Know Your Sweeteners

Staying away from sweetened drinks isn&undefined;t easy. In an ideal world, we would all drink purely water but in real life, the fact is that many people do drink other beverages – whether it be iced tea, vitamin water, soft drinks, or others. Most drinks are sweetened with either sucrose, glucose or fructose. Although we may not know the difference, our bodies do and each of these sweeteners affect the body in a different way.

In a new study undertaken at the University of California, 32 overweight individuals were teated to see how glucose and fructose affect the body. The study consisted of both men and women who drink three servings daily of a beverage that was sweetened by either glucose of fructose. After ten weeks the participants were weighed and their bodies were analyzed. It was found that the people who had drank fructose sweetened drinks gained intra-abdominal fat whereas those who drank the glucose drinking group did not have the same reaction. Intra abdominal fat is the dangerous type of fat – it is found in the tissues in organs. The fructose-sweetened beverage drinkers also showed increased fat production in the liver and an increase in LDL (bad) cholsterol levels. Both groups gained similar amounts of weight also those who drank beverages containing glucose did not show signs of any of the other changes the alternate group did.

Although this study highlights the fact that glucose sweetened drinks do not produce adverse affects that come with drinking fructose, the fact is that both of these do lead to weight gain and both should be avoided. That being said, if you are going to choose one obviously drinks that have sweeteners based on glucose would be the better option. Natural sweeteners such as Stevia are much better options and although you cannot buy drinks off the shelf that are sweetened with it, using it at home to make your own is always an option.