Question

Carbohydrates can serve as energy for the brain, storing energy for the muscles, and digestive aids. However, unlike proteins, carbohydrates continue to be perceived as “bad food” in the diet. Individuals may go to great length to “avoid” carbohydrates but eat a “healthy diet.”
While some consumers may take a more moderate approach and use replacement or substitute sweeteners (alternative sweeteners) to replace sucrose, use of a variety of foods should be the preferred route to a healthy diet. Discuss the fallacies in thinking that alternative sweeteners can replace sugar and discuss the role of alternative sweeteners in a dietary plan for a healthy adult.

In the following scenario, what advice would you recommend to the individuals and why?
You are visiting overnight with family relatives that you have not seen for some time. The mother of the family (your distant aunt) is quite overweight and the two children, 12 y/o and 16 y/o, are “heavy” but you would not classify them as obese. The father of the family recently had a heart attack and while in the hospital was put on a low-fat diet. He is not overweight by observation.
Your aunt is trying to follow the diet “faithfully” for her husband and believes that having everyone in the household follow the diet would be best (children included). The diet includes lean meats and low-fat dairy products. Your aunt decided that the family should also cut out carbohydrates as well given that “they can cause you to become fat” and is making sure that everyone is consuming plenty of liquids to wash away the plaque in the arteries.
What do you think of this diet and what recommendations would you give to your aunt and her family?

Answer 1

Artificial sweeteners are alsi called low calorie sweetners, sugar substitute or non nutritive sweetners.

Examples of artificial sweeteners are

• Aspartame
• Saccharin
• Sucralose

Artificial sweeteners are many times sweeter than normal sugar or sucrose. Advantages of artificial sweeteners are:

1. Because of low calorie content they are used for weight loss
2. It is also consumed by diabetic patients.
3. Some will not cause tooth decay also

Disadvantages of artificial sweeteners are:

1. Consuming these sweeteners have chance of cancer risk.
2. Some contain phenylalanine which cannot be metabolised
3. They are carcinogenic
4. Obesity can be the main cause of artificial sweeteners

I would suggest to consume low fat diet which contains fats less than 30% per day. Low fat content food can leads to weight loss though it also provides healthy life. They also affect the cholesterol level as it is maintained and reduces further congestive heart related disease.

The successful low carb diet may also promote weight loss as well as high carb may leads to its conversation in fats and deposition of fats also.

I would recommend this family to take high protein content food. But less meat as it also contains fats. Leafy veggies, fruits, beans and legumes are highly recommended.