According to a US health guideline, there is no health risk if 10-15% of calories come from added sugar in food. This is a piece of good news for people who are too concerned with sugar consumption yet struggling to stop sugar intake altogether. Sugar is quite an important issue for people who want to live a healthy life. There are many different types of sugars with hundreds of different names making it an interesting topic to study. Here we will discuss common types of sugar before picking the best sugar.
Sugar is one type of carbohydrate. Carbohydrate is an organic compound. Although sugar appears with different names but they are structurally similar and consist of three basic units of carbohydrates- glucose, fructose, and sucrose.
Finding which sugar is better or which is the best is perplexing because the market is saturated with so many brands claiming their product is the healthiest. However, too much sugar intake is detrimental to health- a scientifically proven fact that no one disagrees. Here is some common forms of sugar
Stevia
Stevia sugar is made from the leaves of stevia plants. The sugar is non-caloric and sugar-free. The amazing benefit of Stevia sugar is it does not increase blood sugar. The other benefits include it being bio-active which means it has anti-inflammatory compounds, and instead of increasing calories it decreases it.
Honey
Honey is a syrupy liquid. It is made by honey bees from plants nectar. Honey consists of 38% fructose, 31% glucose, trace amount of other elements, and water. Apart from nutritious supplements, honey functions like a drug in eye diseases, asthma, throat infections, bronchial asthma, tuberculosis, thirst, hiccups, fatigue, dizziness, hepatitis, constipation, worm infestation, piles, eczema, healing of ulcers, and wounds.
Coconut Sugar
The carbohydrate type in CoConut sugar is mostly sucrose with some nutrients. The sap of CoConut trees is the source of this sugar. After extracting the sap from CoConut, heat is applied to dry it, leaving a natural-looking brownish sugar. Coconut sugar also contains a trace amount of minerals like Magnesium, Potassium, and Inulin. inulin is a prebiotictic fiber.
Brown Sugar
Sugarcane is one of the raw materials of sugar. The manufacturing process using this raw material involves the following steps: sugarcane is crushed, juice is extracted and filtered followed by a series of crystallization that produces crystals of raw sugar. The last step of the crystallization process produces a viscous, thick syrup which is called molasses as a byproduct of sugar production. The crystals of raw sugar and molasses are mixed to produce brown sugar. Because of the presence of molasses, brown sugar contains more moisture than white sugar.
Agave
Agave is a native plant of Latine America and the southern United States. The sugar in the Agave plant is natural, diabetic-friendly, and does not increase blood sugar. Agave sugar is also fermented to make tequila- an expensive wine.
So it is time to pick the best sugar that we have discussed so far. We endorse Stevia as the best sugar due to its non-caloric, anti-glycemic, and anti-inflammatory properties.
