Do you know how much sugar you eat in a day?
Breakfast bread with a cup of sweet soy milk or sweet milk, into the office to make coffee by hand with a packet of sugar, lunch with a delicious cake dessert, tea time and colleagues a group purchase of pearl milk tea, and then an ice cream in the evening ……, sugar in a variety of incarnations filled with life around, stimulating people’s taste buds, but also bring sweet happiness.
The actual fact is that this kind of sweetness is too much, and eventually the burden is greater than the happiness. The fact that eating sugar is not good for health, perhaps some people are not convinced, arguing that “I do not have diabetes, eating sugar should not matter!” But the truth is, excessive sugar intake converted into calories leads to obesity and ensuing cardiovascular disease, the adverse effects on the human body are far greater than simple blood sugar fluctuations.
Added Sugar Raises Heart Disease Risk
The relationship between sugar consumption and heart disease is of great concern to the medical community.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows that consuming large amounts of added sugar (addedsugar) not only makes people fatter, but also increases the risk of heart disease.
Miriam Vos, a physician and assistant professor of pediatrics at EmorySchoolofMedicine, led a team of researchers to analyze the daily diets of more than 6,000 adults and categorize them by their intake of sugar and cholesterol concentrations, with the group that consumed the most sugar consuming an average of 46 spoons of added sugar per day and the group that consumed the least consuming an average of about 3 spoons of added sugar.
The results showed that respondents in the high sugar intake group had higher risk factors for heart disease, including high triglycerides and three times the risk of low HDL, which is a protective factor.
“Just as a high-fat diet raises your triglycerides and cholesterol, so does sugar intake affect fat,” Vos noted.
The theory of “glycation” of human cells reinforces the association between sugar consumption and heart disease.
Scientists point out that glucose, fat, and protein in the body to produce biochemical reactions, that is, “glycation” effect, excessive sugar intake more accelerated glycation operation in the body, so that people grow old faster, but also promote fat accumulation, resulting in inflammation, and further increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Therefore, the American Heart Association is crying out, for the sake of heart health, people should reduce the use of sugar.
Rachel Johnson, professor of nutrition at the University of Vermont, who wrote the article for the Society, pointed out that men should limit their daily sugar intake to 150 calories, equivalent to 9 teaspoons (1 teaspoon is about 4 grams), and women to 100 calories, about 6 teaspoons, in order to reduce the risk of high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol, and thus prevent cardiovascular disease.
Sugar intake is getting higher and higher
The National Nutrition and Health Survey found that the frequency of beverage intake among adults has increased two times compared to 10 years ago, that is, on average, they drink sugary drinks including carbonated beverages, sports drinks, various milk teas, sugary fruit and vegetable juices, chocolate drinks, and drinks without tea ingredients once every two days, with young people aged 19 to 30 years old being the favorite drinkers.
Further analysis of the respondents’ waist circumference revealed that the proportion of people who regularly drank sugary drinks with an oversized waist circumference was three times greater than those who did not drink.
In addition, children are even more worrying, nutritional surveys show that the average child consumes up to 144 calories per day through sugary drinks, equivalent to 9 teaspoons of sugar, which has reached the maximum allowable limit for adult men and exceeds the amount that children’s bodies can tolerate.
How to maintain their own health and children’s health, to avoid cardiovascular disease on the body, “reduce sugar action” is imperative.
Sugar reduction plan 1: choose sugar carefully
To reduce calories from sugar, start by choosing the right sugar.
Cane sugar.
The common home use of granulated sugar, sugar cubes, rock sugar, brown sugar are all cane sugar, the difference is only in the degree of refinement and the size of the crystals are different, intake of cane sugar has a greater impact on blood sugar fluctuations.
Fructose.
1 gram provides 4 calories, the same as cane sugar, but because of the high sweetness of fructose, the amount used can be less than cane sugar in the same sweetness.
Because fructose stimulates blood sugar more slowly, it was considered a good alternative to granulated sugar in the past, but not from a cardiovascular point of view, as studies have found that fructose enters the body and bypasses the liver and goes directly to the metabolism, forming more triglycerides and making people gain weight more quickly.
