Sugars Matter
Blog post by Lindsay Mustard, Holistic Nutritionist
The next time you are at the grocery store, turn over one of your favourite products and look for one of the following names: sugar, brown sugar, dextrose, fructose, glucose, sucrose, agave, molasses, corn syrup, fruit juice, brown rice syrup, malt syrup or any other name that sounds like it could be sugar’s relative. Believe it or not, there are over 50 different names for sugar that are disguised in everything from ketchup to barbecue sauce, pasta sauce, granola bars, jam, salad dressings, dried fruit and yogurt to name a few. Sugar is addictive. The more we have of it, the more we want it. We know that’s not what you wanted to hear, but we promise that if you read until the end we have a solution for you!
In this blog post, we are going to be talking about the health effects of sugar and the best sugar substitutes to give you the sweet taste, without the harmful aftermath!
What is Sugar?
Sugar is made in the leaves of the sugarcane plant that is native to Thailand, South Africa, Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, India, China and Australia. It is a type of grass with a bamboo-like stem that shoots out of the ground and grows to be 5 meters high. Sugarcane is cut down and harvested then sent to a factory where the cane juice is extracted, purified, filtered and crystallized into golden, raw sugar. Sugar is naturally a light brown or yellow colour, but this is removed for the typical white sugar we are used to seeing at the superstore. The colour is removed from the sugar crystal with water and centrifuging and carbon filters absorb any remaining coloured plant materials. Then it is packaged and distributed to grocery stores, bakeries, factories and it eventually become the sugar that most of us have in our homes today!
The Health Effects of Sugar:
Like anything, too much of one thing is not good for our health. Consuming high amounts of sugar on a regular basis speeds up the aging process, damages our teeth and gums, increases one's risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and worst of all, increases our tolerance for sugar making us want more and more!
The Best Sugar Substitute:
If you haven’t guessed it already, today we’re going to highlight erythritol and stevia! Erythritol belongs to the family of sugar alcohols, also known as polyols (found in fruits, vegetables and fermented foods), formed through hydrolyzation processes of the aldehyde or ketone group in various carbohydrates. Erythritol is used as a sugar replacement as the look and taste are similar, but there are lesser calories and zero sugar. Now that’s a sweet deal!
Zazubean’s SLINKY line, sweetened with a combination of Stevia & Erythritol.
The benefits of erythritol and endless, one being its anti-diabetic properties, as it does not raise serum levels of glucose or insulin in the body and exhibits no effect on cholesterol and free fatty acids. Erythritol also helps with weight loss due to its low glycemic index, calorie density and reductionist abilities regarding blood glucose build-up. It is also a dentist-friendly substitution - less sugar results in fewer cavities, which results in fewer trips and reduced costs at the dentist! If that wasn’t enough reason to love it, erythritol is gut-friendly due to its low glycemic index allowing it to be fully digested and is a natural anti-inflammatory food!
Zazubean’s Coconut Sugar line, sweetened with coconut sugar.
Stevia, on the other hand, is erythritol’s cousin! Commonly used, yet slightly different in composition. The stevia plant has been used for more than 1500 years by the individuals of Guarani in Brazil and Paraguay. They call it the “sweet herb.” Stevia is a sugar-free, zero-calorie plant-based extract that is almost 200 times sweeter than sugar. A little goes a long way when it comes to stevia and its potency. Our bodies process stevia in a unique way which allows it to be a calorie-free solution. As our bodies process the sweetener, the stevia leaf extract passes through our digestive tract without being broken down for calories. This is far different from the way that we process sugar which involves a more complicated process in which the sugars are absorbed into our bloodstream.
The next time that you are craving dark chocolate, take a second to flip the bar over. Read the ingredient list, the nutritional information and look for the symbols “non-GMO,” “Fair Trade” and “Vegan.” Ideally, choose a bar that contains as little sugar as possible. Regardless of the Zazubean Dark Chocolate bar that you choose, you know you are choosing the highest quality and lowest sugar offering on the market. Now that is a sweet, sweet taste!