Health and Nutrition - The Dangers of Sugar in Your Diet and Some Sweet Substitutes

"All human nutritional needs can be met in full without having to take a single spoonful of white or brown or raw sugar.'
The late Dr. John Yudkin - Sweet and Dangerous, Wyden, 1972, Queens College, London
We all know that too much sugar is really bad for our health. As a result of this there are lots of 'natural' sugar products available to buy in food stores, health food stores and on the internet. With so much choice what do you choose?

Our bodies need sugar in the form of glucose, especially our brain, which needs glucose to function properly. Sucrose is a disaccharide which is two sugars that is broken down into two simple sugars, glucose and fructose. Glucose in our blood provides us with energy. There are different sugars depending on the food we eat for example fructose is the main sugar in fruits, maltose, a sugar in grain like barley and lactose a sugar found in milk.
One of the sugars which have been heralded as one to replace 'white poison' or otherwise known, white table sugar or sucrose... is Agave (ah gah vay). Sometimes agave is referred to as a syrup or nectar and it has a similar taste to honey but not as thick. Without a doubt agave is a much better option than artificial sweeteners which should be avoided at all costs - the clue is in the name artificial!

Agave is a plant which looks like a cactus and can be found in desert areas in places like Mexico. When the agave plant is harvested the sap is extracted and then heated at a low temperature at which point the carbohydrates are broken down into sugars. Agave is available in both light and dark, the darker it is the less time it has been heated and filtrated.
Peter Pure from Raw Food Party asks the question is Agave good for you?
* Sugar is sugar is sugar is sugar
* Sugar ages you
* It is the cause of immune system crashes
* It is an anti-nutrient
* It rots your teeth
* It's causes diabetes
* Sugar ferments your blood cells
* Sugar is food for candida, cancer, viruses, bacteria, yeasts, and mould
There are many people suffering with sugar addiction, some people are aware of this others are not. If someone 'gives up' sugar for whatever reason, they are only eliminating spoons of 'visible' sugar on breakfast cereal, or in tea or coffee but there are so many foods, including natural foods such as fruit which contain a form of sugar. Processed foods have so much sugar that we now have a sugar crisis in our health service in the form of type 2 diabetes and an assortment of degenerative diseases.
Peter suggests 'Many people will want us to believe that this and that new form of sugar is okay.That is not the case. Even honey, by far the best of all sugars, needs to be limited. Dates and fruits too for that matter'

My experience is that people make incredible health breakthrough's for themselves just by getting off the main sugar culprits - all grains and grain products, bread, pasta, cornflakes, rice, barley, spelt, quinoa, beans, lentils, corn, potatoes and refined foods (preferably dried fruit too).
Why grains and beans/lentils first? Simple - you probably wouldn't eat 2 bowls of honey in one go, but you might eat 2 bowls of rice (for example).
Sugar in all it's forms is just a part of a transitional diet as people get off their sugar addictions (with a few rare exceptions of athletes who burn a lot of sugar).
The only exception to all of this, if there is any magic "sugar" is stevia - which is a herb that taste's sweet but is not sugar.'

Stevia (stee v ah) or sweet herb, harvested from places such as South America and Asia as an alternative sweetener can be purchased as a lplant, liquid or powder. Japanese people have been using stevia successfully for many years and they don't have the same health and weight problems as we have in western culture, unless of course they eat a western diet! Stevia is much sweeter than sugar so you don't use or need too much of it and as it is a natural herbal sweetener.
Another natural sugar alternative is Xylotil, which looks and tastes exactly like sugar and does not have that horrid aftertaste associated with so many chemical sweeteners. Xylotil has fewer calories and carbohydrates than sugar and as a result it is slowly absorbed in the body and does not cause an increased rush of insulin so is better for anyone suffering with diabetes. Xylotil can be used in cooking to replace refined white sugar but like all sugar you need to identify how much sugar you are consuming in your diet, especially all hidden sugar which piles on the pounds, empty calories and over time makes you ill.

Of course, there are multiple things to consider to become more healthy, lose weight or live your life to your body's full potential. Sugar is just one.