careful! Sucrose is less sweet but has more calories

700 ml of the popular lemon tea contains about the amount of sugar in 22 sugar cubes. What are the differences between sucrose, fructose, sweeteners and high fructose corn syrup? How should we drink summer drinks wisely to quench our thirst without harming our body?

In the convenience store, there are beverage cabinets lined up in a row, offering a 52% discount on the second item of the same product. Fruit beer, which is added with fructose and can be drunk by even white-collar workers, is also a rare commodity this summer. The popular hand-shaken tea claims to use natural cane sugar, with a whole lemon added to each cup of tea. There are long queues inside and outside the store, and delivery is only available for orders over a thousand yuan, but the store is still very popular.

Modern people are keen on losing weight but are also afraid of getting fat. Of course, they will pay attention to the sugar calories in the drinks they drink. When it was revealed that a cup of popular lemon tea might contain 22 sugar cubes (Editor's note: sugar has about 4 calories per gram, so one sugar cube is equivalent to about 5 grams of sugar, or 20 calories) and about 440 calories, which is equivalent to eating about 6 slices of white toast (Editor's note: one slice of white toast has about 70 calories), it immediately became a hot topic of discussion on the Internet.

The fructose in fruit beer is a monosaccharide and can be directly digested and absorbed by the human body. Natural sucrose is a disaccharide. Once ingested by the human body, it will be quickly broken down into the monosaccharide glucose, and then transported to human cells through the blood to provide the energy needed by the cells.

Regardless of whether it is monosaccharide or disaccharide, as long as too many calories are consumed, the body cannot consume them immediately and they will be converted into glycogen or fat and stored for future use.

This week, nutritionist Zheng Jinbao, who specializes in weight control, shares the key to drinking smart summer beverages.

Pay attention to the sweetness of drinks. If the sugar is not consumed, it will turn into fat.

Drinking beverages can quench your thirst. Sweet sugary drinks can bring a sense of pleasure. Generally speaking, the sweeteners most commonly added to beverages include sucrose, fructose, aspartame among artificial sweeteners, and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Among them, sucrose is the least sweet, fructose is 1.73 times sweeter than sucrose, and aspartame is two hundred times sweeter than sucrose.

High fructose corn syrup is made by hydrolyzing corn starch with enzymes, converting part of the glucose into fructose, creating an aqueous sweetener with a sweetness between fructose and sucrose. And because high fructose corn syrup has low cost, high stability, and is in the form of an aqueous solution, it has been widely used in beverages.

When the sugar you drink into your body is not consumed within a short period of time, it is easily stored in the body in the form of fat, which is a big taboo for those who want to lose weight. Even if you eat less later, only part of the fat will be converted into fatty acids and stored in other parts of the body. You must rely on aerobic exercise to effectively reduce fat.

Confirm dietary taboos. Patients with poor gastrointestinal function and some patients should pay attention to it.

In the weight loss clinic, the three major diet-related obesity factors are: eating very fast, liking to eat heavy and fried foods, and drinking sugary drinks at will.

Drinks usually don’t require much time to chew, and you can gulp down a whole can in a short period of time without feeling noticeably full. Strong-flavored and fried foods are also closely related to sugary drinks. Eating strong-flavored and fried foods often makes people feel thirsty more easily and drink more sugary drinks to quench their thirst, thus ruining their weight loss plans.

Sucrose is the least sweet, and you may need a larger amount to make it taste sweet enough. Fructose is sweeter than sucrose, and a smaller amount can be used to achieve the same sweetness and slightly less calories. However, people with hereditary fructose intolerance or fructose malabsorption may experience diarrhea and discomfort, and should avoid consuming foods containing fructose or high fructose corn syrup.

Aspartame in artificial sweeteners is an amino acid. Although it is very sweet, it is not heat-resistant. If added to hot drinks such as hot black tea and hot coffee, it will lose its sweetness. Patients with hereditary phenylketonuria should avoid eating it to avoid affecting brain development.

And which drinks are more likely to contain a lot of sugar? Generally speaking, very sour drinks, such as lemon juice, cranberry juice, etc., often require the use of sugar to adjust the sourness and taste to make them easier to drink. If you remove the fruit residue, it will be almost like drinking sugar water.

This type of juice contains more natural organic acids. People with poor gastrointestinal function, gastric ulcers, and prone to diarrhea are advised not to drink it on an empty stomach to avoid gastrointestinal discomfort. Patients with severe gastric ulcers, duodenal ulcers, and gastric cancer should consult a doctor and nutritionist before drinking.

When drinking packaged beverages with calorie labels, pay more attention to whether the unit is 100 mg or the calories in a whole bottle to avoid misjudging the amount of calories. For example: 100 ml of soda with 103 calories, if it is a 350 ml can, it is 360 calories, which is about equivalent to the calories of 5 slices of white toast.

Make use of various ingenious ways to make your own cold brewed tea and fresh juice

If you find plain water hard to drink or you cannot tolerate it without sugar, you can try using green tea, black tea or fruit tea bags, soaking them in cold boiled water, and then chilling them in the refrigerator to make your own cold brewed tea. Alternatively, you can boil barley tea or roselle tea, let it cool, and then use some sugar substitutes to flavor it, gradually diluting the original heavy sweet taste.

Children, teenagers or people who need calcium supplementation can drink one to two 240 ml bottles of low-fat milk as beverages every day to supplement calcium at the same time.

It would be better to replace juice with a fresh mixed fruit and vegetable platter, because the preparation of fruits and vegetables, washing and cutting, takes time, and they need to be chewed when eaten, which increases the chances of increasing satiety and filling the stomach, and it is less likely that you will inadvertently drink a lot like drinking ready-made juice directly.

If you must make juice, you can use watermelon as the base and prepare as many diverse fruits and vegetables as possible, such as greens, carrots, bell peppers, and celery. Blend them together into a mixed fruit and vegetable juice. Blend as much as you drink, and do not filter out the residue. This is the best way to retain nutrients and dietary fiber.

[Extended Reading] 3 Tips for Drinking Summer Drinks Smartly

Do you think boiled water has no taste at all and you are not used to drinking it? By mastering a few tips, you can make your summer drinks more flavorful and nutritious, instead of just sweet.

1. Make your own cold brew tea, barley tea or roselle tea and take it away in a thermos bottle for drinking at any time.

2. If you need calcium intake, you can drink 1 to 2 bottles of 240 ml low-fat milk every day.

3. A comprehensive vegetable and fruit platter or unfiltered vegetable and fruit juice can supplement nutrients and dietary fiber at the same time.

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