SUGAR- IS IT REALLY HARMFUL???…

Sugar, one of the most important ingredient in our day today life, with lots of do’s and don’ts. It is the generic name for sweet, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food.
Sugar or sweet has their own importance in Indian culture. Just after the birth of the baby, grandma offers honey to the new born. Then, babies and toddlers can’t eat spicy food so they go with the sweets, that’s why kids are fond of sweets. This is just a starting, then Prasad (sweets during worship of God)are always sweets. At every festival and special occasion lots of sweet dishes are part of it.

Sugar has its own science, there are various forms of sugar, most commonly used sugar is cane sugar-extracted from sugarcane and beet sugar extracted from root of a plant contains lot of sucrose. Sucrose is most common form of sugar which we use daily.
In the body, sucrose is hydrolysed into the simple sugars fructose and glucose. Sucrose is a disaccharide, other disaccharides include maltose from malted grain, and lactose from milk. Longer chains of sugars are called oligosaccharides or polysaccharides.
TYPE OF SWEETNERS
Commonly used sweeteners are table sugar (cane sugar or beet sugar), it is a combination of 50% glucose and 50% fructose. Another commonly used sweetener is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). It is a combination of 45 % glucose and 55 % fructose. These are highly processed, refined super sweet sugars added to many commercial foods to enhance their flavour.
HOW THESE COMMONLY USED SUGAR WORKS

- Cane sugar — Sugar is primarily absorbed in the intestines, delivered into the blood stream and sent to the liver. When you consume sugar with fibre, it’s slowly released into the body, and into the blood stream, leaving you feeling satisfied for longer — and less likely to overindulge.
Cane sugar is available as organic cane sugar and most commonly used white sugar.
Organic Cane Sugar is made from certified organic sugar cane grown in South America. The cane juice, rich in molasses, vitamins and minerals, is squeezed from fresh sugar cane, evaporated and crystallized. The result is a blonde-colored, perfectly sweet natural sugar that will enhance your favorite coffee, tea, cereal or baked good. Organic sugar is naturally gluten free and can be used as a one-for-one replacement for refined white sugar.
White sugar can be refined and marketed as white table sugar or refined and flavored with molasses as brown sugar. Cane sugar is also sold unrefined as raw cane sugar. Raw cane sugar contains natural nutrients that the refining process strips away.
2. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) — This is another form of sugar, now a days this form is very commonly used in commercially processed foods. According to American Society for Clinical Nutrition 2007, it is sweeter than either glucose or sucrose. In fruit, it serves as a marker for foods that are nutritionally rich. However, in soft drinks and other “sweets,” fructose serves to reward sweet taste that provides “calories,” often without much else in the way of nutrition. The intake of soft drinks containing high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) or sucrose has risen in parallel with the epidemic of obesity.
According to Dr. Robert H. Lustig, a professor of pediatrics and an obesity specialist at the University of California, San Francisco and part of a weekly seminar sponsored by Harvard School of Public Health’s Department of Nutrition, says in the 1800s and early 1900s, the average intake of about 15 grams of fructose (about half an ounce), mostly from eating fruits and vegetables. Today we eat average 55 grams per day (73 grams for adolescents).

Virtually every cell in the body can use glucose for energy. In contrast, only liver cells break down fructose. What happens to fructose inside liver cells is complicated. One of the end products is triglyceride, a form of fat. Uric acid and free radicals are also formed, none of this is good for body.
Triglycerides can build up in liver cells and damage liver function. Triglycerides released into the bloodstream can contribute to the growth of fat-filled plaque inside artery walls. Free radicals (also called reactive oxygen species) can damage cell structures, enzymes, and even genes. Uric acid can turn off production of nitric oxide, a substance that helps protect artery walls from damage. Another effect of high fructose intake is insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes.
ALTERNATIVE OF THESE SUGARS ARE ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS
The FDA has approved five artificial sweeteners: saccharin, acesulfame, aspartame, neotame, and sucralose. It has also approved one natural low-calorie sweetener, Stevie. Whereas in India, Common Sweeteners Approved for Use in India by FSSAI (Indian regulatory body) are The 4 most common artificial sweeteners used in food industry are: Aspartame, Acesulphame K2, Saccharin and Sucralose.
Also, there are sugar alcohols like sorbitol, Mannitol and Xylitol which are provide lesser calories and are less sweet than sugar. They are mostly used to sweeten commercial foods labelled sugar free or no added sugar.

