Who doesn’t like something sweet?

 

 

These days, including many highballs and non-alcoholic drinks, it is increasingly difficult to avoid something sweet. It is tempting to correlated such trend and recent rise of diabetes in young adult groups in Korea.

Diabetes is one of the representative chronic diseases, and there is a perception in Korea that it is commonly caught in the 40s and 50s. However, attention needs to be paid to the recent surge in the number of "young diabetes" patients in their 20s and 30s. According to statistics from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, the number of diabetic patients in their 30s was 121,568 in 2020, up 25.5% from four years ago, and the prevalence rate in their 20s increased by about 47% during the same period, showing a serious increase.

If diabetes is diagnosed at a young age in their 20s and 30s, the risk of chronic vascular complications may increase as the period of exposure to high blood sugar increases. A bigger problem is that 80% of diabetes patients in their 20s and 60% of diabetes patients in their 30s do not recognize that they have diabetes.

High Fructose Corn Syrup, a highly fructose made from corn starch, is composed of glucose and fructose, the simplest form of sugar that is the main culprit in raising blood sugar in our bodies. It is widely used as an alternative to sugar because it is cheaper than sugar and has 75% more sweetness. Typically, it is used for sweetness in soft drinks, and is also used in almost all processed foods, including beverages such as fruit liquor, snacks, jams, canned foods, and more.

According to the results of the recently published National Health and Nutrition Survey, most food groups had reduced intake or no significant difference compared to the previous comparison, while the intake of toxic beverages increased significantly among both men and women.

As of 2020, beverage intake more than doubled over the past 10 years, men were more than women, and by age, it was higher among young adults. When it comes to the type of beverage, the frequency of soda consumption was the highest among the younger generation, and the beverage intake group consumed more energy and sugar than the nutrient intake standard compared to the non-edible group.

Liquid fructose is known to be absorbed into our body faster than solid sugar due to its simple structure, and the rate of converting blood sugar into body fat is also faster.

These days, it is common to see products labeled 'zero' or 'no added sugar' in supermarkets or convenience stores. These products refer to products with alternative sweeteners instead of sugar or liquid fructose, and the use of sucralose when making soft drinks can be expressed as 0 kcal while being sweet. Aspartame, another synthetic alternative sweetener, has the same calories per 1 gram as sugar but 200 times sweeter than sugar, which is widely used in manufacturing processed foods. Zero-products that do not contain any carbohydrates or sugars can be used relatively safely even in diabetics because they do not increase blood sugar even after consumption and do not promote insulin secretion.

However, there is still controversy over the improvement of blood sugar when taking alternative sweeteners for a long time, and some studies have published studies showing that they negatively affect the intestinal bacterial population and increase the risk of cardio-cerebrovascular disease. This means that alternative sweeteners should not be considered a healthy alternative to sugar.