How many calories are in sugar?

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

At first glance, artificial sweeteners seem like the real happiness of losing weight. I drank a glass of dietary cola instead of a glass of ordinary cola - hurray! - saved 75 calories. For one day, I poured sweetener into coffee and tea (a reanimating mug in the morning, waking up a cup at work, one at lunch, another at dinner, one at night under a book), in total - 10 tablets instead of 10 tablespoons of sugar - equal to minus as much as 200 calories from the usual diet!

How often do we ask ourselves: how many calories are in sugar? As calculated by Dr. Jeffrey Webb, author of Learn to Control Your Weight, sugar is - attention! - 15-20% of the daily amount of calories we eat in a day. Sugar can be a natural ingredient or added, and have different names. For example, one serving of canned fruit contains 14 grams of sugar (fructose), one cup of 0.5% milk contains 12 grams (lactose). Added sugar - sucrose - is found in almost every processed food, even healthful ones like low-fat fruit yogurt (up to 5 teaspoons of sugar in a 125-gram cup).

So the idea of replacing that 15-20% per day with a zero kilojoule sweetener is incredibly appealing. In theory, saccharin, aspartame, and other less common sweeteners (hereinafter referred to as C3) should prevent weight gain from 1 to 2 kg per year. In practice, the most unexpected results are obtained.

First, as it turned out in the process of studies conducted in the United States, the inclusion of SZ in a person's diet did not mean that he began to consume less sugar. Scientists explained this by the fact that SZ, although it is equivalent to sugar in sweetness (and saccharin is 450 times sweeter than it, aspartame - almost 200!), But still does not satisfy the body's need for sugar - therefore this element is recruited from other products. That is, if the tongue can be deceived, then the stomach cannot. Only when these "other foods" are eaten along with sugar will the extra fats, proteins and carbohydrates be eaten, while a spoonful of sand in the tea would contain sugar and nothing else.

Secondly, in some cases, there was even a paradoxical increase in appetite and overeating after taking sweeteners. The body spontaneously compensates for the "shortage" of sugar-containing foods by "brute force" of some others - usually not very healthy, rich in starch and fats. Avoiding overeating requires willpower and conscious control over what you eat.

Third, as experiments have shown, none of the known SZ is 100% harmless or 100% useful. Among them, it is worth distinguishing between sugar substitutes (natural) and sweeteners (unnatural).

That's why

(brand "Sorbit", also used in the production of drinks, chewing gum).

These substances are found in the stems of some plants, they are obtained from the cake of these stems. High in calories (4 kcal per gram). Abuse is fraught with nausea and poor digestion.

(used in the production of cookies, waffles, candies, halva, muesli, etc.).

A plant-based substance, it is obtained from fruits and berries. It is as high-calorie as sugar, and therefore fructose is not a dietary product.

(brands "Tsukli", "Susli", "Sukrasit", "Geksolin", "Germasitas").

Chemical, the oldest sugar substitute. Contains no calories. A number of animal studies have shown saccharin to be a carcinogen. Such SZ (many of them contain substances like atsulfame and sodium cyclamate) are not absorbed like sugar, but are excreted from the body, primarily by the kidneys, so if there are problems with the kidneys, it is better not to buy such SZ.

(brands "Sweetly", "Slastilin", "Surel", "Nutrisvit", "Aspamiks", "Miwon" (South Korea), "Enzimologa" (Mexico), "Ajinomoto" (Japan).

It is used in the production of more than 5000 types of food and beverages. It is considered the most harmless of sugar substitutes. Calorie-free. At the same time, research by Dr. Russell Blaylock has shown that aspartame increases appetite. A number of other studies have shown that with long-term use, aspartame can cause headaches, allergies, depression and insomnia. Tough question: how many calories are in sugar?

Whether or not to be SZ in your kitchen depends on how you feel about their pros and cons

1. NW foods taste as sweet as natural sugar foods. That is, without denying ourselves to them, we still indulge our unhelpful craving "for sweets," instead of pacifying this habit to the best of our ability.

2. The words "sugar-free", "on sugar substitutes" and similar phrases designed to designate the product's belonging to the category of useful ones does not mean that they are less sweet. They mean that the sugar in such a product has been replaced by another sweet substance - while it would be much healthier to simply make the product less sweet. Almost all popular brands "for weight loss" in the West "sin" with this. The popular "Less Fat, Less Carbohydrate" Oatmeal Fruit Bar in England contains only 90 calories, but tastes overwhelmingly sweet and has barely enough wrapper for the list of added elements.

3. Whatever the heights of SZ producers, tea with real sugar and regular cola tastes better. Many believe that even the highest quality low-calorie SZs provide a synthetic flavor.

4. SZ is not a natural product. Even if it is based on a natural substance (such as xylitol and sorbitol), it still undergoes chemical processing. Pay attention: if the list of ingredients of any product contains E9 … (starts with a nine), then it contains SZ.

1. SZ manufacturers advertise their product as allowing you to lose weight. Strictly speaking, this is not the case. The main effect of SZ is that they help you not to get fat. That is, if you are used to drinking tea with 3 tablespoons of sugar and cannot live without baking, then thanks to sweeteners, you can continue to do this without fear of side effects in the waist area.

2. If you lose weight, but at the same time have a sweet tooth, then SZ become part of your diet. Since you will not deny yourself sweets, there is a chance that the diet will not end with an escape to the nearest pastry shop after 3 days of excruciating effort.

3. Excessive consumption of sugar is harmful not only for the figure, but also for health. Therefore, SZ are indispensable for diabetics, patients with cardiovascular diseases and the elderly.

4. SZ of the latest generation are as sweet as sugar, but do not threaten caries.

Concerned about the problem of obesity, on the one hand, and the problem of the insecurity of existing SZ, on the other, many countries of the world are now investing millions in the search for the ideal sugar substitute - natural and low-calorie, which would not harm the body and would be convenient and inexpensive to manufacture. In particular, the sugary substances derived from the herbs Hemsley, Lipia, Stevia and from licorice root inspire great promise as the most optimal sweetener and are already used in the production of SZ for mass distribution.

So answering the question: how many calories are in sugar? Output? It is as old as the world: in everything, and in the use of sugar substitutes, all the more, it is reasonable to adhere to the golden mean. That is, there is nothing hazardous to health in one artificially sweetened cup of coffee. But before you eat a piece of cake baked "without sugar", you should think about it and with an effort of will decide: if we are talking about a figure, then it will be more useful not to eat the cake at all - with or without sugar. And if we are talking about pleasure, then it is better to eat this cake natural. After all, according to those same scientists, moderate amounts of sugar are part of a healthy diet.

We stand on that.