Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Low Carb Diet Meals: Beware of 'Sugar-Free' Foods - Part I

Warning! You may be eating sugar without even knowing it! Want to know more? In this article, I will tell you whether all those items that are promoted as being 'sugar-free' are really sugar-free or not!

Look the nutrition information printed on the side of the food packages you purchase. If there is an ingredient which ends in " ose", then be careful - the food may contain sugar! For example, table sugar is known as sucrose. Other types of sugars include dextrose, fructose, lactose, glucose and maltose. Sugars whose names end in "ose" have a lot of carbs in them. If you consume just one gram of any of these sugars you have consumed one gram of carbs.

Beware of the products which hype themselves as being sugar-free or sucrose-free. Mostly, jams and jellies are promoted as sugar-free. The truth is that these jams may be made up of concentrated grape or apple juice, which are made up of fructose syrups, and contain a high amount of carbohydrates!

I would like to point out an exception. While most sugars end in "ose", there is one sugar which end in "ose" and is still sugar-free. Can you guess its name? It is called sucralose- it is made up of the sucrose sugar, but don't worry- it's free from carbohydrates!

Now, I will give you a short description of each type of sugar and in which foods they are most commonly found. This will help you become extra-cautious when buying food packages. Remember, sugar is not good for your health, whether you are overweight or not!

1. Fructose: People generally recommend non-diabetic people to eat fructose because they claim that it is less harmful than the sucrose, or table sugar. The argument behind this is that insulin isn't needed to control the level of fructose in blood. Nothing can be further from the truth. It's true that insulin isn't required to control fructose, but it contains a high amount of carbohydrates nonetheless. Also it is rather bad news that fructose doesn't need insulin - since there is no insulin to check the level of fructose, it rapidly absorbs itself in our liver and produces glycerol, which ultimately leads to increased triglycerides and cholesterol levels. Fructose is present in both natural and artificial products. In case of natural fruits, fructose exists only in small quantities, because fiber occupies a large percentage of fruits. Therefore eating fruits that contain fructose is not harmful. However, artificial foods such as fruit drinks, soft, iced teas, baby foods, jams and jellies, candies, desserts and baked goods contain fructose in a processed and concentrated form, and therefore these foods are rich in carbohydrates!

In the second part of this article, I will tell you about other types of "hidden sugars" that you must avoid. To access the second part of this article, simply click on the link in my resource box below!

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