Healthy Sugars - Are There Any

In Jan 2011 a new product hit the markets and it is creating quite a stir. It's name is Emulin and some people are calling it a sugar. It is derived from Grapefruit and appears to reduce the absorption of glucose from the blood stream and promote glucose to be taken up by cells from the blood. It also stimulates the pancrease to make more insulin and appears to resensitise the glucose receptors on cells - hence the increased uptake of glucose from the blood stream.
Emulin is made up of 3 flavenoids all of which interact with each other and together create the desired result. It is available in the USA as an over the counter medicine and as far as i know its not yet available in the UK.
So what are the potential good and bad points:
1. better blood glucose management means fewer side effects - peripheral neuropathy being just one
2. reduced complications
3. could help in the war against obesity

Bad points
1. we don't have enough data yet to really say that it is safe - i'm quite happy to let the US market test it first.
2. possibly difficult blood glucose level management issues with interactions with metformin/gliciside drugs
3. it is blocking the take up of glucose - that could lead to low blood glucose levels
4. may lead to complacency in diabetics - ie might stop trying to control by diet.

In summary watch out for this possibly wonderful addition the war on diabetes - i'll keep updates posted

This is an extract from the Phillipines News
Also good for diabetics is coco sugar. "A natural sweetener and functional food, coco sugar is a much welcome development for diabetics and hypoglycemics," said the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resources Research and Development (Pcarrd).

Compared with refined cane sugar, coco sugar has a glycemic index (GI) at 35. This is much lower than the 54 GI, the level which nutritionists consider as safe for people who have to watch out their glucose level.
"Having a low GI means that people who consume coco sugar will not experience sudden spikes in their blood glucose or blood sugar levels," explained Pcarrd, a line agency of the Department of Science and Technology.

The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) agrees. Research results have shown that diabetics who use coco sugars are able to stabilize their blood sugar levels, PCA said in its website.
Full article here: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/lifestyle/2011/10/04/health-benefits-coco-rediscovered-182975

A group of Australian researchers has studied the diets of 2200 adults and found some surprising facts. If you eat apples, sprouts, cauliflower or broccoli on a daily basis then your risk of cancer went down. Conversely, they found that drinking a glass of fruit juice din't have the same effect - in truth it increased your risk of cancer. To read the article from the daily mail click here

In case you want to think a little more about this then here goes. There are healthy sugars but sadly fructose in the amounts you get in fruit juice isn't one of them. I'm not saying fructose isn't good - its just that the amounts in the fruit juice are too high. Would it give better results if it was diluted - probably but it is a difficult issue to get the mind around.
The good sugars are ones that digest slowly:

• Galactose


• Trehalose


• lactose


• maltose


• Amylose


• cellulose


• xylose

Now some of these may not taste very good so I wouldn't try using them as a replacement for sucrose except Trehalose which works really well.

So many people seem to prefer honey as a sweetener - but is it any better than sucrose?
Honey is made up mainly of fructose and dextrose - both monosaccharides and sadly both enter the blood stream really quickly wihc is fine if you need energy fast but bad if you want to stay healthy.
My advice would be to use it sparingly - almost as a treat. We recommend Trehalose as the best low/mid GI form as it is slow release.
There are several side benefits from using honey - the protein content is often helpful as are the trace minerals - so there are some great things about Honey.

Xylitol is not only a safe, natural sweetener without the bad side-effects of sugar and artificial substitutes, it's also good for your teeth, stabilises insulin and hormone levels and promotes good health.

Americans (and the rest of the western world) have a mighty hankering for sugar. It seems that we just can't get enough of the stuff. On average, a half a cup of sugar is consumed per person every day. It is estimated that the average American eats, drinks, slurps, stirs and sprinkles about 150 pounds of it annually. Never in modern history has a culture consumed so much sugar.

Sugar truly does deserve its reputation as a "white poison". Thinking of sugar as a food is really a stretch of the imagination, because it is more a chemical that is difficult for our bodies to utilise and digest. Humans were really not designed to eat large amounts of sugar in whatever form it may take: white and brown, corn syrup, sucrose, dextrose, glucose, fructose, lactose, maltose, barley malt, honey, rice syrup and maple syrup. Sugar is also highly seductive, acting like an addictive drug that lures even the most well-intentioned person back into its sweet clutches.