The dietary guidelines state that we have to choose beverages and foods to moderate our intake of sugars. In the United States, the number one source of added sugars is non-diet soft drinks (soda or pop). Other major sources are sweets and candies, cakes and cookies, and fruit drinks. Limiting your intake of these foods and avoiding foods with high amounts of added sugars is the best way to control your intake. When reading the ingredients on a food label, you must read carefully. Ingredients are listed in order of the amount used in the product. When a product contains a large amount of sugar, it can be hidden in the ingredients by using lots of different kinds of sugar.
USES OF ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS
1. Control diabetes by substituting simple sugar with artificial sweeteners or alcohols.
2. Weight management, artificial sweeteners have virtually no calories which make them appealing to include in weight loss diets.
3. Sweeteners also do not contribute to tooth decay, as they are not broken down to acid by bacteria in the mouth.
SIDE EFFECTS OF ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS
1. Consuming artificial or non-caloric sweeteners has shown to mess with the body’s metabolism by breaking the link between calorie intake of the body and its glucose and energy balance.
2. Frequent consumption of non-caloric sweeteners which are low in energy, trigger the body’s response to consume food with more calories or energy, and hence promote weight gain.
3. Some studies shows that increased consumption of artificially sweetened beverages increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
A 2011 statement from the American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association concluded that when used judiciously, non-nutritive sweeteners (including very low-calorie sweeteners, artificial sweeteners, and non-caloric sweeteners) might help with weight loss or control, and could also have beneficial metabolic effects, but before reaching any conclusion more researches are needed.
NATURAL SUGAR SUBSTITUTES
1. Natural raw honey — Honey in its purest form makes a great sweetener for drinks as well as desserts. Since raw honey is unprocessed, it therefore is a carrier of beneficial qualities. It contains vitamins and trace amounts of minerals, iron, calcium, and copper, among others.

2. Jaggery — In ancient India, it was made by boiling concentrated sugar cane at home. It has so many uses like boosting immunity, and good source of iron, detoxify liver, curing cough and cold.
3. Stevia — Stevia is a herb of South American origin. It was an effective sweetening substitute for those with Type 2 Diabetes, and also suppressed high blood pressure. But it has some side effects, it may cause nausea and dizziness with excess consumption.
As you see above, It is clear that sugar is really harmful for your body when eat it in excess. It causes metabolic dysfunction. Eating too much sugar causes a barrage of symptoms known as classic metabolic syndrome. These include weight gain, abdominal obesity, decreased HDL and increased LDL, elevated blood sugar, elevated triglycerides, and high blood pressure. It increases your uric acid levels.
Here you can say that this is the biggest enemy for your body and you will find some alternatives. But the biggest surprise is, all the sugar alternatives are much more harmful than this.
One of the alternatives which are used in food processing industries are high fructose corn sugar, it has its own drawbacks. Excessive intake may causes fatty liver.
White common sugar is better option than using excessive free added fructose. It’s important to realize that all of this does not apply to whole fruit. Fruits aren’t just watery bags of fructose, they are real foods with a low energy density and lots of fiber. They are hard to overeat on and you would have to eat very large amounts to reach harmful levels of fructose. In general, fruit is a minor source of fructose in the diet compared to added sugars. The harmful effects of fructose apply to a western diet supplying excess calories and added sugars. It does not apply to the natural sugars found in fruits and vegetables.
Other options are artificial sweeteners, these also have their own negative effects. These are good for overweight and diabetics patients but with in a limit. You can’t eat whole sweet dish made in these sweeteners . They may cause metabolic syndromes.
Last is natural alternatives like honey, jaggery and stevia. Honey and jaggery provide equal amount of calories as cane sugar but these are good source of several vitamins and minerals too. And stevia needs more researches about its effect on body.

So the only solution is try to reduce your intake of sugar rather than go for its alternatives. It needs time but day by day it can happen and give better results for your body and its health.