Sugar and Its Substitutes

Introduction

The widespread use of an increasing number of sweeteners in food, medicines and cosmetics means the growing interest in this subject among doctors, nutritionists and dentists. Substitution of sugar substitutes is becoming a burning issue to harm the health of sucrose. Bad effects of sugar have its reference in diseases of the oral cavity. The downside of human nature is a compelling need to sweeten foods. The result is that one of the basic components of the diet is sugar called sucrose, used primarily to satisfy a desired sweet taste. As research to eliminate sugar from our diet is practically impossible, and surveys conducted in Poland from 1950 to 1990 show an increase in consumption of animal fats and simple carbohydrates, to the detriment of the recommended complex carbohydrate derived from grain, potatoes, vegetables or legumes. Currently, consumption accounts for 25% of sugars generally taken with food carbohydrates. In Poland, it was increased twice in the post-war period and we are infamous among world leaders. Data from 1989 indicate that the average Pole eats 47 kg / person / year and is about 2.5 times more than for example in Japan, but about 12 kg more than in France, Sweden, Germany, Hungary, Italy, USA and Spain (Robb, pp. 10). “Hence the need to raise the topic among dentists and make the current review of alternative sweeteners in terms of their impact on oral health and harmful to the health of the body, particularly given the controversy aroused by their widespread use in everyday food products, because the usefulness of sweeteners must be considered not only in terms of usage, but also nutritional, toxicological, economic and technological”, (Mehmet, pp. 21).

Thesis Statement

“Sugar substitutes are not a legitimate or healthy alternative for weight reduction”.

Origins of Sugar and its substitutes

The wide presence of sugar in many products today makes it seem incredible that it has arrived in Europe around 1100 AD, and its consumption was not popularized until the sixteenth century. That means that for thousands of years virtually the only sweetener available that honey was first harvested from wild hives and then, domesticated hives. Sugarcane, native to the Pacific Islands, and Polynesia and Melanesia, was the first plant from which sugar was extracted. From there he went to Indonesia, India and China. The original species, which did not lift more than a few feet above the ground, was extinguished, the current cane grows to six meters high and occurs in tropical and subtropical climates, requiring large amounts of water and heat. The main producers of sugar are Brazil, Cuba, India, Philippines and Mexico (Staff, pp. 4). It was assumed that Alexander the Great who brought sugar cane to Greece after a military expedition to India around 300 BC and that the Arabs introduced it in the Mediterranean region, specifically in Spain and Sicily (Italy). As early as the middle Ages, Venice was the leading importer and distributor of sugar in Europe. “At that time it was so expensive that it was ...