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Nature Of Natural Sugars

NATURE OF NATURAL SUGARS
By NETHRA VIJAYAKUMAR

Natural sugars are found in foods like yogurt, milk, and fruits, and they don’t lead to the same health problems that added sugars do. All fruits contain some natural sugar. Very sweet fruits including mangos and watermelons have relatively high sugar content. Generally, however, fruits tend to contain less sugar than sweetened foods.

Fruits contain two types of sugar: fructose and glucose. The proportions of each vary, but most fruits are about half glucose and half fructose. Glucose raises blood sugar, so the body must use insulin to metabolise it. Fructose does not raise blood sugar, instead the liver breaks it down.

These natural sugars are complex carbohydrates that provide nutrition (namely fiber in case of fructose and protein in case of lactose) and help regulate blood sugar.

Healthy eating doesn’t mean you have to give up sweets completely; it just means you have to ditch harmful sweeteners for these natural sweeteners. Few healthy and natural sugars are discussed below

Honey:
Honey is one of the commonly preferred healthy natural sweetener throughout the world. It is full of vitamin B6, enzymes, zinc, iron, calcium, potassium, antioxidants, phosphorous, niacin and riboflavin.

Honey contains number of antioxidants, including phenolic compounds like flavonoids. Antioxidants have been linked to reduce risk of heart attacks, strokes, and some types of cancer. They are also believed to promote eye heath.

Honey seems to have a positive effect on cholesterol levels. It leads to modest reductions in total and “bad” LDL cholesterol while raising “GOOG” HDL cholesterol.

Studies have shown that, for children over one year of age, honey can act as a natural and safe cough suppressants and more effective than cough medicine.

Dates:
The dates are too yummy. They are full of magnesium, vitamin B6, potassium, copper, manganese, and iron. As dates support to absorb carbohydrates, fats and proteins and they are digested easily. The dates help to bring down cholesterol level from the blood. This is how the possibility of stroke might decrease.

Stevia:
Stevia is a strongly sweet-tasting plant that has been used to sweeten drinks and make tea from the time of 16th century. It is a natural sweetener. The sugar is pulled out from the leaves.

The part of the leaves, which is 200 times sweeter as sugar and is obtainable in liquid droplets, baking mixes, sachets and dissolvable tablets. A perfect natural sweetener with nil carbohydrates and nil calories and it has no bad side effects like artificial sweeteners.

Coconut sugar:
We all know the uses of coconut. We use the milk, water, flour and as well as fresh coconut. Nowadays coconut sugar is also used by the people. It is one of the best natural sweeteners. It is liked by the people as it has the low glycaemic capacity and loaded with minerals.

Iron, potassium, antioxidants, zinc, polyphenols, calcium, iron, zinc, all these are full in coconut sugar. It is used in multiple things and easily available.
This coconut sugar is first digging out juice from the coconut blossoms. It is then heated and prepared following, through vaporization.

Maple Syrup:
Nowadays maple is one of the most popular and delicious natural sweeteners of the world. It is very healthy and nutritious. Manganese, antioxidants, zinc, calcium, iron and potassium are some of the contents of maple syrup.

Xylem sap is extracted from the black maple tree, red maple tree, sugar maple tree and other maple species to make maple syrup. The trunk and the roots of these trees store the starch before winter. Then they convert the starch into sugar. By making a hole in the trunk the sap is collected and then it is processed by heating so that water gets evaporated.


Jaggery:
The Indian traditional sweetener is Jaggery. It has lots of health benefits. It is prepared from sugarcane. It is very healthy. Jaggery is good for digestion, asthma, cough and cold. It relieves headache and relaxes nerves, muscles and blood vessels. It has vital nutrients such as minerals and vitamins. It has enough of iron, sodium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc and potassium. It is anti-allergic as well. It helps to increase hemoglobin level in anemic people and improves immunity. It also helps in blood circulation.









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