Sugar-free compressed biscuits, sugar-free low-fat oatmeal, sugar-free low-calorie vitamin drink powder, 0 sugar, 0 fat and 0 calorie sparkling water, sugar-free snacks for diabetics... As a food with its own health halo, sugar-free food has its own health benefits. The national acceptance is getting higher and higher, and it has become the favorite of many health caregivers.

Under the publicity stunts such as "0 sugar is healthier" and "the nutrition department of a large tertiary hospital is in use", the sugar-free food market is even more popular for a while.

Are sugar-free foods really healthy?

　　To answer this question, you need to first understand what sugar-free foods are.

　　"First of all, we must clarify the definition of 'sugar' in sugar-free food." Xue Changyong, former director of the Nutrition Department of the PLA General Hospital, introduced that sugar in a broad sense mostly refers to digestible carbohydrates; in a narrow sense, sugar mainly refers to refined sugar, such as sucrose .

　　"If it is sugar in a broad sense, strictly speaking, it is a food that has nothing to do with carbohydrates and is called a sugar-free food. But it is not. Sugar-free food on the market, such as sugar-free pastries and sugar-free moon cakes , sugar-free rice dumplings, etc., they just don’t put sucrose in them. Under the cover of this concept, merchants can put other sugars, such as fructose, sugar substitute, etc.” In Xue Changyong’s view, sugar-free food is not completely sugar-free. Sugar-free foods mostly refer to foods without refined sugar.

　　In fact, for the definition of sugar-free food, there is no clear regulation in China.

However, in the "General Rules for Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Foods", for the critical limit of sugar (lactose), "0 sugar" or "sugar-free" means that the sugar content per 100 grams or 100 ml of food does not exceed 0.5 grams.

He Li, a researcher at the Institute of Nutrition and Health of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, further explained: "The "General Rules for Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Foods" stipulates that the sugar content of each 100 grams or 100 milliliters of food is less than or equal to 0.5 grams. Less than 17 kilojoules (about 4 kcal) can be called energy-free. That is, '0 sugar' or '0 calorie' foods are not necessarily absolute 0, but may be low enough to be ignored."

　　It can be seen that, to a certain extent, "sugar-free" is not "0 sugar", and sugar-free foods are not completely sugar-free.

　　It is worth noting that in recent years, with the upgrading of consumption and the popularization of the concept of health, like sugar-free food, sugar substitute derivatives have also won the favor of many consumers.

What are sugar substitutes?

How is it different from sugar-free foods?

　　"Sugar-free food solves a taste problem, but it still has energy. For example, sugar-free steamed bread, the main component of which is carbohydrates." Lu Juming, chief physician and professor of the Department of Endocrinology at the PLA General Hospital, said bluntly: "What is a sugar substitute? That ingredient that replaces sugar, it's sweet, but not refined sugar."

　　He Li reminded that although sugar substitutes such as xylitol, maltitol, steviol glycosides and mogrosides only provide sweetness and do not provide or provide food additives with very few calories, sugar-free foods, especially some starch products such as bread and cakes is not low in carbohydrates, fat content and total energy.

　　Xue Changyong said: "Sugar substitution will not cause blood sugar to rise. It has sweet taste and no calories. Many current concepts, such as 0 sugar, 0 cal and 0 fat sparkling water, are mainly composed of water and sweetener. Although this sweetener It has been approved by relevant departments and is relatively safe, but we still do not advocate eating more. Because it has no nutritional value.”

　　"Even if it is sugar-free food, you can't eat too much. If the amount of total carbohydrates exceeds, it is still bad for health." When talking about the health of sugar-free food, Lu Juming used sugar-free steamed bread as an example.

He said that in terms of blood sugar, sugar-free steamed bread, like ordinary steamed bread, will cause blood sugar to rise.

Especially diabetic patients, can not eat more because it is "sugar-free".

　　Mu Yiming, director of the Endocrinology Department of the First Medical Center of the PLA General Hospital, publicly stated recently: "Many studies have found that if you drink sugar-free drinks for a long time, if it is a drink with sugar substitutes such as sucralose, aspartame, and xylitol added , it is not fundamentally different from sugar-sweetened beverages in causing diabetes."

　　In this way, is sugar-free food worthless?

　　He Li said: "Sugar-free food can help us consume less energy. Because added sugar is not necessary for the nutrients we need, it is healthy to say that sugar-free food helps us eat less added sugar. .Sugar-free food is healthy or unhealthy, depending on what its ingredients are.”

　　For healthy sugar reduction, Xue Changyong suggested that when choosing food, you can refer to the glycemic index and glycemic load for food intake.

The glycemic index is the degree to which the sugar content of a food affects blood sugar, and the glycemic load is the weight of the food eaten multiplied by the glycemic index.

When ingesting food, no matter what the composition of the food is, foods with low glycemic index that have little effect on blood sugar can be eaten relatively more.