Why are some sugars “better”/ healthier than others?
I work grocery retail and had someone purchase something that had Date syrup and Rice syrup. They claimed that Date syrup was healthier than even Agave syrup.
Last I checked, other than the bits of chemicals that identify it coming from specific plants, syrup is just sugar dissolved in water that’s been concentrated into a sticky liquid, and sugar is just C6H12O6.
In: Biology
sugars are fundamentally the same to the body. a sugar from fruit is the same as refined sugars. the only difference is the nutrients u get that surrounds the sugar and how quickly the body can get to it.
with fruits u get fiber and vitamins and a bunch of other good things while a lollipop only give u sugar. so it takes more effort for the body to get to the sugar in fruits vs the lollipop. it slows down the spike in insulin levels and leads to a more gradual increase in insulin which is better for u overall.
There’s a metric called the glycemic index which has to do with how quickly the sugars are broken down in your body and raise your blood sugar levels. Pure white refined sugar breaks down the fastest, and something like date syrup is a longer process. It produces less of a “rush” to your body and lessens the impacts of conditions like diabetes.
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C6H12O6 is glucose, a sugar based on a ring of five carbons and one oxygen, with -H and -OH attached to most of the carbons, and -CH2OH on the last one.
Table sugar is sucrose, which has two rings in the center instead of one, and its formula is C12H22O11.
Fructose is a fruit sugar with a five member ring, formula C6H12O6.
Each sugar gets metabolized differently.
I will say, as a diabetic with a continuous glucose monitor, it’s all about the same. I get a severe blood sugar spike with all of them. Yes, even the ‘natural’ ones like agave. Stevia (not padded out with maltodextein, etc) is one of the few sweeteners that gives me minimal sugar spikes.
In the end all sugars are unhealthy and makes you fat. And honey is just sugar, too and has no healthy effects at all. Everything else is just an unproven myth.
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