It’s Friday, which means that yet another week of self-isolation has passed by… One more online course was successfully started, a set of dumbbells ordered, healthy meals preparation practised, all Netflix TV-series finished…
Today, in this never-ending stream of free courses and articles on self-development in times of quarantine, our The Jar Essentials series want to upgrade your weekly information flow with some easy-to-read beneficial facts about yet another healthy lifestyle canon - sugar intake.
Of course, now you are expecting to hear the most high sounding healthy advice - simply reduce your sugar intake. But we believe, in these hard times quitting sugar could definitely be equal to crime.
Maybe now is not the right time to talk about La Dolce Vita either, since life for some of us is far from sweet. But The Jar Healthy Vending team has our own ways and wants to share how to keep on brightening up your self-isolation days with sweet touch without compromising healthy diet.
But first, we start of with a quiz, shall we?
Honey is probably the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about healthier sugar substitutes. After all, it's a number one remedy during cold and flu for a good reason: honey is one of the only natural sweeteners that has other health benefits such as heart-healthy, anti-viral, anti-inflammatory effects. But unfortunately, it is the same source of carbs as other sweets and breaks down in your body to glucose and fructose the same way as sugar does.
So, it's more appropriate to treat honey as a dessert and limit it's intake in the same way as sugar.
We bet, some of sugar substitutes above you have never even heard about. We neither, but our team is persistent in finding out the best ingredients for our health. Let's start with the most well-known:
Stevia
This gem is derived from plants, so falls under the category of "all-natural". Stevia is non-nutritive, what means that it has almost no calories. It also doesn't raise blood sugar levels, which makes it a good sugar alternative for people with diabetes. Good news for those of us, who are on our ways to summer bodies.
All things considered, if you need to sweeten something and can stand a liquorice aftertaste, stevia is probably the healthiest choice.
This super-food is 150-200 times sweeter than sugar, a natural herbal sweetener, many modern and most popular stevia based sweeteners are powdered, processed and go through dozens of steps during processing from bleaching to chemical alteration.
Monk fruit extract
This super-food is 150-200 times sweeter than sugar, contains zero calories, zero carbohydrates, zero sodium, and zero fat. Again, beach-body friendly. Apparently, unlike other artificial sweeteners, there’s no evidence showing that monk fruit has negative side effects.
However, once again, commercially available monk fruits extracts have been processed and could possibly contain other sweeteners, such as sugar itself.
Agave nectar
You must have heard about this sugar substitute in many YouTube tutorials and on Instagram pages of "healthy gurus". It is indeed produced by the agave plant and is marketed as a healthy alternative to sugar.
But oh my, what a huge deception! Agave syrup consists of 85% fructose, which is much higher than regular sugar and there is no need to say that it is probably one of the unhealthiest sweeteners on the market.
Jerusalem artichoke syrup
This abstract could be slightly biased, since the author of this article is a huge fan of this sweetener. Not only it tastes good without any odd aftertaste, but also features high nutritional value. From normalising water balance in the body, reducing stomach acidity, strengthening immune defence to increasing high intellectual activity, this absolute super-food must be a rare find.
If taken right after a workout, it helps to restore strength and doesn't interfere with fat burning. We guess, root-looking plants are just another proof that what matters more is on the inside rather than the outside.
Fruits are high in sugar, that's the fact. But so far, they are the only thing you can safely replace sugar with. Yes, they have fructose, so you can’t eat them in unlimited quantities. But fruits are a source of many vitamins and nutrients, as well as dietary fibre, which provide a feeling of fullness and many other benefits for your health.
To boost your healthy sugar intake, go on and stock up on the juice range presented by The Jar Healthy Vending:
PRESS Berry Boost for perfect for skin and hair health.
Rejuice Orange Mango Turmeric for healthy anti-inflammatory effect.
PRESS Glow Super Smoothie for an immune boost.
We agree, sugar is difficult to avoid completely. Many products if not the most contain added sugar, which is in most cases, God forbid, refined. To enjoy the sweet bits of everyday without compromising our precious health - stay conscious and choose natural sugar alternatives with The Jar Healthy Vending!