Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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I suppose we don't know if cave dwelling peoples boiled brown rice with fire back in the day, but let's assume they did not. In 2011, our world is bombarded with a barrage of sweeteners, and we all know that most do not promote healthy metabollic functioning if over consumed.

The Jaminet's from Perfect Health Diet have been praising Rice Syrups as an acceptable sweetener due to the fact that it contains virtually zero fructose and is comprised mostly of glucose sugars.

Seems to me that ingesting rice syrup wouldn't be much different than ingesting rice itself, and it may actually be beneficial for bodybuilders looking for a post workout glycogen replenishment to pack on muscle bulk.

What do you PaleoHackers think of brown rice syrups? How about white rice syrups?

flag	asked Mar 3 2011 at 18:03 Jack Kronk 19.9k●2●33●101

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honey is honestly the most promising sweetener. Look at Chris Masterjohn's posts on the subject. – Bread-Eating Beelzebub Mar 3 2011 at 20:27

i love raw honey. the honey fructose does not appear to have the same negative impacts as other fructose sugars. i look at almost everything CMast puts out there. – Jack Kronk Mar 3 2011 at 23:31

Urgh that's a shame, I hate honey, it actually makes me gag. Luckily I don't feel the need to sweeten most things. – Carly Mar 4 2011 at 11:07

Logan · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-03 19:44:01Z UTC

It's important to note for those who do not know, the body processes glucose and fructose differently. Here's a great lecture on that subject, describing how dangerous excessive fructose consumption could potentially be.

In my mind, brown or white rice syrup equally stand as the top sweetner for those that wish to use a sweetner. Obviously they are not paleo nor are they necessary, but I think they are the least problematic sweetner since it is basically a dextrose syrup. Dextrose is just glucose-glucose disaccharides. From what I understand, the rice used to make rice syrup is not GMO which is why I've seen an argument preferring rice syrup to plain corn syrup, which also was a dextrose syrup but is made mostly from GMO Corn. I think it is important to view sweetners as something to be consumed in extremely limited quantities as too much of anything sweet should still trigger the chemical reward pathways related to sweet tastes, which operate similar to the heroin reward response in the body (as discussed in David Kessler's great book "The End of Overeating"). In addition for people with comprimised metabolisms or diabetes, you'd want them to stay miles away from a glucose syrup. For those with healthy metabolisms and who need a sweet fix occasionally in my mind it would definitely be preferable to pretty much all other sweetners which usually have nearly half fructose at minimum: regular sugar (sucrose - glucose-fructose dissaccharide), honey (about 50.5 percent fructose), maple syrup (95 percent sucrose, 1 percent fructose, and 3 percent glucose), or agave nectar (aka hippie high fructose corn syrup - produced the same way and higher fructose than HFCS).

Carly · Answer 2 · 2011-03-03 19:03:09Z UTC

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Sugar is sugar is sugar is sugar and should be limited to "treats" in my opinion.

answered Mar 3 2011 at 19:03

Carly
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I know sugar is sugar, but different sugars (fructose and glucose, mainly) are processed differently by the body and produce different effects in the body. The answer neglects the possibility that a glucose syrup is a superior for health for those limited "treats". – Logan Mar 3 2011 at 19:48

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Sugar is not sugar. Glucose is not fructose is not sucrose is not galactose. I do agree it should be limited though. – mari Mar 3 2011 at 23:19

Pretty uniformed advice there.... – Jay Mar 4 2011 at 1:21

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Sugar is not sugar? So what are those list of sugars then if they are not sugars? Wikipedia says...... "Sugar" can also be used to refer to water-soluble crystalline carbohydrates with varying sweetness. Sugars include monosaccharides (e.g., glucose, fructose, galactose), disaccharides (e.g., sucrose, lactose, maltose), trisaccharides, and oligosaccharides,[26] in contrast to complex carbohydrates such as polysaccharides. Corn syrup, dextrose, crystalline fructose, and maltose, for example, are used in manufacturing and preparing food. – Carly Mar 4 2011 at 11:06

Travis Culp · Answer 3 · 2011-03-03 20:08:33Z UTC

I would say that after people have endured some period of time where they have increased their insulin sensitivities, lost weight and in general recovered from the great toll taken by the SAD, a sweetener consisting of pure glucose from a grain is a far preferable route than anything "more natural" that contains large amounts of (often unbound) fructose.

That being said, I think an even better route is to never reintroduce sweets and thus never become tempted to eat them again. I'm currently eating a diet that contains nothing sweet and I find it to be quite liberating.

Rice Syrup as an acceptable sweetener?

3 Answers