also a simple sugar and is found naturally in fruits and vegetables. Your body doesn’t use it as a main energy source, and it can’t be absorbed in the same way as glucose – it first has to be processed by the liver. That’s why it doesn’t produce high blood sugar levels and doesn’t rely on insulin, but can still cause weight gain if eaten in excess. Many processed food and drinks manufacturers use high-fructose corn syrup and that’s certainly not a healthy option.