It used to be simple. If you wanted to live a healthier life, you may have started eating less and exercising more. Finished! If you now look for healthy options in the supermarket, it is different. Not only because there is much more choice, but also because we no longer have any idea what is really in all those packaging. Moreover, the hypes are flying around us. One even more extreme than the other, and in the meantime you have a feeling of hunger and no idea what else you can eat. How about eating completely sugar-free? That is not easy, and may not be necessary. However, you can easily eat less sugar. For those who are sweet, there are also healthier alternatives to the sugar bowl.
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It is of course not world news:sugar is not healthy. But what you may not have known is that there is a good chance that you are also consuming too much sugar. Even if you think you're being moderate because you don't drink soda and don't dump sugar into your coffee. More than 80% of the Dutch consume more sugar than is good for them. On average we consume 7400 lumps per person per year! NEW! And often unconsciously too:sugar is in many more products than you think. But why is sugar so bad for you?
First, sugar is addictive, just like alcohol and cigarettes. Sugar stimulates the decrease of dopamine in the brain. As a result, you eat more and more of it, and you no longer find the same food or drink without sugar tasty. Even the smell or seeing sweet food, for example in commercials, already makes you feel like it. Of course, if sugar were a healthy product, it wouldn't be a big deal. But unfortunately, most addiction-prone products are not healthy.
The first danger of sugar is clear:you grow completely overgrown. Sugar contains energy, it is tasty and it is not satiating. As a result, you could – in theory – continue to eat sugar endlessly. But when you more energy ingest than you consume, you gain weight. Duh. In addition, the energy is temporary, because sugar is not nutritious. It is therefore better to leave energy drinks, but also sports drinks. Did you know that sometimes there are more than 20 sugar cubes in it? After exercise, rather take care of proteins and carbohydrates. They also provide energy, and are also good for you after exercise because they ensure muscle recovery, for example. For example, go for a banana, a glass of milk or a bowl of full-fat cottage cheese.
You only know how expensive the sugar really is when the dental bill comes in. The second known effect of sugar:it kills your teeth. Sugar affects your enamel † How about sugar-free food? You can try that of course, there are people who persevere and make a real sport of it, but it is not easy. Especially because sugars are really everywhere. If you really want to eat sugar-free, you will have to work yourself.
Tip:Brushing your teeth just after consuming a sugar-rich product, such as fruit juice, is very bad. You brush the sugars in your teeth.
Read also :Add a tooth please! Tips for your child's teeth
It's one thing to gain weight from sugar. But it also has effects on your body that you don't notice so quickly at first. Did you know that high sugar consumption increases your risk of developing diabetes type 2 to get raises? Sugary drinks in particular have this effect:one can of soft drink per day already increases the risk. You also have to be careful during your pregnancy. Did you think you could eat some extra sweets because the kilos will come on anyway? Do not! Pregnant women with high blood sugar can develop gestational diabetes. Not good for you, but not for your baby either. Want to read more about diabetes? Then check out the website of the diabetes fund.
You might not think it, but just like alcohol and cigarettes, sugar is addictive † You want to eat more and more of it and get used to the sweet taste; eventually you won't want anything else. The same goes for salt. So watch your eating habits! Eating completely sugar-free may be exaggerated (and very difficult!) but eating less sugar should work if you pay attention. Replace your glasses of soda with water and you've come a long way! Unfortunately, sugar is also found in a lot of products in which you might not expect it so quickly.
Read also :Banning children's heroes on unhealthy food, does that work?
We probably consume most of those sugar cubes unconsciously. Because sugar is in products where you would never expect it, for example. But also because, smart as they are, producers have come up with all kinds of pseudonyms for sugar. More than 50 even! You probably already knew that syrup or syrup is liquid sugar. But did you also know that the term 'concentrated fruit juice' also simply refers to sugar? Eliminating sugar completely (sugar-free food), that is virtually impossible. Unless you live in a hut on the heath and are self-sufficient perhaps. If you just get your food from the supermarket, then it becomes very difficult. Fortunately, there are indeed healthier alternatives, which suddenly make eating less sugar a lot easier.
Hooray, long live science! All kinds of alternatives have been devised for sugar, making sugar-free food or at least eating less sugar within reach. Less pleasant:not all proposed alternatives are equally healthy. Artificial sweeteners, which contain aspartame, turned out not to be as healthy choise. Fortunately, there are also sugar substitutes that can do no harm. I also like a sweet . Do you want to eat less sugar? Then you can go for Stevia products.
You've probably heard of it because we're not the only ones who noticed:Stevia is the natural sugar substitute. The sweetener is extracted from the Stevia plant and is 300 times sweeter than sugar. So you only need very little of it. In fact, you buy Stevia products ready-made, so you have little to do with the dosage. Did you know that there is a lot of choice if you want to live sugar-free? Or just like us just want to be a bit more conscious with food?
Now it is true that Stevia is available in many supermarkets, but Stevia is not Stevia, if you know what I mean 😉 . I mean that there are quite a few different forms available, whereby the cheaper variants from the supermarket often contain a substance that is less healthy, or taste very bitter!
The majority of these products, including the undisclosed variant of a very well-known brand, contain only a very small % of stevioglycosides, 3% to be precise! See above. This while the stevioglycosides is the most natural part of the product. Far from pure in this case.
A while ago I came into contact with Melissa, owner of Steviala and avid sugar-free eater. She has been following a sugar-free diet all her life and started her business from her passion.
Within her company she is always looking for new sugar-free products that are completely pure. She even goes so far as to recently launch a sugar-free honey substitute and sugar-free syrup substitute (the Steviala Sweet Maple). Two products based on sweeteners erythritol and stevioglycosides. But then the pure version. Erythritol is a sweetener that occurs naturally in some fruits and vegetables. Another of their products is the brown sugar substitute Ery-Bronze, 30% less sweet than sugar and the only carbohydrate-free and sugar-free brown sugar substitute available.
So each and every one of them are sugar substitutes in a healthier jacket. There are already alternatives to honey, syrup, white sugar, brown sugar – and we could go on and on. No artificial sweeteners have been added and the structure of the Steviala Kristal Sweet is even comparable to crystal caster sugar! Delicious of course in your coffee or over your pancakes and strawberries. Whether in your yogurt or cottage cheese, I always enjoy feeling that crunch of sugar when I eat my yogurt and that's just possible with this.
In addition, all variants are very suitable for baking up to 200°. Hooray!
Eating sugar-free or at least eating less sugar becomes a lot easier for us this way. Now your kids!
Want to learn more about the status of Stevia around the world? Then read this research.
Eating less sugar may sound like music to your ears. Unfortunately, the chance that your children like sugar-free food is less. Do you also have a real sweet tooth at home? How do you deal with that? Are you trying to keep an eye on your kids' sugar consumption and limit it a bit? Stopping sweets completely will probably not be easy for them, they are also confronted with it everywhere. So eat in moderation, or go for a candy with stevia. They even sell sugar free chocolate! Want to cook sugar-free? Check out the recipes on their website!
Read also :Sweet! How much does your child actually eat?
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