Both young women who want to control their weight and middle-aged and elderly people who want to control their blood sugar and blood lipids can't help but be attracted by sugar-free foods. Some people even regard these foods as "diet meals". However, are the low-sugar and sugar-free foods on the market really sugar-free and low-calorie? Can it really play a role in losing weight?
What is sugar-free food?
The key to sugar-free food lies in the definition of "sugar". Sugar refers to white sugar, and it can also refer to various sweet food ingredients that can be converted into glucose in the human body, such as maltose, glucose, fructose, fructose syrup and so on. Even in a broad sense, even if there is no sweetness, it can be called "sugar substance" as long as it can be digested and absorbed by the human body and converted into glucose.
According to the general concept of European countries, sugar-free foods cannot contain sugar in sucrose and starch hydrolysate, including glucose, maltose, fructose, starch syrup, glucose syrup, fructose syrup and so on. However, it must contain substitutes equivalent to sugar, and sweeteners such as sugar alcohols or oligosaccharides that do not raise blood sugar are generally used.
According to Chinese national standards, the requirement of "sugar-free" means that the sugar content in solid or liquid food is not higher than 0.5g per 100g or 100ml.
The so-called "sugar-free food" should be called "sugar-free product", which means that sugar sweeteners, including white sugar, brown sugar, honey and maltose, are not artificially added in the production and processing process. For example, milk naturally contains about 4.5% lactose, so all dairy products, including milk, yogurt, cheese, milk powder and ice cream, must contain lactose.
In addition, sugar-free food is not equal to low-calorie food. Because sugar-free food can only ensure that no sugar is added, it still contains a lot of high-calorie ingredients such as starch and fat. As long as there is dextrin or refined starch in rice flour, there will be heat to raise blood sugar.
Side effects of sugar-free food
1. Sugar-free food increases appetite: without sugar, it doesn't mean that a certain food is good for people. Even a high-efficiency sweetener that does not raise blood sugar or convert it into calories may stimulate appetite and promote obesity.
2. It is reported abroad that some consumers are sensitive to aspartame, which may cause more than 80 kinds of adverse reactions. Excessive intake of most sugar alcohols may cause diarrhea and may increase the burden on the kidneys.
An American report pointed out that people who drink too many sugar-free drinks are more likely to suffer from obesity and metabolic syndrome. It is characterized by abdominal fat accumulation, hypertension and insulin resistance, and may have side effects such as dizziness, headache, diarrhea, memory loss and emotional instability.
Artificial sweeteners of sugar-free drinks will make people's sweetness heavier and heavier.
As for the hidden dangers of taking sugar substitutes, aspartame is sweeter than sugar 180 times, and may have side effects such as dizziness, headache, diarrhea, memory loss and emotional instability.
Key points of sugar-free food purchase
Although people constantly question whether sweeteners affect human health, sweeteners have been widely used as a large class of food additives. In order to cater to consumer psychology, many merchants make a big fuss, claiming that "sugar-free food" and "hypoglycemic food" are healthy foods. However, when choosing these foods, you should keep your eyes open and see which sweetener you choose.
1. Choose sugar-free foods produced by larger manufacturers, because large manufacturers will respect the opinions of nutrition experts when making ingredients, and feed them more accurately. Secondly, what is the sugar content of the main raw materials for making sugar-free food? Look at the glycemic index of the main ingredients in sugar-free foods. Some sugar-free food ingredient lists indicate "how much dextrin is contained", and dextrin is sugar.
2. Choosing sugar-free products depends not only on whether it is marked with the words "sugar-free food", but also on its ingredient list to see which sweetener is used to replace the relevant sugar. Also consider whether the food itself contains sugar. Sugar-free foods (such as sugar-free cakes) are made of grains, which can decompose glucose in the human body, so sugar-free foods are not sugar-free.
People who carefully choose sugar-free foods
Diabetic patients should not eat sugar at will, because easily absorbed sugar will make blood sugar rise rapidly, which will overwhelm the damaged islet B cells and aggravate the condition. In order to make up for the dietary restrictions, some diabetics will boldly eat foods marked "sugar-free". As we all know, if sugar-free food is eaten improperly or excessively, it will not only lower blood sugar, but also increase blood sugar. Therefore, diabetic patients must reasonably control the intake of sugar-free food.