2023-10-24 12:10:00
the essentials in brief
Erythritol is a low-calorie sugar substitute
Its properties make it suitable as a sweetener for weight loss and diabetes
However, excessive consumption can cause digestive problems
Erythritol: This is the low-calorie sugar alternative for losing weight
Sugar is a blessing and a curse at the same time. For those with a real sweet tooth, nothing beats chocolate, ice cream and the like, but as delicious as snacks and desserts are, they are not doing anything good for our health. It’s no secret that too much sugar is harmful to the body and can even become addictive in the long run. A sugar addiction may sound harmless at first glance, but it can be very damaging to our mental and physical well-being. And not just when a piece of chocolate becomes a whole bar.
Sugar is processed in more foods than we often realize and hides itself in places where we wouldn’t expect it. This makes it all the more important to check the products for added sugar and to take a look at the list of ingredients before they end up in our shopping basket. Here you can find a list of products with hidden sugar traps:
finished productsjuicesMusCornflakes / MüsliDressingsyogurtcanned goods
In the clip: Losing weight with the glucose trick – that’s what’s behind it
According to the World Health Organization WHO are maximal 25 grams of sugar per day is recommended, which corresponds to around six teaspoons. If this amount of sugar is regularly exceeded, this can have health consequences such as diabetes, weight gain, fatigue or the promotion of depression. There’s nothing wrong with a little sugar, but here, as with many other things, it’s important to eat in moderation rather than in large quantities.
How good that the market for sugar alternatives is now booming and we can rely on healthier and less fattening substitute products. A commonly used sugar substitute is erythritol.
What is erythritol?
Erythritol is a sugar alcohol that belongs to the group of sugar substitutes and is therefore not a sweetener. It has around 70 percent of the sweetening power of sugar and occurs naturally in various fruits (e.g. melons, grapes or plums) – as well as in pistachios or wine, for example. However, because the manufacturing process is so complex, it is obtained for the food industry through fermentation. On the ingredient list, erythritol is sometimes labeled as erylite, erythritol or E968.
Erythritol can be used in many ways. It is used in baking and cooking, in the production of sweets or lemonade. This is usually marked separately. Erythritol has around 0 to 0.2 kcal per gram and therefore almost no calories, which is why the sugar substitute is also suitable for weight loss. Table sugar, on the other hand, has around 4 kcal per gram. In addition, the sweet alternative does not program the metabolism for fat storage and is not metabolized in the body. This also benefits diabetics. Sounds too good to be true, right? But is the sugar substitute really as harmless as it seems?
Erythritol really is that healthy
In fact, erythritol not only has benefits, but if consumed in excess, it can be just as unhealthy as refined, household sugar. According to the current study “The artificial sweetener erythritol and cardiovascular event risk”, the low-calorie sugar alternative might even increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases and increased blood clotting. This was published in the specialist magazine “Nature medicine” in 2023 and was carried out by an international research group with the participation of the Berlin Charité, with more than 4,000 test subjects from the USA and Europe. The addition of erythritol to whole blood led to increased platelet reactivity, which in turn means a greater risk of thrombosis.
However, those responsible for the study also pointed out that the study only showed associations and not causality. Also Dr. Stefan Kabisch from the German Center for Diabetes Research says it is still too early to warn as more long-term studies on the health consequences are needed.
The fact is that erythritol can cause digestive problems, especially if the recommended daily maximum amount of 2 g per kg of body weight is exceeded. A person weighing 70 kg should therefore be able to tolerate 140 g per day. However, experts still advise once morest such a high amount. It makes more sense to train your own taste to be less sweet and instead of sweetening excessively, to avoid adding sugar and sugar alternatives. Below you will find an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of erythritol.
The advantages
A good taste for many, similar texture to sugar, insulin-independent metabolism, almost calorie-free, no risk of tooth decay
The disadvantages
High priceIndustrial processingDigestive problems such as flatulence and diarrhea are possibleWhen produced using genetically modified microorganisms such as fungi and yeast, there is no labeling requirement
1698188865
#sweet #alternative #losing #weight #erythritol
