WHAT’S THE BEST NATURAL SUGAR?
QI crave sweets and struggle to keep away from them. I know I need to cut down so have replaced refined sugar with natural sugar. Which is the best natural sugar?
ASugar is sugar is sugar. What I mean by this is simply that whether the sugar is refined, comes from fruit, candy, fruit juices, rice or bread, it reaches your blood as glucose and causes your blood sugar to rise in response to that sugar.
When you have refined sugar, brown sugar, fruit juice (fresh and natural or packaged without sugar) your blood sugar levels and insulin response will be exactly the same.
Fruits like berries or banana, or carbohydrates from quinoa or sweet potato that you consume get converted to glucose in your blood. However, they do so very gradually because of the fibre content in them.
The faster your sugar level rises, the faster it falls, leaving you craving more carbohydrates. It is an addictive cycle. So if your aim is to keep your blood sugar levels stable, pick sugar in forms where they come loaded with fibre and other nutrients. If you must have some amount of refined sugar, one option you can consider is to keep your carbohydrate content to less than 10g. This way your sugar levels do not rise quickly. This also prevents the dreaded insulin spike. For example: 2 dates, 120g strawberries, 100g pineapple, 80g mango, 50g white potato and 300ml coconut water all have 10g carbohydrates each.
These would be the best snack options if you are craving something sweet and want it to be natural.