Sweet talk: Avoid refined sugar

The hidden sugar everyone warns about is actually not sugar but fructose, corn syrup, etc, which are said to be not as healthy. How do we identify them? What is really healthy and unhealthy when it comes to different types of sweetening agents?
—Muneeb Mehta

The truth is your body doesn’t need any refined sugar at all. Refined sugar is processed and your body derives all the natural sugar it needs from the food that nature provides you with — fruits, vegetables and even grains.

The smartest and most important thing to do while purchasing processed foods is reading the label and identifying the unhealthy villains. The super sweet super villain in the world of processed foods is High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). Avoid this bad boy entirely. HFCS is cheaper to manufacture than sugar and widely used to sweeten your favourite snack or store-bought dessert. Not only is HFCS linked to obesity, heart disease, diabetes and inflammation, but it also doesn’t allow your body to correctly process signals of satiety. Translation — eating HFCS products could lead to over consumption without you actually realising your stomach is now full and doesn’t need more food. Good for the sweet manufacturers, bad for your body.

If you’re looking for a healthy sweetener while cooking yourself, try stevia. It’s a natural sweetener which has no calories and is about 200 times sweeter than sugar. While reading labels remember that sugar can be under cover in one the following names — HFCS, corn syrup solids, white sugar, brown sugar, malt syrup, pancake syrup, maple syrup, fructose sweetener, honey, liquid fructose, molasses, anhydrous dextrose and crystal dextrose. All these sweet things are bitter for your body.

Which is the healthiest oil for baking?

Choosing the right oil for baking requires you to focus on two important factors: smoke point and taste. Heating oils beyond its smoke point decomposes it, which reduces its flavour and generates cancer-causing compounds called free radicals. The smoke point of oils vary widely but in general, the more refined the oil the higher its smoke point. Again the flavour of oil ranges from nutty (coconut) to buttery (corn) to grassy and zesty (olive). While choosing the healthiest oil for baking we need to consider its composition of MUFA (monounsaturated, e.g. canola oil, olive oil, peanut oil), PUFA (polyunsaturated; omega 3 and 6, e.g. corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil ) and saturated fats content (unhealthy transfats e.g. dalda, margarine). As a personal choice and preference, I’d choose higher MUFA oils for cooking and thus, for baking, canola or peanut oil would be the healthiest options.

Pooja Makhija
Consulting nutritionist and clinical dietitian

SPEAK UP

Mail your queries at: dnahealthpage@gmail.com; you can contact Pooja at: pooja@nourishgenie.com