nutrition
NOVEMBER, 2018 | THE HEALTH
27
White sugar, brown sugar or stevia
N
EITHER white sugar, brown sugar
nor stevia is intrinsically more or less
healthy than the other. They’re differ-
ent things that happen to share the
quality of sweetness.
Indra Balaratnam Nutrition con-
sultant dietitian Indra Balaratnam
explained that they are made from different sources.
“Sugar or sucrose is extracted from sugar cane and
sugar beets that have been mostly grown in tropical
climates. Most plants contain sugar in their tissues, but
only sugar beets and sugar cane contain enough to be
efficiently extracted and turned into white crystalline
table sugar.”
Brown sugar is often produced by adding sugarcane
molasses to completely refined white sugar crystals to
more carefully control the ratio of molasses to sugar
crystals and to reduce manufacturing costs.
In contrast, stevia is extracted from stevia rebaudiana,
a member of the chrysanthemum family and a wild herb
native to Paraguay and Brazil. The leaves of the stevia
plant contain substances called glycosides that give it its
sweet flavour. Comparatively, stevia is 30 times sweeter
than sugar in its whole leaf form and almost 300 times
sweeter once it has been refined.
Is one better than the other?
“At the end of the day, it is still going back to the fun-
damentals – it is still about a taste perception. Stevia is
marketed as an alternative which lets you enjoy the sugar
without using sugar. But it is still one step further to that.”
“Food industries assume that consumers would know
Oat based
granola bars
G
RANOLA is an extremely popular breakfast and
snack food with numerous health benefits.
“Granola is actually an oat based cereal, that
uses whole food ingredients like rolled oats, nuts, seeds,
spices and natural sweeteners. Granola bar is on the go
convenience.
If you are too busy with your work or daily schedule,
you could take it as your breakfast in the morning which
would last till afternoon,” revealed Simply Hippie Gra-
nola homepreneur Sarah Ariffin.
“Basically, for a loose granola, I use rolled oats, nuts
and seeds, spices, cinnamon, ground nutmeg – depend-
ing on the flavors, dried fruits, honey as my natural
sweetener and I use organic coconut oil for its benefits.”
Sarah who doesn’t take sweets, said that she does the
same thing with her granola – making them less sweet.
Health benefi ts
“Oat based granolas has a wealth of health benefits
including the ability to lower cholesterol, regulate
digestion, aid in weight loss and improve heart health.
In addition, it helps increase energy and helps lower
blood pressure.”
However, as in all things over consuming them is
definitely unhealthy.
“It is best to take about three to four tablespoons
of lose granola have it with yoghurt or milk - dairy on
non-dairy with added fresh fruits. This is depending
on your lifestyle as well. If you are someone who is on
the move all the time, you could take more - about four
to five tablespoons of lose granola. You could have it
with your fruits or with your shake. For breakfast – it
is important.”
“It can also be consumed after workout as a post
recovery as we need protein bass to heal your muscles,”
she said.
how to regulate themselves. Nevertheless, looking at
peoples eating behaviour, we know that the masses are
unable to regulate themselves. So, at the end of the day,
it is still about understanding why a person likes that
taste and finding a new favourite that it doesn’t feel like
it dominates your food palette all the time.”
“It’s learning to enjoy other healthier options, rather
than just thinking about the cheese cake or carrot cake.
With healthy eating, people always assume that they have
to give up a lot of things. They focus on the giving up of
foods, rather than things that they can enjoy.”
“When you get back to the real foods, whole foods
and are willing to open up your palette again, then you
would find that there are a lot of foods that you could
actually eat.”
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