Written by: Wang Bin | Editor-in-charge: Suzuran | Image: Huang Zai
As the saying goes: water is the source of life, and water is inseparable from life, especially drinking water. However, boiled water is colorless and tasteless, although it can quench thirst, but it can not achieve psychological satisfaction, at this time the drink came into being.
There are a variety of drinks on the market, carbonated drinks, tea drinks, functional drinks, etc., they are already a necessity for many young people, there is nothing to do with a bottle, vitality back ~
But as we all know, the sugar content in the vast majority of beverages is far higher than the human body needs. Because too much sugar intake is not beneficial to health, major brand manufacturers are also consciously playing the health card, and the logo of "0 sugar" and "no sugar" on the bottle is particularly prominent. But are "sugar-free" drinks really healthy?
Today we invited the nutritionist Wang Bin teacher to talk about "if you must drink drinks, how to drink healthy", interested friends continue to look down ~
The importance of water to the human body
When it comes to drinking drinks, let's first talk about the importance of water to the human body:
Water is the main component of body fluids and is able to maintain normal metabolism in the body.
As we all know, water is an important substance that constitutes cells, tissue fluid, plasma, etc., and participates in regulating the acid-base balance in the body, and drinking water appropriately in daily life can ensure a healthy metabolism.
Water is a solvent for various nutrients.
Various nutrients in the human body can only be absorbed and utilized when they are in a colloidal state suspended in water.
Water is a carrier for transporting substances while promoting the elimination of metabolic waste products from the body.
Many of our biochemical metabolisms are carried out in a liquid environment, and water is a key medium for the transport of various nutrients and substances, and plays a lubricating role in various organs. At the same time, proper drinking of water can also increase the amount of urine, so that many metabolic wastes in the body are excreted with the urine.
Water regulates body temperature.
Water is able to maintain body temperature within a suitable constant range. Because the role of water in body temperature regulation is very obvious, the other "added value" brought by drinks is not necessary for human needs, but may be detrimental to human health.
What exactly is the "sugar" ingredient added to the drink?
Understanding the importance of water to the human body, let's talk about drinks. The most important reason for the popularity of the drink is undoubtedly its sweet taste, and the main element that forms this taste is "sugar".
What ingredients are essentially sugar, and drinking them is no different from drinking sugar?
Everyone generally thinks that sugar is white sugar, brown sugar, brown sugar, brown sugar and rock sugar, but what most people don't know is that free sugar is a wide range of types and wide applications. Free sugar is a kind of artificially purified and converted sugar, which belongs to the "unnatural" state, so be vigilant when you see the following names in the ingredient list of drinks!
Such as: young sugar, caramel, maple sugar, fructose, glucose, starch syrup, maltose syrup, glucose syrup, fructose syrup, corn syrup, maltodextrin, honey, fruit juice, syrup, fruit concentrate and other ingredients, itself contains sugar.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued guidelines on sugar intake in adults and children, which strongly recommend that people limit their intake of free sugars throughout their lives. Both adults and children recommend limiting their intake of free sugars to less than 10% of their total daily energy intake, preferably further below 5%.
So, how many grams are "10%" and "5%"?
Based on the adult man's general daily intake of 2000 kcal of energy from the diet, 10% of the total energy is 200 kcal, which is converted into 50 grams of sugar, and the optimal state below 5% is less than 25 grams of sugar, that is, in non-essential cases, do not add sugar to food.
Which ingredients are sugar substitutes and sweet alternatives?
In modern life, people are more and more pursuing health, so merchants have gradually introduced sugar substitute foods, that is, in order to maintain the sweetness of food, the traditional "sweetener" in food is replaced by "sugar substitute".
Sugar substitutes are a type of sugar that produces sweetness, and unlike traditional sugars, they are ultra-low in calories, and sugar substitutes can make our brains perceive sweetness, but they are less likely to cause fluctuations in blood sugar levels.
So, does sugar substitute really not have the same effect on the human body as sugar? Is sugar substitute really completely harmless?
Let's first understand the classification of the next generation of sugar:
Sugar substitutes are divided into natural sugar substitutes, sugar alcohols and artificial sugar substitutes.
Natural sugar substitutes are generally extracted from plants, and the name often bears the name of the extracted plant or fruit.
Sugar alcohols are natural or processed from sugars, mainly from sugar fermentation or hydrogenation to obtain sugar substitutes. Sugar alcohols are difficult to absorb by the body, so the glycemic index is low, but the sweetness can be similar to that of sugar. It is precisely because it is not easy to be absorbed, so the unabsorbed sugar alcohol will enter the large intestine through the small intestine, using its super hydrophilic properties to "bind" a large number of water molecules, thereby increasing the osmotic pressure of intestinal contents and stimulating intestinal movement, which can easily lead to "diarrhea".
Therefore, the United States and other countries stipulate that the label of the added food should be marked, and when the daily consumption amount exceeds a certain amount (depending on the type of sugar alcohol), it should be marked with the words "excessive can cause diarrhea". Some sugar alcohols can also cause gas production and bloating when consumed too much at one time, such as sorbitol and maltitol; but some (such as erythritol) do not participate in metabolic effects and do not produce gas after eating.
Artificial sugar substitutes, also known as artificial sweeteners (AS), are generally sweetened chemicals that are artificially chemically modified or synthesized. Due to their high sweetness, small dosage and low price, especially their excellent characteristics of not participating in metabolism and not providing calories, they are widely used in food production processes. At present, there are 9 kinds of artificial sweeteners allowed in the mainland, which can be applied to more than a dozen major categories of food and beverages.