Sugar substitutes.
There are many different types of sugar substitutes, all of which share the common characteristics of high sweetness and low caloric content, although they are also slightly more expensive and are a good alternative to granulated sugar. At present, the more popular sugar substitutes in the market are sugar alcohols (sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol, lactitol, etc.), aspartame and potassium vinblastine. Among them, sugar alcohols are usually used in processed foods such as chewing gum and hard candy, and most of the sugar substitutes available at home are aspartame and potassium vinblastine.
Potassium vinblastine has high temperature and cooking resistance, and has no strange taste, so it is more suitable for cooking.
Oligosaccharides.
Oligosaccharides can promote the growth of probiotics in the gastrointestinal tract and are often emphasized for their stomach and intestinal health benefits.
The tolerance level of oligosaccharides varies from person to person, so if you have flatulence or diarrhea, it is best to consult a nutritionist or doctor before deciding how to take it.
What kind of sugar should we choose?
1. Replace white sugar and rock sugar with honey. According to Huang Qingzhen, honey has minerals and amino acids, vitamins and other nutrients, not just empty calories.
2. For those who suffer from diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, or those who have a sweet tooth but want to reduce calories, use a sugar substitute that is sweet, low in calories, and not easily absorbed by the body.
Sugar reduction plan 2: from an early age to cultivate a light taste
Experts agree that we should start at the root by giving up sugar habits and cultivating a light taste, especially for children, who need to develop proper eating habits from an early age and reduce the intake of sugary drinks and desserts.
What to do
1. No sugary drinks and sweets at home to reduce the accessibility of sweets, so that the whole family does not develop the habit of “drinking sugar water on the go”.
2. Mixing healthy and delicious products with and without sugar can reduce sugar and be delicious at the same time.
A glass of milk with half a bottle of yogurt has a higher nutritional value than flavored milk; when cooking porridge without sugar and pouring in a can of commercially available eight-pot porridge, the sweetness is diluted but more grains are eaten; soy milk can also be mixed with sugar-sweetened soy milk and clear milk to increase children’s willingness to take in.
3. Do dessert, let it cool before adding sugar, the sweetness of the food feeling and the temperature when tasting, the same sweetness of things, at room temperature feel the sweetest, which is also the reason for the sweetness of sugar added when cooking at high temperature, but too sweet after cooling. Therefore, don’t add sugar when it’s hot or cold. It’s best to wait until the food is back to room temperature and then add sugar to taste at your discretion.
4. Start with “half sugar” For people who do not like sugar, it is difficult to immediately cut off the temptation of sweets. When drinking coffee or hand-cranked drinks, reduce the amount of sugar by half and still maintain a little sweetness to satisfy the taste buds, and continue to reduce after getting used to the taste of half sugar.
Sugar reduction plan 3: find sugar from natural foods
The use of naturally sweetened foods can effectively reduce the use of added sugars, and the sugars in cereals, fruits and vegetables are mostly polysaccharides with higher nutritional value and less metabolic burden on the human body.
Share a few good ways to find sweetness from natural foods.
Vegetables.
Onions, carrots, and corn in soup become sweeter the more you boil them; cabbage is also a sweet-tasting vegetable, so it is generally well accepted by children.
Rootstocks.
Pumpkin, groundnuts, potatoes, and taro are good ingredients for desserts, releasing their natural sweetness without adding sugar.
Fruits.
Watermelon, pears, apples, lychees, mangoes, and other fruits are highly sweet and can be eaten alone or in dishes for dessert.
Herbs:
Red dates and wolfberries are rich in sweetness.
Meat.
The effect of de-oiling soup and seafood ingredients is to enhance freshness.
It can reduce the use of added sugar.
Flavorings.
The use of aromatic seasonings, such as cilantro, mint, basil, rosemary, etc., can distract the taste buds from the demand for sweetness.
Recommended reading:
8 warning signs that you are consuming too much sugar
Carbohydrates: Insufficient intake or shortened life span of 4 years
