Dextrose, Fructose, Glucose

Dear all,

You all might have heard about the post workout carbohydrates sources such as Dextrose, fructose and Glucose. I've read an article which explains the differences between those sources.

Hope this will be useful to you all.

Dextrose, fructose, and glucose are all monosaccharides, known as simple sugars. These sugars can combine to form more complex sugars, including the disaccharide known as sucrose, or table sugar. The primary differences between these sugars have to do with the ways in which they are metabolized by the body, and they all play important roles in body function.

Fructose is an extremely sweet sugar which is found in many fruits. The flavor is sometimes intensely cloying, as anyone who has eaten an overripe piece of fruit knows, and it is believed to be the most sweet of the naturally occurring sugars. Fructose can also be obtained through the breakdown of sucrose, which is made from linked fructose and glucose molecules. Fructose has a low glycemic index, which means that it takes a long time for the body to break down, resulting in a slow release of sugar, rather than a sudden rush. For this reason, it is sometimes recommended for diabetics.

Dextrose is simply a form of glucose. Some food packagers like to use "dextrose" on their packaging instead of "glucose" because they believe that people have negative associations with glucose. This sugar is extremely abundant in nature, and it can be found in numerous plant and animal tissues, often along with other sugars such as fructose. The body relies on glucose for energy, using this sugar to power cells. When people measure their blood sugar, they are actually measuring the amount of dissolved glucose in the blood.

The molecular formula for glucose/dextrose and fructose is actually the same. Both sugars are considered to be hexoses, meaning that they have six carbon atoms attached to 12 hydrogen atoms and six oxygen atoms. The differing ways in which molecules can be attached cause various hexoses to behave differently, creating different chemical compounds which lend the hexoses some distinct properties.

Glucose is what is known as an aldohexose, meaning that it contains a compound called an aldehyde, located at the first position in the molecule. Aldehydes have a carbon atom which is attached to a hydrogen atom and also double bonded to an oxygen atom. Fructose, on the other hand, is a ketohexose, containing a ketone which consists of a single carbon atom double bonded to an oxygen atom. The ketone in fructose is attached to the second position in the molecule. Ketones play an important role in biochemistry.

The simple structures of these sugars allow them to be linked in a number of different ways to other molecules, creating more complex sugars which will behave differently in the body and generating some extremely unwieldy chemical formulas. For consumers, the important thing to remember is that labels which say "dextrose" really mean "glucose."

Source: www.wisegeek.com

Regards

Citizen, India

Is drinking cold water after your meal causes any problem??

Dear all,

Is drinking cold water after your meal causes any problem??

Please read below the article from http://www.helium.com/ by Jonte Rhodes.

There are several things that should be considered before you drink cold water immediately after meals. To call them a danger are something of an overstatement, however they can be quite uncomfortable and eve painful in some cases, and so should be avoided. The main problems tend to be that cold water can change the state of things that you have eaten, and can react with them to make them harder to digest, which can cause indigestion.

When we eat things which are liquid when hot but will solidify when cooled down, such as butter or some cheeses. Drinking cold water immediately afterwords can cause them to become solid again in the stomach, and become harder to digest. Normally when we eat these things the temperature in the stomach is enough to keep them in at least a semi liquid start long enough for them to be broken down. This then means that they can soon leave the stomach and pass through the rest of the digestive system to be converted into energy.

If the foods we have eaten solidify again in the stomach then they take longer to digest and can bring about indigestion and even acid reflux in some cases. Having a lot more water than normal in the stomach also means that the stomach acids used to break down the foods that we eat are diluted, and so take much longer than normal to work. This can leave you feeling tired and sluggish after you have eaten, which can tend to slow you down for a few hours.

Drinking very cold water can also cause pain to those with sensitive teeth, or who suffer from frequent headaches or migraines. Migraines in particular can sometimes be brought about by consuming something too cold for the body to comfortably process. Drinking a lot of water after a meal can also cause you to feel very bloated and can cause stomach aches. This is because some food expands when immersed in water. This then stretches the stomach and causes us pain. This is prolonged as well because a high water presence means that the stomach takes longer to break down its contents.

In terms of evolution the human stomach is designed to consume food at similar temperatures to our own body temperature. This means that things that are extremely hot or cold means extra work for them to be digested, Similarly when we eat very spicy food, it is a lot harder to break down correctly and in some people can cause diarrhea. This is because most people aren't used to eating them. this is similar to the strain that the body is put under when we eat things that are very hot or cold temperature wise as well.

The best thing to do is to drink with a meal rather then immediately after it. This also means we will tend to eat less food because some of the space in the stomach is used up by the water. And drinking room temperature rather then very cold water is better for digestion as well.

If anybody come across or knows bits and pieces of information related to this topic, kindly put forth your points which will definitely help others by all means.

Thanks to my friend who gave me this piece of information.

Regards
Citizen, India