Among the above three sugar substitutes, the most controversial one is artificial sugar substitutes.
What are the dangers of artificial sugar substitutes to the human body?
Neurological disorders
Both animal and human experiments have shown that artificial sugar substitutes can have an effect on neurobehaviorality and function. Experiments have shown that people who consume high levels of aspartame show stronger irritability, frustration, and poor performance on cognitive tests of spatial orientation. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to controlling the intake of artificial sugar substitutes and avoid long-term cumulative intake.
Metabolic diseases
Unlike obesity caused by excessive intake of high-calorie sugars, replacing sugars with artificial sugar substitutes triggers a compensatory mechanism in the neuronal system, in simple terms, although you have deceived your taste buds, your body does not get the energy it deserves (blood sugar and insulin secretion cannot reach the same level), which causes a desire for more energy.
Genotoxicity
Relevant in vitro experiments have shown that artificial sugar substitutes can cause DNA damage and are genotoxic.
Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases
Long-term consumption of beverages containing artificial sugar substitutes increases the risk of stroke and dementia.
Liver damage and cancer
Rat experiments have shown that long-term intake of artificial sugar can lead to an imbalance in the redox state in liver tissue, which may cause liver cancer. But current human research evidence has not found that artificial sugar substitutes increase cancer risk.
In addition, from the current research, the use of any kind of sugar substitute to replace free sugar, the human body's various chronic diseases, such as obesity, can play a preventive effect of the evidence is still lacking. Just from the characteristics of the sweetener, it has very few calories itself and does not raise blood sugar levels.
In short, although artificial sugar substitute is not an "artifact" that allows us to enjoy sweets and sweet drinks unscrupulously, the national food safety administration approves the use of artificial sugar substitutes in food according to standards, which means that the reasonable and compliant use of artificial sugar substitutes will not be harmful to human health, after all, leaving the dose to talk about toxicity is to play hooligans.
What are the effects of drinking more on your health?
If there are still some ingredients in the beverage that will be detrimental to human health for a long time, and need to be avoided when choosing, it must be the food additives that manufacturers add chemical synthesis in food in order to improve the quality and color, aroma, taste, and antiseptic and processing technology.
Color: one of the several major sensory indicators of food, it can increase people's psychological pleasure and stimulate people's appetite. So there is a pigment, which refers to a food additive that can be eaten in moderation and make the food change its original color to a certain extent.
It can be divided into natural pigments (β-carotene, cocoa shell color, turmeric, red yeast red, etc.) and artificial colors (sunset yellow, lemon yellow, annatto, temptation red, bright blue, indigo, etc.). Synthetic pigments will accelerate the loss of nutrients such as zinc in the body.
Incense: a variety of raw materials for processed foods, its original aroma will volatilize more than half during the processing process, not to mention that most of the raw materials themselves are tasteless, and it is difficult to rely on these substances to produce a pleasant aroma. Therefore, people use the method of adding flavors or fragrances to make up for this deficiency.
Flavors are also divided into natural flavors (completely natural substances extracted from natural animals and plants through physical methods) and synthetic flavors (as long as there is a raw material substance in the essence that is synthetic). It has the characteristics of small dosage and volatile, so the safety is higher than that of other food additives, and the disadvantage is that it will blunt the sense of taste.
There are also favorite carbonated drinks, which are high in phosphoric acid, and excessive intake of phosphorus will affect calcium absorption, and the utilization of minerals such as iron, manganese and zinc will also be disturbed. In addition, it is suspected that excessive intake of carbonated beverages may increase the risk of osteoporosis, but there is no solid evidence.
Tips for picking healthy drinks
In simple terms, choose a drink with a simple ingredient list.
Tier 1: Water without additives.
Boiled water, mineral water, distilled water, etc. are included here.
Second echelon: unsweetened tea, coffee and other beverages.
It is recommended that adults consume no more than 400 mg of caffeine per day, and pregnant or lactating women do not exceed 300 mg per day.
Third echelon: drinks such as skim milk, plain soy milk or sugar-free vegetable milk.
Milk can supplement calcium and high-quality protein, and plant milk such as soy milk can supplement protein.
Fourth echelon: natural drinks.
Includes pure fruit juice, vegetable juice, whole milk. However, such drinks should be controlled in quantity to avoid the problem of excessive energy intake.
Fifth Echelon: Drinks fortified with certain nutrients.
Including: sports drinks, vitamin fortified drinks, etc.
Sixth Tier: High-sugar drinks are not recommended.
Including: Coke, Sprite, Blend Juice, etc.
The Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents recommend that adults drink about 1.5 to 1.7 liters of water per day. Of course, if the amount of exercise is large, or the physical condition is different, the amount of water consumed is also different. For example, when exercising regularly, in the outdoors, when the weather is hot, and when you are sick with a fever, you may need to drink more water depending on the amount and color of your urine.
Seeing this, how many girls who love to drink silently put down the drink in their hands? The benefit of "drinking more hot water" in the mouths of straight men seems to add a scientific confirmation. Of course, wouldn't it be better if we learned to drink drinks healthily, the taste and psychology were satisfied, and the body would not be affected!
If you think this article has helped you, welcome to forward it to friends and family, remind everyone to drink healthy drinks ~ or click a like and pay attention, is our greatest encouragement!
I love the world.
bibliography
Gu Jingfan,Du Shouyue. Modern Clinical Nutrition, Second Edition[M]. Science Press. 2009-01-03.
Chinese Nutrition Association. Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2016)[M]. People's Medical Publishing House. 2016-05-13.