Sugar plays a vital role in our life. Nowadays, sugar became an important factor in obesity, and glucose metabolic diseases have great harm to human health. Today we're going to talk about the role of sugar in metabolism, in aging, and sugar substitutes.

Sugar metabolism

Sugar is a organic compounds whose chemical nature is

polyhydroxyaldehydes or polyhydroxyketones and their derivatives. Glucose metabolism refers to a series of complex chemical reactions in the body, such as glucose, C6H12O6 and glycogen.

The process of sucrose metabolism produces glucose and fructose, both of them are ultimately required to enter the glucolysis pathway, which transfers glucose from the blood into cells, this is the function of insulin.

Hormone

1. Stress hormones. Stress is like a companion for humans. When you feel stressed, something called the stress hormone, cortisol, is a glucocorticoid released by the adrenal cortex, also known as the stress hormone. Colloquially, this means that when you are under pressure, you feel like you are "on fire".

2. Insulin. Insulin is a protein hormone secreted by pancreatic β cells in response to endogenous or exogenous substances such as glucose, lactose, ribose, arginine, glucagon and so on. Insulin is the only hormone in the body that can lower blood sugar and promotes the synthesis of glycogen, fat and protein.

3. Cortisol helps us to burn fat. So why we gain weight when we are stressed? The problem is the "longterm". Chronic stress leads to chronically high levels of cortisol and suppressed insulin; Although your blood sugar isn't low, your cells don't have enough insulin to "feel" insulin and not send enough glucose into your cells for the next step, so your muscle cells send a "hungry" feedback signal. There's a word named insulin resistance, which is a condition in which cells don't listen to insulin.

Mash resistance

If the word "oxidation" is "free radicals," then the word"glycation" is probably AGEs. Free radicals are "electron-trapping (oxidative) agents" that capture electrons from the materials that make up the body, such as proteins, causing these structures to be damaged, inactive and diseased. And glycosylation, where sugar plays the role of the disruptor, glycosylates these protein molecules.

Here,we introduce a thing: braised pork.

Again, like oxidation, glycosylation happens in your body all the time (yes, it happens even if you don't eat sugar); Unlike the saccharification, which is actually a reversible reaction, the body does not need the Maillard reaction, which is the temperature of braised meat, to change the glycosylation of proteins into glycoproteins, which is catalyzed by enzymes; And enzymes, things like that, work in our bodies in a break-even way.

However！

1. If your body's free reducing sugar is too high for the enzyme tube, the extra sugar will strike a blow. This "non-enzymatic glycosylation" is the real glycation targeted in "anti-glycation"... When the enzyme is no longer in control, runaway glycation reactions occur, producing advanced glycation products called AGEs.

2. As a result of glycation, it is obvious that proteins are damaged. Many structures of our body are composed, supported and protected by proteins, and protein damage will cause damage to many structures.

3. On the other hand, glycosylation of proteins may cause damage to some body barriers and reduce the body's protective ability; The obvious external example is that damaged skin may be more vulnerable to external damage such as ultraviolet rays;

4. Glycation and oxidation are not completely independent, AGEs will react with free radicals and induce the production of free radicals. Another tip: for the same amount of energy, carbohydrates produce about 1/6 more free radicals in metabolism than fats, which is one of the supporting points of many carbohydrate-cutting diets.

The knowledge of sugar substitutes

Sugar substitutes, as the name implies, are used to replace sugar, such as natural sugar alcohols, glycosides, etc., there are also artificial chemical synthetic sweeteners.

The function of splenda is to provide the sweet taste that sugar can provide in food. However, most of splenda will not cause blood sugar rising and insulin secretion, and some splenda will not even react with the body at all. In this way, you can reduce the number of calories consumed, but try not to affect the flavor of the food.

In fact, sugar can boost dopamine, can give people a quick energy boost, not bad for the human body itself, so why the sugar can replace sugar? .

Because its chemical properties is not easy to be decomposed and used by the body. there is no digestive enzymes in the body can decompose its energy, so there’s no energy can be send to the human body;

And It's very sweet, just use a little bit can be very sweet, so the use amount is very low, there's no heat to speak of. PS: The insulin index of sugar substitutes is relatively low.

Splenda science

1. Artificial synthesis, such as aspartame and cyclamate. Sugar substitutes that do not produce heat after consumption are also  called"artificial sweeteners". It is widely liked by the food processing industry because of its stable supply, low price and high sweetness.

2. For natural extraction, the famous is Mogrosides, compared with other natural sugar substitute’s bitter taste, Mogrosides’s sweet is rare, it also does not have a strong post-bitter like stevia. And it has no calories, no blood sugar reaction, no high sweetness. Like semi-natural sugar substitutes such as sugar alcohols, they all have a slight blood sugar reaction, and some of them also have a little heat. But Mogrosides is almost no heat.

 Sugar alcohols. At present, sorbitol, mannitol, erythritol, maltitol, lacttol, xylitol and so on are developed. These sugar alcohols have high stability to acid and heat, and are not easy to occur Maillard reaction. They have become low calorific value food sweeteners, and are widely used in the formulation of low calorific value food. Sugar alcohols have been widely used in food industry as sugar substitutes abroad.

All in all, natural substitute sugar is far better than artificial substitute sugar in both taste and safety, but no matter what type of substitute sugar, it must be used in moderation.