How Sugar In Natural Food Like Garri Is Better Than That In Sweetened Soft Drinks

Carbohydrates are the sugars, starches and fibers found in fruits, grains, vegetables and milk products. Though often maligned in trendy diets, carbohydrates — one of the basic food groups — are important to a healthy diet.

Sweetened Soft Drinks

Carbohydrate is not the cause of diabetes but it has been implicated as it is one of the causes of obesity. Obesity has been implicated in diabetes. Obesity in adolescents and children is in the rise. One of the major pieces of advice is to cut down on carbohydrates.

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Cutting down on carbohydrates is not easy. It will starve the body of energy. Our body needs about 50-60 % of carbohydrates. So the advice is to cut down on some type of carbohydrates.

Carbohydrate is made up of oxygen, carbon and hydrogen. There are different carbohydrates. But they are all broken down to simple sugar in the body. Because that is the form the body utilises.

Types Of Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are made from small building blocks called simple sugars or monosaccharides. There are three types of simple sugars or monosaccharides. They are glucose which is the form that gives energy in the body, fructose found in honey and galactose found in milk and yoghurt. Simple sugars or monosaccharide can combine to form complex sugars such as disaccharides and polysaccharides. Disaccharide sugar consists of sucrose which is the same as table sugar from sugarcane (glucose + fructose), lactose obtained from dairy products (glucose + galactose) and maltose found in malt sugar (glucose + glucose). Polysaccharides are starch, cellulose and glycogen.

There is always that advice to avoid soda and sugary foods such as coca cola and malt. The reason is simple. They are made of rapidly digestible sugars. The nutritional properties of carbohydrates depend on the rate and extent of digestion and absorption in the body. Other factors are the type of carbohydrates (monosaccharides, disaccharide or polysaccharides) and presence of other nutritional components such as fat and dietary fibre influence the physiological responses to carbohydrates.

The starch source, granular structure and degree of isolation and processing are important factors influencing starch digestion. Starch with high amylose content tend to be more resistant to digestion than those with higher amylopectin content.

Danger Of Sugar In Sweetened Soft Drinks

Let us look at sweetened soft drinks as an example. Most soft drinks such as coca cola have glucose as one of the main ingredients. Glucose is rapidly digested and absorbed in the small intestine (duodenum and proximal region). This leads to a rapid elevation of blood sugar level above the normal threshold. To prevent damage of cells by excess glucose in the body, the pancreas release insulin. The insulin converts excess glucose into glycogen for energy. This constant stress on the pancreas anytime you drink sweetened soft drinks can affect the pancreas.

Sweetened soft drinks with fructose are gaining popularity recently. They are called diet drinks. It is because fructose, unlike glucose, is not highly absorbed into the body. This is because it passes through a different path in the body. Majority of it does not get metabolized. But the story will be different if it is combined with other food like fibre. However, it still causes an instant elevation of blood sugar levels in the body. But it is better than glucose.

Because of the rapid digestion of the food and fall of sugar in the body, you feel hungry again in no distant time. If you give in to your desires, you may end up drinking more soda.

Malt drink is made from malt. Malt consists of glucose + glucose. This makes it the same with other sweetened soft drinks.

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Except for a few exceptions, it is very rare to get glucose in nature alone. It is always combined with high fibre food. It is fructose that we get in abundance in nature such as in honey and sugar cane. That makes them far better than sweetened soft drinks.

Benefits Of Sugar In Natural Food

Resistant starch is fermented by the colonic microflora producing short chain fatty acid that provides additional energy to the body. Another type of starch is slowly digested starch. This type is digested slowly throughout the small intestine. This leads to a slow and prolonged release of glucose which does not cause rapid rise in blood sugar level.

Resistant and slow digestive starch are usually polysaccharides. They are combined with fibre. Fibre makes one feel full and helps slow absorption of sugar. Grains and vegetables are good examples of resistant and slow digestive starch that we should eat. They are better than sweetened soft drinks.