Sweetness is a part of life and food too. We can't imagine life without sweeteners. Either they are natural or artificial, we want any one of them. Foods does not taste good if they are without any added sweeteners, especially the food that is low in fats must be high in sweetness to taste good. Many people after studying the adverse effect of refined sugar have shifted their taste to artificial sweeteners. The best we want is something that is natural, because nature does not make anything bad for us. There are a lot of sweeteners available in market but only two get the fame:
Aspartame is most commonly used artificial sweetener.It has long lasting sweet taste. It is made of two amino acids aspartic acid and phenylalnine.( it is prohibited for those people who are patients of phenylketonouria.) Aspartame is hundred times sweeter than sucrose which is table sugar. so very low amount of it is is used to get sweet taste and hence has negligible calories. aspartame has a lot of side effects, in the body it is broken down to amino acids, and to methanol. Methanol is non toxic and its amount used is too low to cause any health effect, it is metabolized to produce formaldehyde. A study found an increase risk of cancer by using aspartame and this risk is more in men than women.The difference is due to the higher level of enzymes that turn methanol to formaldehyde in men, another side effect of aspartame is that it contains aspartic acid.Aspartic acid function in brain as an excitatory neurotransmitter. By taking too much aspartame it can lead to cytotoxin, a pathological phenomenon in which neurons that receive too many excitatory signals are damage and can die. It can also trigger migraine( headache), dizziness and hallucination. Aspartame is linked to several adverse health reaction including insomnia, anxiety, mood fluctuation etc.
Stevia is a leafy shrub that grows in south America. It has been used as been used as sweetener in food and drink for centuries. It has no side effects, all natural, zero calorie, alternative to both sugar and aspartame. It not only make your food taste good but also it is good for you. It contains two phytochemicals stevioside and rebaudioside that are much sweeter than sucrose.Not only it is natural and safe but it has also some beneficial effects on health, most important of which is that it lowers blood pressure, as high blood pressure cause an increase in heard disease, kidney disease, and stroke. It can also improve glucose metabolism and used in the treatment of people with type two diabetes. This type of diabetes has an acquired insensitivity to insulin, or inability to produce hormone. A study in mouse showed that stevioside enhance the secretion of insulin from pancreas in the presence of glucose.It also increase insulin sensitivity.
At the end it all depends on you that what do you prefer. STEVIA or ASPARTAME?
HEALTH IS NOT VALUED
TILL SICKNESS COMES
Comments
Post a Comment