As much as sugar gets a bad rap for weight loss efforts, I find this to be a misplaced grievance. Relying solely on white sugar though, can make our diet a bit redundant and there are other fun sweetener options out there.
In this post will go over what the glycemic index is and why it's important along with five sugar alternatives you can use in your diet.
The glycemic index (GI)
The glycemic index is a score, out of 100, that indicates how quickly a food raises your blood sugar. A higher score raises blood sugar quickly before it comes crashing down shortly after.
A lower score raises your blood sugar more slowly and it comes down more gradually as well. From a general health perspective, a lower score is better, but later I'll show you when you may want to consume them strategically.
You may have heard the term blood glucose as well.
Blood glucose and blood sugar refer to the same thing.
When carbs (sugar is a carb) are digested, the end molecule is glucose. Glucose is the digested sugar that goes into the blood stream.
Here is a list of foods and their glycemic index.
Potatoe, boiled | 82 |
Rice cakes | 82 |
Cornflakes | 79 |
Jelly beans | 78 |
Doughnuts | 76 |
Watermelon | 76 |
French fries | 75 |
White flour bread | 71 |
Potatoe chips | 70 |
White sugar | 65 |
White rice | 66 |
Dried dates | 62 |
White flour spaghetti | 58 |
Pineapple | 58 |
Banana | 55 |
Brown rice | 50 |
All bran cereal | 45 |
Whole flour spaghetti | 32 |
Orange | 42 |
Apple | 39 |
Skim milk | 33 |
Carrots | 33 |
Lentils | 29 |
Cashews | 25 |
As we can see, regular, white table sugar has a glycemic index of 65.
Typically, people throw around the number 70 as being the threshold for a "high" glycemic index, everything underneath it being either medium or low.
But that fails to take into account the purpose of the meal you're having.
Yes, if you are having a normal meal, with only degustation and enjoyment as the sole purposes, try to favour foods with a lower glycemic index.
But what if you just worked out? Or what if you are about to work out? Or in the middle of a long workout?
When you consume high GI foods, your blood glucose stays elevated for 1-3 hours depending on the food. If you eat crappy sugary candy, the crash will happen sooner than with white rice or potatoes.
Having elevated blood glucose can be a good thing if you need a bunch of energy. So why not favour foods that will do just that?
It would be smart to include higher GI foods before and after workouts to help with energy and recovery.
That does not give you my blessing to go on and eat crappy processed foods.
You should still pick those higher GI foods from whole, natural and unprocessed sources.
Remember the pick it, dig it or hunt it rule. Ask yourself those three questions before selecting a food. If the answer is yes to one of them, it should come from a natural source.
If you answered no to all three, then it most likely is processed one way or another.
For example, a pizza can neither be hunted, picked from a plant or dug from the ground.
On the other hand, you can pick fruits from plants, dig veggies from the ground and hunt most of your meats.
This post is about sugar and its alternatives but this intro to GI was an important idea to elaborate.
Sugar and weight loss
In and out of itself, sugar isn't awful for weight loss, it's not the best, but shouldn't be vilified like it is. I'm talking about plain white sugar.
The biggest issue, in my opinion, is it's ease for overconsumption. Think about. It's so easy to reach for sweet, only to keep reaching for two or three more. Or so easy to put that extra cube of sugar in our coffee.
The point is, having sugar in our diet can make it harder to go into a calorie deficit because of this. It's hard to have it in moderation.
If our goal is to be on a sustainable diet to lose weight, being in a 250 calorie deficit is a good place to start as well as increasing our NEAT.
On top of that, sugar is not the most nutritious of foods. Apart from energy, you're not getting any minerals and vitamins.
This is where some of the alternatives have a huge advantage.
Let's take a look at a few common sugar alternatives that exist.
Sugar alternatives
The following is a non exhaustive list of common sugar alternatives.
Maple Syrup, GI 55
Origin & Production: Made from the sap of maple trees, primarily in Canada and the northern United States. The sap is boiled down to concentrate its natural sugars and flavor.
Nutrients: Contains small amounts of manganese, zinc, calcium, and antioxidants. These minerals support immune function, bone health, and energy production.
Apart from pancakes, this can also be used in some baking options.
Honey, GI 60
Origin & Production: Produced by bees from flower nectar, which they process and store in honeycombs.
Nutrients: Rich in antioxidants and small amounts of potassium, magnesium, and B vitamins.
Can be used to sweeten a lot of hot beverages like coffee.
Molasses, gi 55
Origin & Production: A byproduct of sugarcane or sugar beet processing, created during the sugar crystallization process.
Nutrients: A good source of iron, calcium, potassium, and magnesium. Blackstrap molasses, in particular, is nutrient-dense and often used as a natural remedy for iron deficiency.
This one is a general all around alternative for sugar.
The next two sweetener alternatives both have zero calories
Stevia, GI 0
Origin & Production: Derived from the leaves of the stevia plant, native to South America. The leaves are dried, steeped in water, and processed to extract the sweet compounds (steviol glycosides).
Nutrients: Calorie-free and doesn’t spike blood sugar. The reason is that the sweet compounds are not digested. Because it's not digested, you're not getting any other nutrients either.
I personally don't use this one much, I prefer the following substitute.
Monk Fruit, GI 0
Origin & Production: Comes from the monk fruit (Luo Han Guo), native to Southeast Asia. The fruit is dried, and its natural sweet compounds (mogrosides) are extracted.
Nutrients: Like stevia, calorie-free with no impact on blood sugar. this is a good option to lower calories but offers no author micronutrients.
Last thought on sweeteners
Be mindful that these sweeteners do not cause you to over consume whatever you're having them with. Yes it's nice to have monk fruit or stevia be zero calories, but if you use that as an excuse to reach for a second cookie or refill a cream filled coffee, it defeats the purpose of being in a calorie deficit.
Make sure to use any type of sweeteners sparingly.
Reducing the glycemic response
The glycemic response of a meal is how fast it raises your blood sugar. There is a very simple trick you can do to lower the speed at which blood sugar rises.
Simply combining other macronutrients such as fats and proteins, will slow down the rate of digestion and consequently that villainized spike of blood glucose.
In other words, making sure you have a balanced plate in from of you will go a long way.
Since sugar is usually present during our snack times, the same trick applies for those smaller meals.
Simply having a sugary treat by itself is the best way to spike your blood sugar. So unless you are running a marathon or other long distance event, this should be limited as much as possible.
Ideas of healthy snacks
The following are just an basic ideas I've done to combine carbs with fats or protein for my snacks. There are lots of other options you'll find for the foods you enjoy.
Apple slices and peanut butter
Rice cakes and peanut butter
Croissant with eggs and ham (this one is a bit on the naughty side but hey, that's what I do whenever I have croissants, which is more often than one would think)
If having a coffee with sugar after lunch, add some dark chocolate squares
Making protein pancakes instead of regular pancakes
Let me know if you have any other favourite sugar alternatives!
Clem
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