According to Chinese wisdom, sweetness is one of the flavours necessary for maintaining balance in the body. But regularly eating large amounts of sugar will cause serious harm. Sugar can cause hypoglycaemia and weight gain, leading to diabetes and obesity in both children and adults. It leaches the body of vital minerals and vitamins. It raises blood pressure, triglycerides and the bad cholesterol (LDL), increasing the risk of heart disease. It causes tooth decay and periodontal disease, which leads to tooth loss and systemic infections. It makes it difficult for a child's brain to learn, resulting in a lack of concentration. Both children and adults exhibit disruptive behaviour, learning disorders and forgetfulness from sugar consumption. It initiates auto-immune and immune deficiency disorders such as arthritis, allergies and asthma. It also upsets hormonal imbalance and supports the growth of cancer cells.

So what are we to do? Will our sugar-cravings always hold us hostage, or is there really a way to lick the sugar habit successfully?

Xylitol is very helpful as a sweetener but not as a sugar to be used in cooking or food preparation - Trehalose is not only suitable but perfect for cooking

During World War II, Finland was suffering from an acute sugar shortage. With no domestic supply of sugar, the Finns searched for an alternative. It was then that the Finnish scientists re-discovered xylitol, a low-calorie sugar made from birch bark. It had, in fact, been known to the world of organic chemistry since it was first manufactured in 1891 by a German chemist.

By 1930, xylitol had been purified, but it wasn't until World War II that the sugar shortages forced researchers to look at alternative sweeteners. It was only when xylitol was stabilised that it became a viable sweetener in foods. It was also during this time that researchers discovered xylitol's insulin-independent nature (it metabolises in the body without using insulin).

By the 1960s, xylitol was being used in Germany, Switzerland, the Soviet Union and Japan as a preferred sweetener in diabetic diets and as an energy source for infusion therapy in patients with impaired glucose tolerance and insulin resistance. Since then, many other countries including Italy and China have been producing xylitol for use in their domestic markets--and with remarkable health benefits. It has been relatively unknown in the USA and Australia, primarily because cheap supplies of cane sugar made the more expensive xylitol less economically viable.

Xylitol is a natural substance found in fibrous vegetables and fruit, as well as in corn cobs and various hardwood trees like birch. It is a natural, intermediate product which regularly occurs in the glucose metabolism of man and other animals as well as in the metabolism of several plants and micro-organisms. Xylitol is produced naturally in our bodies; in fact, we make up to 15 grams daily during normal metabolism.

Although xylitol tastes and looks exactly like sugar, that is where the similarities end. Xylitol is really sugar's mirror image. While sugar wreaks havoc on the body, xylitol heals and repairs. It also builds immunity, protects against chronic degenerative disease and has anti-ageing benefits. Xylitol is considered a five-carbon sugar, which means it is an antimicrobial, preventing the growth of bacteria. While sugar is acid forming, xylitol is alkaline enhancing. All other forms of sugar, including sorbitol, another popular alternative sweetener, are six-carbon sugars which feed dangerous bacteria and fungi.

Approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1963, xylitol has no known toxic levels. The only discomfort that some sensitive people may notice initially when taking large amounts is mild diarrhoea or slight cramping. Since the body makes xylitol daily, as well as the enzymes to break it down, any discomfort usually disappears within a few days as the body's enzymatic activity adjusts to a higher intake.

Xylitol has 40 per cent fewer calories and 75 per cent fewer carbohydrates than sugar and is slowly absorbed and metabolised, resulting in very negligible changes in insulin. About one-third of the xylitol that is consumed is absorbed in the liver. The other two-thirds travels to the intestinal tract where it is broken down by gut bacteria into short-chain fatty acids.

Xylitol looks, feels and tastes exactly like sugar and leaves no unpleasant aftertaste. It is available in many forms. In its crystalline form, it can replace sugar in cooking, baking or as a sweetener for beverages. It is also included as an ingredient in chewing gum, mints and nasal spray.

Mannose is a simple monosaccharide with 6 carbon atoms. It is found in trace amounts, and I mean very very low levels, in legumes and a few vegetables. The largest source of mannose available is actually in the husk of brown rice. Guess what we do with the husk. We strip it off and feed it to animals. White or polished rice has no mannose in it. The other main source of mannose is the sap of the Aloe Vera plant but just be aware that the moment you cut the leaf the mannose begins to decay to nothing in as little as an hour. So you have a choice - eat fresh allow sap direct from the leaf or make sure you use aloe which has been stabilised.
In a series of studies many aloe products were found to contain very little or any mannose because they were not stabilised.

Mannose is used in the body at a cellular level and has a direct communication role in cellular activity. It is also vital for skin repair, just remember the use of topical Aloe Vera gel on skin abrasion and burn, and has also gained a reputation as a very effective therapy for Urinary Tract Infections in its D-Mannose form.