Blogs About Nutrition

Fructose

Invisible to the eye, sugar is a disaccharide consisting of two molecules in equal amounts, namely glucose, and fructose.  They get separated early in the digestive process and both get absorbed into the bloodstream but are processed quite differently.  While glucose is the currency of energy in the body, fructose is the currency of energy storage.  When consuming moderate amounts of sugar, concentrations of glucose and fructose circulating in the blood are low.  Most glucose gets delivered to cells in the body to provide fuel for the generation of energy in the cells, while about 20% ends up in the liver and gets converted into glycogen.  Glucose levels are constantly controlled in the body, mainly through the hormone, insulin.  Virtually

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Table Sugar Equals Glucose And Fructose

Too much sugar in the diet has been referred to as “white death” and on closer inspection it boils down to the two ingredients in sugar.  A single molecule of sugar consists of equal amounts of glucose and fructose, which gets separated early during the digestive process in the small intestine.  After separation, they follow different pathways in the body and have different effects when metabolized.  After absorption into the bloodstream following the digestive process, about 80% of glucose circulates in the blood stream and around 20% goes to the liver, while 100% of fructose goes straight to the liver. Glucose:  When glucose enters the bloodstream, it signals the pancreas to release the hormone insulin, which allows cells to absorb

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Vitamin B12

Vitamins are essential nutrients that the body requires in small quantities daily from our diet, since the body can’t make them.  Vitamins are classified in two broad categories, namely fat soluble, such as vitamins A, D, E, and K, or water soluble, such as the rest of the vitamins (B complex and C). Most of the vitamins have several important functions and are involved in diverse biochemical functions.  For example, vitamins A and D have hormone-like functions, while others such as Vitamin E and C have antioxidant functions, while the B group of vitamins functions primarily as enzyme helpers, called coenzymes, which are needed for enzymes to function. B vitamins: The B group of vitamins, also referred to as the

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Allulose

The ever-increasing extent of overweight and obesity is highlighted by the World Health Organization, which found that worldwide obesity has nearly tripled since 1975.  In 2016 more than 1,9 billion adults were overweight, of which over 650 million were obese.  Over 39 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese in 2020.  The world population in 2021 was close to 7,9 billion. In the 1960’s and 1970’s the buzz words in food and diet became “low fat”, following on (largely incorrect) assumptions that obesity and related metabolic syndrome disease (characterized by abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, high blood pressure, high blood glucose, and low HDL cholesterol) were caused by food high in fat, including the healthy fats.  Food

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Fasting

Ancient man’s lifestyle of walking long distances daily in search of food and shelter, typified by opportunistic eating and either fasting or feasting, also meant that they had to go for long periods of time without food when none was readily available.  It makes you wonder if the human body was originally designed to have three square meals a day, with snacking on demand. The bodies of our ancestors must have been able to function without food for irregular and extended periods of time.  The body fortunately still has biological survival mechanisms that gets activated when deprived of food for extended periods. Modern man practices fasting for health reasons or for cultural or religious beliefs, such as the Ramadan fast

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Mushrooms Provide Important Nutrients

Mushrooms are not a vegetable as they appear to be, but are a kind of fungus.  Some wild mushrooms can be toxic, but the commercially grown edible ones are quite tasty and come in different shapes, sizes, and colours.  Adding flavour and meaty texture to many different dishes, mushrooms also provide several of the important nutrients that the body needs and is unable to make itself. Nutritional value of mushrooms: Mushrooms contain a wide range of nutritional content, such as protein, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants, all with various health benefits to the body. Protein: Mushrooms are a low-calorie food that provide a small amount of protein. Mushrooms contain more than twice the amount of protein than most vegetables.  As

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