We all know that sugar is incredibly bad for you but if you have a sweet tooth, it can be hard to suddenly change your taste buds and to avoid it. But in moderation, not all sugar is bad for you; it’s when you over-indulge that the problems occur. Sucrose is a blend of glucose and fructose. Many people instinctively feel that glucose is the component that they should be avoiding but in fact, much research has been done on the topic and fructose is much more dangerous in the long term.
This might be a surprise to you when you consider that fructose is a naturally occurring sugar and in this natural form when you eat fruit, it is actually fine. No one is suggesting fruit or natural fruit sugars are unhealthy but it is when it has been extracted and turned into a sweetener that the problems start.
Fructose raises triglycerides which are a serious risk in heart disease. They have also been linked to fatty liver disease even when alcohol (another cause is absent). Tests confirm that diets which are high in fructose equal abnormal metabolic changes by way of weight gain, increased abdominal fat and elevates triglycerides.
The reason why fructose was added initially was that sugar used to be expensive so when food manufacturers needed to sweeten their food, they looked for a less expensive option. The solution came in the form of high fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup is found in many soft drinks. The combination is usually 55 per cent fructose and 45 percent glucose. In small doses, it probably does not cause much of a problem but in larger doses, for example if you drink a great deal of soft drinks, you can see how easily your health can be impacted.
If you seriously want to look after your health, then it’s time to do some research and to stop falling for the marketing hype that surrounds all food types because otherwise you could be consuming ingredients that are extremely damaging for your health. You have to start taking responsibility for your health and to not rely on food manufacturers to do the ‘right thing’ in terms of providing healthy meals or ingredients. It just won’t happen. The financial economy means that everyone tightens up their purse-strings and this includes the food manufacturers too.
Of course you can argue that the food manufacturers have a duty of care but sadly in this day and age, it’s all about profit margins. The best way to ensure that you are eating healthily is to eat a balanced diet and as much home-grown produce as possible ensuring that you eat more natural produce and eliminate as many shop-bought ready meals as is possible. You will be horrified to know that fructose sugar is used in so many different products that it’s almost impossible to avoid it. In fact, it’s managed to even creep into the health food shops and is labelled as Agave syrup.
If you eat sugary snacks or to eat products that have high levels of sugar, you are going to put on weight and you are going to damage your health. Make a note of just how much you have each day/week and although this might reveal some worrying facts, make a determined effort to cut it down by a third each week. You will find that once you have done this, you are much more able to reduce sugar even more as your food and drinks will taste dreadful if they have high levels of sugar within them.
