The usual white sugar - sucrose disaccharide, is a carbohydrate, and is conceived by nature as an energy source. All the dances with demonization of sucrose began, let's say so, not because it is terribly harmful, but because it is extremely incorrectly applied. Perhaps, in the modern "mainstream" dietetics there is not so uniquely excluded from the diet substance. And so often the "secretly carried" component, by which everyone is bored, and which any manufacturer considers the cheapest way to improve the taste of anything, from pies to DAWN oatmeal porridge.

The Benefits of Sugar In sucrose, there is nothing that would not have been in fructose. In the end, both the first and the second "turn" into glucose, and replenish either the liver and muscle glycogen reserve, or are immediately expended on physical activity. Some unscientific sources write that without sucrose the brain can not function, and the central nervous system. Actually, it is not so. Can, if in the diet of man enough other carbohydrates.

This is the "brain can not work", but it is confirmed by simple "visual effects". Imagine a person who is used to drinking coffee with sugar to cheer up while working, and improve the speed of reactions. Suffice it to remove sucrose, and add to the same coffee, for example, Stevia extract, our hero will feel that:.

cheerfulness comes not so powerful wave as from sweet coffee, "the brain does not clear up";.

and in general, the taste of stevioside loses sugar, and somehow all this is not desirable to drink at all.

In fact, if the same person does not bother eating breakfast for breakfast, there will be no shortage of carbohydrate energy. And if he uses food regularly, there is nothing to be afraid of at all.

In sugar, meanwhile, there is nothing terrible for those people who do not experience serious fluctuations in appetite due to its consumption. The reaction is individual, and depends on the insulin exchange. "Soviet" medical norms, we recall, allowed a person about 60 grams of simple carbohydrates per day, from 300-400 "common" grams, and did not make any distinctions between white sugar and, for example, honey. Many successfully drink one cup of coffee with a couple of pieces of sugar a day, and no terrible overeating with them does not happen.

But if a person is sensitive to fluctuations in blood glucose levels, he will have a "textbook" increase in appetite after every cup of tea drunk with sugar. And the whole complex of reactions, plus a constant overeating, which will cause other "sweet" health problems.

In some situations, sugar is indispensable - in particular, when there is a shortage of food on the march or if glucose is not available, and a person has already fainted from hunger. Well, and a couple spoonfuls of sugar in homemade cakes will not do much harm either.. All "sugar scary stories" - from the abuse of the product.

Harm of sugarIndeed, the increased consumption of sugar by modern man is most often associated with the obesity epidemic. Think yourself - just 100 years ago the refiner was not such a frequent guest on the person's table, and even more so, was not added to the porridge, and most of the pies that were relatively unsweetened in Slavic, that in European cuisine. Candy is a sign of a rich life in the province just some 70 years ago. Baking - on weekends and holidays. Here also think, whether it is a lot of sugar ate in those days when it yet did not consider "Evil number 1".

The problem with sugar is that it does not greatly increase the satiety of the dish, but it significantly affects the caloric value. A glass of sugar in homemade cakes - plus 50-60 kcal for each piece of cake, compared to the option with 2 tablespoons. And if you put sugar in tea, all the snack with pie will pull like a solid dinner, sorry, a man who in the frost is cutting down the forest. Accordingly, the habit of sugar plus sedentary work is the extra pounds.

In addition, sugar in combination with saturated fats causes a dopamine reaction, according to the principle of influence on the brain very similar to ... the work of drugs. The first to notice the phenomenon was the American doctor D. Kessler, later came the work of domestic (M. Gavrilov) and foreign (M. Ingmar) dieticians, fully explaining this phenomenon. It is the couple "sugar plus fat" that is guilty of the painful attachment of many people to baking industrial production, fast food and the notorious pseudo-healthy foods like sweet yogurts and cereal for breakfast. And it is because of this that the products of the modern food industry are addictive, and a person "just so" can not always refuse them. That's why so much drama happens in attempts to get on a "clean" diet. The problem, by the way, is solved by the gradual reduction of portions and the "reverse" adaptation of the organism to unsweetened food.

Excess sugar in the diet is a proven cause of metabolic syndrome, and "acquired" diabetes mellitus. In developed countries, food quality standards require that sugar be listed in the ingredient list first. And in the US - often require more and indicate the amount of carbohydrates derived from sugar.

In general, sugar should be limited, and the problem with it is that the "replanting" for sweet taste occurs at a very early age. If you look closely at the same baby milk porridges that are sold in the supermarket, sugar and fat will be in almost every one of them. In the opinion of the above-mentioned authors, addiction occurs in the first 3 years of life, and in the future, "reducing sugar to a minimum" requires already strong-willed efforts.

So how much can you eat sugar? The so-called WHO healthy food pyramid gives a very unambiguous answer to this question.

You can pamper yourself with sweet tea / coffee or a piece of cake baked with the addition of sugar, on average 2-3 times a week, if not lose weight, and 1-2 times - if you are trying to lose weight. In this case, we are not talking about "supersweet" products, and there are in view of the usual 2-3 tea spoons for 200 ml of hot drink, and not more than 1 tablespoon - for 1 serving of dessert. In the rest of the time, it is better to balance your diet for carbohydrates, and give preference to other simple carbohydrates, fructose, for example.

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