Guest guest Posted June 3, 2004 Report Share Posted June 3, 2004 Thu, 3 Jun 2004 08:42:18 -0500 HSI - Jenny Thompson The Sweet Lowdown The Sweet Lowdown Health Sciences Institute e-Alert June 3, 2004 ************************************************************** Dear Reader, It's not always easy to " keep it sweet " while also keeping it healthy these days. For instance, in the e-Alert " Sweet, but Sour " (4/27/04), I told you about the significant health problems that have been associated with aspartame. An HSI member named Gina found this alarming and wrote: " As a regular user of this product, I am now worried. Can you recommend another sweetener (without an after-taste) which I can use instead of aspartame? " Sure can, Gina. Today we'll take a look at some alternate sweeteners, along with helpful information from other HSI members. ----------------------------- Bees' work ----------------------------- We'll start with three sweeteners taken from natural sources. Last year an HSI member named Miriam asked, " What do you think of the barley malt sweetener? Also maple syrup and honey? " I ran Miriam's question by HSI Panelist Allan Spreen, M.D., who noted that each of these three is a concentrated sweetener with lots of calories (not that calories alone are necessarily a bad thing). " The problem is, these agents are unnaturally concentrated. Unlike standard refined sugar, however, the concentrating of the sugars in maple syrup or malt sweetener still usually retain the minerals and vitamins needed for their metabolism. Other than for diabetics or those with weight problems, these sweeteners may not be too bad (or at least they don't carry any of the chemical risks of truly artificial sweeteners). " Honey is a unique agent. Bees are basically Mother Nature's little refiners, and efficient sugar concentrators they are. So, if sugar is a metabolic problem (hypoglycemia, diabetes) then honey would not be the answer, as natural as it is. However, in the raw state (and the word 'raw' is vital here... 'uncooked' does not qualify) honey contains enzymes and nutrients that can be very useful to the body. Unfortunately, heat destroys many of them, and commercial honey is heated to keep it from crystallizing. " Dr. Spreen also points out that different honeys have different ratios of different types of sugars (glucose, fructose, etc.). Apparently tupelo honey has the least concentrations of the sugars that have the greatest effect on blood sugar. But no honey is low enough in glucose to make it a safe choice for diabetics. ----------------------------- Herbal essence ----------------------------- For those who need to avoid the spike of glucose, Dr. Spreen recommends stevia as a sugar substitute. Stevia is an herb that's been used as a sweetener for hundreds of years. It can be found in most health food stores, but FDA restrictions state that it can't be called a " sweetener, " so it's sold as a dietary supplement. (Once again, the FDA " protects " consumers with a completely unnecessary regulation.) Stevia is reputed to be 300 times sweeter than cane sugar, and yet studies have also shown that it suppresses glucose response while increasing insulin levels. In the e- Alert " The Sweet Life " (3/10/03), an HSI member named Arline wrote: " The best sweetener for diabetics is Stevia. I am a diabetic and have been using it for years. You can even cook with it in powder form. I use the liquid to sweeten drinks, etc. " If there's a downside to stevia, it's a tendency to taste bitter - not really the quality you look for in a sweetener. But according to a member named Kathy, the bitterness can easily be avoided. Last year, Kathy wrote to recommend a brand of stevia called Kal's, which she says has no unpleasant aftertaste. And she adds that using too much of any stevia brand - including Kal's - will cause bitterness. Kathy writes: " As a reference point only 1/8 teaspoon is plenty to sweeten two large mugs of tea. Sometimes I use a small amount of stevia like 1/8 teaspoon in a dessert and reduce the regular sweetener by half. The problem with stevia is measuring out small enough amounts. And we're talking about the white, powdered extract, not the green, powdered stevia leaf. " ----------------------------- Sweet from the wood ----------------------------- Another natural alternative to highly processed sweeteners is xylitol, a birch wood extract that has 40 percent fewer calories than sugar, and does not cause a spike in blood sugar levels. In one study, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the glucose and insulin responses of 80 healthy, non-obese men were measured after ingesting xylitol. Results showed that both glucose and insulin were less affected by xylitol intake than by glucose intake, and researchers concluded that xylitol is suitable for diabetics. Xylitol also comes with the remarkable claim that it actually prevents caries (the dental profession's term for cavities). Last year, HSI Panelist Richard Cohan, D.D.S., M.B.A., explained the dental health angle: " The short answer to why xylitol does not produce either a sugar spike or an uptick in caries is that it is a