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Jaggery Versus Table-sugar Versus Honey for Diabetics

- Table-sugar is sucrose, a disaccharide made up of Glucose and Fructose.

- Jaggery is Sucrose: 65% to 85%, Invert sugar: 10 to 15 %, ash: 2.5%. The invert sugar is 30% more sweeter than Sucrose. Jaggery is sweeter than Table-sugar.

- The honey is 20% water and 79% sugar. Fructose: 34 to 43%, Glucose: 25 to 37%, Sucrose: 0.5 to 3%, Maltose: 5 to 12%. Fructose is twice as sweet as other sugars, therefore Honey is sweeter than table sugar, and Jaggery.

Honey

Fructose does not require insulin for its initial metabolism. The fructose must be changed into glycogen, and then in to dextrose. However, the actual content of Glucose off-sets the benefit of Fructose over either Table-sugar or Jaggery

Jaggery

Due to inverted sugar in Jaggery, it has higher Glycemic Index than Table sugar

Blood Glucose

During first hour, blood glucose will rise highest for Jaggery, followed by Table-sugar, and than honey. After two hours, blood glucose levels will be almost be same for Jaggery, Table-sugar, and Honey

Sucralose

Introduced in 1976

Brand name: Splenda®

600 Times sweeter than Table-sugar

A sugar molecule is modified to replace a hydroxyl (water) group with a chloride (chlorine) group. It has no calories. It is bulked up with maltodextrin so that it looks like sugar, adding some calories. Still , it has 12 to 25% the calories of Table sugar

According to FDA, 11% to 27% of sucralose is absorbed. According to Japanese food sanitation council as much as 40% is absorbed.

Aspartame

Introduced in 1965

Brand names: NutraSweet® and Equal®

200 times sweeter than Table-sugar

It is made from two amino acids, aspartic acid and phenylalanine.

This is not useful with Cooking and adding to hot beverages. It is primarily use id soda pops

Children, and people suffering from phenylketonuria (PKU) should not use it

Saccharine

Discovered over 100 years ago

Brand names: Sweet'N Low®.

200 times sweeter than Table-sugar

It is made from substance found in grapes. It can not be broken down by human body. Primarily used in Soda Pop

Arise in bladder tumors may hat correlate to saccharin intake

Acessulfame-K

Introduced in 1967

200 times sweeter than Table-sugar

Not absorbed by body, Passes through

Caused benign thyroid tumors in rats. Safety i an issue

Stevia

Introduced to Europe by M S Bertoni in 1899

300 times sweeter than Table-sugar

Plant originated in rainforests of Paraguay

Zero calories

Sold as food supplement. Not approved as food additive by FDA

 In contrast, there is no anecdotal evidence whatsoever linking consumption of natural sugars such as fructose, honey, lactose, etc. with cancers, tumors, headaches, or other problems other than diabetes. Many diabetics use the glycemic index to control their food intake, and virtually many natural (unrefined) sugars fall within acceptable ranges for consumption based on those guidelines.

Natural Sweeteners

Stevia - Herb extract

Honey

Barley Malt

Jaggery

Rice syrup

Sucanat Sugar cane molasses

Sugar Alcohols

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)

Sweeter than Table-sugar

A process converts some of the glucose in the corn starch to fructose, making it 14% Fructose.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

High Fructose Corn Syrup is made from corn starch and has a high glycemic value, which means it will cause a large insulin response. There is some controversy over the safety of using large amounts of this sweetener over time. High fructose corn syrup is found in numerous products and is not the same as a product that contains fructose.

Fructose

Fructose, also known as fruit sugar, is sweeter than table sugar and only 1/3 is needed as a sugar substitute. Fructose is low on the glycemic index (slow release sugar) and so it helps control insulin responses, keeping them low, which means it is good for diabetics.

Dextrose or Glucose

Dextrose or Glucose, has a higher glycemic value than table sugar and on most glycemic indexes, glucose is used to compare the value of other "foods," as glucose (which is actual blood sugar) has a faster release into your system than most any other sugar or food item, which will result in a very sharp rise in your insulin levels.

Diabetics should not use this sweetener. On labels it can also be called corn sugar.

Lactose

Lactose, also known as milk sugar is about half way between sucrose and fructose on the glycemic index. It is made from whey and skim milk and is used largely by the pharmaceutical industry.

Honey

Honey, is an invert sugar formed by an enzyme from nectar. It is a combination of fructose, sucrose, glucose, and maltose and is a high glycemic sweetener so it should be avoided by diabetics who need to control insulin. Unlike popular belief, honey only contains trace amounts of vitamins and minerals.

How Sugar is Metabolised

All carbohydrates are technically sugar. Before your body will use the carbohydrate in table sugar, a baked potato, or a green bean, it must break this carbohydrate down to glucose, the form of sugar that your body can “burn” for energy. Glucose is also stored as glycogen in the muscle cells. So, since all carbohydrates eventually end up as a sugar, the mere fact that they begin as sugars is irrelevant. So what is relevant? The rate at which the sugar enters the bloodstream, which is exactly what the glycemic index measures.

Does Sugar Get Stored as Fat?

Another concern some people express is the “ease” at which sugars are converted to fat. I read one “system” for getting into shape that did not offer scientific evidence, but claimed that in working with extremely lean body builders, the author figured out that sugars cause fat to be stored quickly and easily. Other books simply state that sugar is quickly and easily converted to fat. Again, we have to understand our biological systems to analyze those statements. How does a sugar get stored as a fat? The liver processes the glucose molecule and turns it into a triglyceride, or fat molecule. This, again, complicates matters: whether or not you eat table sugar or a green bean, guess what? By the time your liver “sees” it, it has been broken down to a glucose molecule. There is no practical way that your liver somehow “knows” that the glucose molecule came from a green bean instead of a grain of table sugar, except that your entire body benefits from additional nutrients when you consume the green bean.

The only real way the sugar may be more readily stored as fat is if it impacts blood sugar or creates some environment that would promote the conversion of glucose to triglycerides. Theoretically, a huge surge in blood sugar due to a rapidly ingested carbohydrate would cause the liver to convert most of that sugar to fat, regardless of whether or not you required it for energy.