Sugar-Free Diet
08 Jun 2008 04:33:27 PM
A sugar-free diet is very simple, providing you cook all your food from the basic products. Problems begin, however, if you wish to have packaged or instant food. If you wish to buy packaged foods, then read the labels carefully to make sure that no sugar is added. Sugar is added to many items, such as pickle, tomato sauce, many cereals, and a whole host of other items that you may not suspect. Sugar also comes under many guises such as sucrose, dextrose, fructose, fruit sugars and honey. All jams contain sugar unless clearly stated sugar-free on the label.
If you have any doubt about what the label actually means, then ask. If you can't get an adequate reply, then don't eat the product. Sugar exclusions are used in two main groups of patients - those with childhood behavior problems and those with intestinal candida.
Children with behavioral problems may react differently to sugar derived from sugar cane and sugar derived from sugar beet. Consequently raw cane sugar may be acceptable in some instances. Hyperactive children also tend to be fairly safe with fructose, and many brands of honey are acceptable, particularly raw organic honey, as no sugar feeds are given to organically farmed bees.
Individuals with chronic yeast infestation will usually need to avoid all the sugars, fructose and honey. A basic quality of yeasts is that all of them will ferment on any sugar-based product. As a consequence all the different types of sugars may well trigger yeast growth, although raw honey and fruit sugar (fructose) are often less likely to do so than cane and beet sugar.
PLEASE NOTE:
· All alcohols are sugar based, and sugar-free diets mean alcohol-free diets.
· Sweeteners, unless they specifically state the type of sweetener, should be assumed to be sugar-based. Stevia and saccharin can be used as sweeteners, providing you are not also allergic to these substances. Low calorie or diet drinks usually contain Nutrasweet and this causes sugar cravings – avoid.
· Sugar is actually bound into fruit and vegetables (complex food sugars) and they are normally quite safe to eat as the sugar is bound into a complex and usually fibrous chemical structure. As a consequence, it is difficult to absorb and so enters the blood stream slowly and in small quantities. Furthermore, usually not enough of it is present at any one site in the digestive system to trigger the growth of yeasts.
· Added starch or carbohydrate almost always refers to bulking agents, such as corn or wheat flour, and not to sugar (even though in a strict definition of the term, sugar is a carbohydrate).
Read on for a list of sugary items to avoid and healthy alternatives.