five-carbon rather than a six-carbon sugar. Our metabolic processes seem to depend on the latter, or multiples of six carbons. Even bacteria seem not to be able to metabolize five-carbon sugar. " Stores that carry xylitol may be hard to locate, but you can easily find xylitol products through many Internet sources. ----------------------------- Lying in wait ----------------------------- Returning to Gina's concern about aspartame, there's a hidden reason to take the extra trouble to look for safe sweeteners: Aspartame is everywhere. According to the research of an HSI member (who asked not to use her name): " Many will be shocked at some of the products which contain aspartame. For example, many know that it's in sugarless gum and 'diet' soda and candies, but it's also contained in sugar-filled chewing gum, breath mints, lots of medications such as cough syrups and aspirins, toothpastes, yogurts, vitamins, instant breakfasts, and more. Please tell people that it's imperative to read labels. " Excellent advice. If you don't pay close attention, you may end up getting quite a bit more aspartame than you bargained for. To start receiving your own copy of the HSI e-Alert, visit: http://www.hsibaltimore.com/ealert/freecopy.html Or forward this e-mail to a friend so they can sign-up to receive their own copy of the HSI e-Alert. ************************************************************** ... and another thing Here we go again. The big health news last week: Regular aspirin use may cut breast cancer risk by as much as 30 percent. If you saw those reports and had a sensation of déjà vu, it's because almost exactly a year ago a similar study reported that women who regularly used non-steroidal anti- inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin and ibuprofen reduced their breast cancer risk by nearly 30 percent. But there were drawbacks to recommending aspirin therapy a year ago, and those drawbacks have not (and will not) go away. All NSAIDs have been shown to contribute to liver and kidney impairment, as well as gastrointestinal conditions such as bleeding and ulcers. And add to that: A 2002 study associated NSAIDs with an increased risk of hypertension in women. And then there's the problem of mixing different NSAIDs, or mixing NSAIDs with acetaminophen. Say, for instance, you take an 81 mg tablet of aspirin daily to reduce heart attack risk. If you begin taking ibuprofen to help prevent breast cancer, according to a 2001 study the ibuprofen will block aspirin's antiplatelet abilities. So you decide to drop the ibuprofen, and increase your aspirin intake. But sometimes you have arthritis flare-ups that the aspirin doesn't relieve, so instead of relying on the ibuprofen, you take acetaminophen. Now the problem is the aspirin and acetaminophen interaction - because a high intake of acetaminophen can cause serious damage to the liver and other organs, and when acetaminophen and aspirin intake are combined, that risk doubles! So once an NSAID medication is put to work as a preventive agent (whether for breast cancer or hearth health) it may complicate the most popular use of NSAIDs: pain relief. The new research is interesting in that it examines a very specific type of breast cancer called hormone receptor- positive - a cancer that's driven by estrogen or progesterone. About 70 percent of all breast cancers fall into this category. But according to the study, aspirin may inhibit the process that blocks the production of estrogen. Hormone receptor-positive breast cancer occurs mostly in postmenopausal women, so in theory this would be the group that would most benefit from aspirin therapy. Meanwhile, millions of postmenopausal women are also taking hormone replacement therapy to boost estrogen levels. Obviously, there are no easy answers. So before any woman begins popping a daily aspirin to keep breast cancer at bay, she should check with her doctor to make sure this therapy is a safe fit with her complete health care and pain management regimen. To Your Good Health, Jenny Thompson Health Sciences Institute ************************************************************** To start receiving your own copy of the HSI e-Alert, visit: http://www.hsibaltimore.com/ealert/freecopya.html Or forward this e-mail to a friend so they can sign-up to receive their own copy of the HSI e-Alert. ************************************************************** Sources: " Metabolic Response to Lactitol and Xylitol in Healthy Men " American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 65, No. 4, 1997, ajcn.org " Association of Frequency and Duration of Aspirin Use and Hormone Receptor Status With Breast Cancer Risk " Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 291, No. 20, 5/26/04, jama.ama-assn.org " Aspirin May Cut Breast Cancer Risk " CBS News, 5/25/04, cbsnews.com " Inverse Association of Breast Cancer and NSAIDs: Results from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) " Abstract #4893, Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research, Vol. 44, March 2003 Copyright ©1997-2004 by www.hsibaltimore.com, L.L.C. 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