Is brown rice syrup a healthy choice?
Email your questions for Dr Libby to ask.drlibby@fairfaxmedia.co.nz. Please note, only a selection of questions can be answered. refined sugars on a regular basis makes you hungry and you have little chance of innate appetite regulation when you include these processed foods in how you eat.
Personally, I prefer to use fruit such as dates or Manuka honey as sweeteners (sparingly though). This is because these are less refined options (foods with less ‘‘human intervention’’) so they still contain some beneficial nutrients. For example, in addition to sugars, dates also contain some minerals and fibre, and if a recipe contains five dates and it serves 30, that’s not a lot of sugar per serve. Dried fruits are a more concentrated form of sugar than fresh fruits.
However, for people who are unable to digest or metabolise fructose properly, brown rice syrup will be better tolerated and would therefore be a better choice than honey, maple syrup or fruitbased sweeteners. This is why an individualised approach is so important when it comes to the way we eat. Nutritional aspect aside, the relentless guilt that can come with consuming something that is perceived as ‘‘bad’’ or ‘‘unhealthy’’ can be just as damaging to your health as the actual food.
So rather than thinking of foods (including sugars) as being ‘‘good’’, ‘‘bad’’, ‘‘healthy’’ or ‘‘unhealthy’’, view them as being nutritious (or not). People are healthy, or they aren’t, and the more nutritious foods we choose, the healthier we will be. Remember, it’s what you do every day that impacts on your health, not what you do occasionally.