Thread by @Shrikantha5

#sugar #Healthlessons for the world.

As found out by Ayurveda.
Please note this is a very important wisdom from the Hindus. Please provide attribution to great Hindu sages, Charaka, Sushruta and MadanaPala and so on.

This thread will discuss how to use Sugar and then also explains why this usage is correct as per biochemistry.

Sugar was invented by Hindus. Hindus understood inflammatory processes aided by the sugar and called it Kapha producing. The Kapha adds to corpulence.

So, they always insisted on balancing sugar with spice. The spice that is chosen to reduce Kapha is mostly Clove or Cardamom.
In Hindu cooking these go together.

Sugar increased Kapha and Clove or Cardamom reduced it, so the balance was done using spices. Please do not laugh at me. I will explain the Biochemistry.

Sugar from Cane is sucrose. Sucrose consists of two smaller units called Glucose and Fructose.

When we eat sugar, during digestion the sucrose gets broken down into glucose and fructose and gets absorbed in the gut. In simple terms Sucrose itself cannot pass into the blood. But only smaller molecules of Glucose and Fructose can.

Glucose is absorbed through the intestine by a transepithelial transport system initiated at the apical membrane by the cotransporter SGLT-1; intracellular glucose is then assumed to diffuse across the basolateral membrane through GLUT2

So, body basically poops out Sucrose unless Sucrose is broken down into smaller sugars Glucose and Fructose. This job of breaking down Sucrose into Glucose and Fructose is done by an enzyme called Sucrase.

When you feel hungry Sucrase is released in the gut to break down sugar (Sucrose) into glucose and fructose so that glucose and fructose can be transferred to blood stream. As soon as glucose level goes up in the blood stream sucrase is down regulated.

When sucrase goes down so does the breakdown of sugar into glucose and fructose and hence excess sugar is pooped out.

So, body has own mechanism to stop ingestion of excess sugar into the bloodstream as long as sugar is Sucrose. Hindus invented cane sugar 6000 years ago. Human body has evolved for consuming cane sugar.

But the sugar sold in USA is made from corn/beet and mostly fructose. This molecule is smaller than Sucrose and bypasses the regulation by Sucrase. Whatever you eat goes into your blood and there is no regulation.

Sugar in body increases inflammation and also increases the chance of infection. That is why those who have uncontrolled diabetes get frequent infections. Read my thread on vaccination on how west understood this from India in 1767.

Now comes the part of Cardamom and Clove. West recently understood how this works.
Surprise. Clove actually binds to sucrase and thus stops the sugar from breaking down into glucose and fructose. That is why Hindu cooking insists on adding clove to sugar.

This is a traditional Indian sweet laddu. Do you see a clove?
Sugar increases Kapha or inflammation and clove reduces inflammation by binding to sucrase to down regulate the absorption of sugar.

Reference:
α-Glucosidase Inhibitors from Clove (Syzgium aromaticum)

So key learning here is try checking if the sugar you use is from Cane and if you do not trust capitalism source jaggery from Spanish/Indian Ethnic grocery stores. And start adding clove to counterbalance sugar.
Ayurveda figured this out roughly 3000 years ago!

Be proud of Sanathana. Be proud of Ayurveda.
Spread the knowledge of Yoga and Ayurveda to the world.
World is our family.

Please note I have oversimplified the biochemistry to easier grasp. This is written for a high school student who knows about some biology and chemistry. Actual regulation involves multiple enzymes and clove acts on them too!

I am sure west will fudge this Ayurvedic knowledge without attributing it to the Hindus and create another wonder drug to steal the technology of Indian cooking. So please be on the watch.
Will explain more later on how the fake sugar creates problems such as leaky gut.

Sorry. Forgot to provide the link for that article.
You can check pubmed and other libraries too.
Everyone now knows how the clove works with sugar.

tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.127…