How to Substitute Sugar

It is the source of glucose which gives some necessary energy for people. But overuse of sugar can cause serious health problems. So, how to substitute sugar in your daily diet?

First, let's clear up what sugar is. Sugar is the sucrose carb crystals. In the process of digestion sucrose is broken up into glucose and fructose.

Glucose gets into your bloodstream and provides your body with energy. Excess glucose is saved as glycogen, a complex carb that compensates glucose lack. Fructose is converted into fats.

Glucose is an important source of energy for the body, but if the blood glucose level exceeds, you can have problems with your health. That's why you must control how much sugar you eat. And remember that pure sugar is not the only source of glucose. Sweets, fruit and some other foods can also contain glucose.

Brown sugar is believed to be a good substitute for white sugar. Actually, it is not right because brown sugar can have even more calories and contain not less glucose than white sugar.

Honey is a popular natural substitute for sugar. Honey has a lot of useful properties, that's why many people prefer adding it to tea and pastry instead of sugar. Honey contains more fructose than glucose, that's why it doesn't cause such rapid rise in blood glucose level as white sugar does. Nevertheless caloric content of honey is not less than that of sugar. That's why do not eat more than 50 – 60 g of honey per day. Besides, remember that honey loses its useful properties while heating up.

Fructose is a widespread sugar substitute for people following the diabetic diet. It doesn't need much insulin for metabolism. That's why it's not dangerous for the diabetics. Besides, fructose is usually sweeter than common sugar. So, you will eat it less.

You can buy fructose and fructose products in the drugstores and large supermarkets. Besides, fresh fruit also contains fructose, that is actually why fructose is called like that.

But if you are predisposed to obesity you should not consume much fructose because fructose is converted to fats as mentioned above.

Lately stevioside, a natural sugar substitute, has been becoming more popular. Stevioside is derived from the stevia plant growing in Central and South America. It is 250-300 times sweeter than sucrose and does not influence the blood glucose level much. The drawback of stevioside is that it has a specific aftertaste and it is not easy to use for baking.

So, all the sugar substitutes have some advantages and disadvantages. If you worry about the amount of glucose in your daily diet, try to reduce consuming sugar products, first of all sweets.