The Health Benefits of Glucose
March 9th, 2010
Glucose is another monosaccharide or simple sugar and is also known as blood sugar and dextrose. The body produces glucose mainly by breaking down the starch and sugars in carbohydrates and is one of our main sources of energy. Glucose is absorbed into the bloodstream through the chemical action of insulin and potassium and any excess is stored in the liver, body fat and muscle cells in the form of glycogen. Glycogen stored in the liver can be turned back into glucose and transported through the blood when insulin is low. Glycogen stored in fat is used to power reactions that use particular fat types and glycogen stored in muscles is used by the muscle for immediate energy to create movement.
Do you ever get that feeling of déjà vu when you go into the gym and get on with the same workout you have been doing for what feels like forever? This repetition can be a killer for your fitness program and can slow down your body’s progress and in some cases even reverse the good progress you have made. Yes you heard right, you could be wasting all that time in the gym and instead of getting that Adonis of a body you could actually be storing more fat!
Judea Brown Sr., Master Trainer and Nutrition Advisor, shares why every woman should be incorporating resistance training into daily activities. In addition to preventing illness and disease, resistance training creates important muscle health that supports overall strength, balance, bones, heart, metabolism, stress levels and more.
Galactose is a monosaccharide – a form of sugar and is one of the essential sugars or glyconutrients needed by our bodies. It is in the same family as sucrose, lactose and fructose and is found in dairy products, honey, sugar beets, celery, sweet corn, onions and spinach among others and is required for healthy cells and a strong immune system.
Fructose is a ‘monosaccharide’ (a simple sugar) and is also known as ‘fruit sugar’ as it is mainly found in fruit, honey and certain vegetables. Our bodies use fructose for energy. Some fruits have more fructose than glucose: pears and apples for example have twice the amount of fructose than glucose, whereas apricots have less than half. It makes up about 9% of calories consumed in the average diet and is the sweetest of all the sweeteners used in food production. Unlike some sugars it has a low glycemic index which doesn’t increase the blood sugar levels to a high level which results in a moderate release of insulin to the bloodstream compared to glucose and sucrose. Sucrose is made up of half fructose and half glucose.
