Which Sugar Is Healthy? Types of Sugar Checked

Many people who do not want to do without sweets ask themselves which sugar is healthy. Conventional table sugar, sucrose, has a bad reputation. Sugar alternatives from liquid to granular offer various advantages and disadvantages. We’ll give you a ‘sweet overview’ of which ones are recommended.

Question of Quantity: Which Sugar Is Healthy

Too much sugar is a burden: it disrupts the healthy metabolism and causes diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular problems, warn specialist organizations such as the German Society for Nutrition (DGE). And it causes tooth decay. Because sugar has a reputation for being unhealthy, alternatives are being sought. Whether they are actually healthier cannot be answered in general terms and is always a question of the quantities consumed. Anyone who wants to replace household sugar should know what makes sweets generally critical.

• It is and will probably remain one of the questions of everyday life: Why do we like to snack on sweets so much? Evolutionary biologists have a simple answer: Sweet means edible, on the contrary, it means bitter. In addition, sweets provide usable energy in the form of sugar – glucose is essential for survival – which is why our food preference is geared towards sweets, among other things.
• A few biochemistry basics will help you understand what makes sweet alternatives healthy or unhealthy. The sweetness traditionally comes from sugar. Behind this are usually so-called ‘double sugars’ (disaccharides), each consisting of two simple sugar building blocks, of which there are three main ones: glucose, fructose and galactose. Table sugar is a disaccharide made up of glucose and fructose. Milk sugar, on the other hand, contains glucose and galactose.
• Fructose, on the other hand, is a pure ‘monosaccharide’ and consists solely of fructose, just as glucose consists solely of glucose. Incidentally, fructose is about 1.5 times sweeter than normal, refined household sugar.
• Fruits contain different amounts of sugars, a mixture of fructose, sucrose and glucose. A 100 gram apple, for example, serves around 6 grams of fructose, 2.5 grams of sucrose and around 3 grams of glucose, as can be read in the relevant specialist literature.
• When evaluating sweet foods and sugar, nutritionists always look at how they affect blood sugar levels and what glycemic index they have. For example, if glucose is offered, a lot of glucose shoots into the body at once. This challenges the pancreas and the production of insulin and is considered unhealthy.
• It is much cheaper if the blood glucose value only rises moderately. This is the case when sweets have to be digested beforehand. This takes time, for example with sugar from fruit, so that the blood sugar level does not rise as much. Eating high-fiber foods slows the absorption of glucose from the gut.
• Not only glucose is critical, too much fructose puts a strain on the body. After eating, this is converted to glucose in the liver, and to liver fat if the boost is too great. Too much fructose creates obesity and increased blood lipid levels. Extra fructose is assessed particularly critically.
• Individual sugar alternatives, such as honey, maple syrup or coconut blossom sugar, score with a supposed advantage: they often offer small amounts of minerals and trace elements that accompany the sugar. Brown sugar made from beets or sugar cane offers the same thing. In terms of health, however, these ‘additional gifts’ are of little use, since the absolute amounts that end up in the food are very small.
• Conclusion of nutritional science: The healthiest sugar alternative is the one that you leave out. For years, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended reducing daily sugar consumption to around 50 grams for adults. That would be about 10 to 12 teaspoons of sugar.

Popular Sugar Alternatives: Pros and Cons

If you want to replace normal table sugar, you have a lot of choices. Liquid, tough or granular just like normal table sugar – sugar alternatives come in many forms. Sometimes it’s a complex chemically processed extract, sometimes it’s just boiled syrup. Their chemistry, the proportion of sugar, sugar alcohol or other building blocks distinguishes the sugar alternatives. They sweeten just as differently, sometimes more, sometimes less than table sugar.

• Agave syrup: The liquid sweetness of the agave flows from the tips of its leaves. Before bottling, the syrup is boiled down a little. Most of the agave juice sweetness comes from fructose. Therefore, the thick juice sweetens more than table sugar. Agave nectar should be used in moderation. This way you don’t burden your metabolism too much with fructose.
• Maple Syrup: Drawn and thickened from the bark of Canadian maples, maple syrup adds a little more sweetness than the same amount of sugar, even though it’s only about 60 percent sucrose. That saves calories. However, maple syrup has additional potential: According to studies by the University of Rhode Island, a whole range of antioxidant substances are said to make the sweet juice particularly valuable. This is not scientifically recognized as there are no additional studies.
• Birch sugar: As xylitol, it is available in almost every supermarket. You can use it for almost everything – except for yeast dough – like table sugar. Its sweetness is based on the sugar alcohol xylose, which is metabolized independently of insulin. That is why diabetics can also use it. Xylitol has about 60 percent of the calories of sucrose and protects against tooth decay. Sometimes it causes flatulence. So you should use it sparingly.
• Erythritol: Like xylitol, erythritol is a sugar alcohol that leaves blood sugar levels unperturbed. The sugar substitute hardly affects the calorie account at all (0-20 kcal). Erythritol is therefore particularly popular in low-carb cuisine. It serves as a 1:1 substitute for table sugar. Because the intestine can sometimes react sensitively to erythritol, no more than 20 grams should end up on the plate every day. Consumer advocates complain that the production of erythritol is an unnatural process.
• Honey: Because honey tastes a little sweeter than table sugar, the amount of sugar in the food can be reduced. The sugar composition of honey types varies greatly, but mostly it consists of about equal parts of fructose and glucose. Scientists rate honey as an alternative to sugar that is beneficial to health, since the glycemic index of most varieties – with the exception of forest honey – is relatively moderate.
• Coconut blossom sugar: In its composition, the sweetness from coconut blossoms differs only slightly from conventional sugar. Individual studies give vague indications that it does not raise blood sugar levels quite as much as sugar. These observations are still being discussed among experts. Due to its aromatic sweetness, reducing the total amount of sugar when sweetening is easier.
• Rice syrup: It represents the fructose-free sugar alternative. In rice syrup, mainly glucose-sugar components sweeten. That’s why it tastes more subtle than other sweeteners. You should be careful not to compensate for the reduced sweetness with more, as that would have a negative effect on your health. Positive: If you replace sugar with rice syrup in a ratio of 1:1, you can train your taste buds for less sweetness.