Dextrose Uses in Food and Medicine
Dextrose, like the other simple monosaccharides fructose, galactose, and glucose, is often an ingredient in foods and medicines as an artificial sweetener. Unlike other sweeteners, dextrose is derived from the starch of corn. As a food and ingredient supplier, Bell Chem ensures its pure dextrose is food and pharmaceutical grade for your growing business.
Medical industry
Glucose is manufactured within the human body. When internal mechanisms fail and the body is not able to produce adequate amounts of blood glucose, the body negatively reacts by altering brain functionality and metabolic processes. Physicians often intervene with intravenous dextrose. Dextrose is chemically identical to glucose, so the body is able to utilize it in the same methods it would with glucose and raise low blood sugar levels rapidly. Dextrose tablets or gels are often prescribed for patients prone to episodes of low blood sugar.
When the body’s ready stores of water are depleted, it becomes dehydrated. Most of the time drinking water alleviates dehydration, but sometimes medical intervention is necessary if a patient is not able to take in water orally. Dextrose is added to a saline solution given intravenously in the form of a rehydration drip.
Patients who are unable to take in food on a regular basis rely on dextrose, amino acids, and other nutrients to boost their caloric and nutritional intake and remove the risk of malnourishment. Dextrose is the carbohydrate component of the body’s main 3 nutritional components of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and fats may be given in many forms. Together these make up total parenteral nutrition (TPN) for patients unable to regularly consume liquids or solids.
Hyperkalemia is a medical condition where potassium levels are elevated. Dextrose followed by insulin is often administered since cells taking in dextrose are also taking in potassium, thereby lowering the potassium levels of the blood.
Alcohol intoxication is also treated with dextrose. In alcohol intoxication, the liver is no longer able to remove all the alcohol from the blood quickly enough and body systems begin to relax, including the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Intravenous fluid with 50% dextrose cleanses the blood of alcohol as it feeds the liver much-needed energy to repair and work properly.
Foods and beverages
Dextrose is dried or crystallized from corn or wheat starch, then added as a liquid or powder ingredient in foods and beverages. Not surprisingly, high fructose corn syrup contains dextrose. This product is used frequently in beverages and cereals, baked goods and packaged foods.
When foods are overly spicy or salty, dextrose is able to stabilize the flavors since it is only 80% as sweet as sucrose, thereby not overpowering the other flavors.
Some foodstuffs, such as jams, experience a longer shelf life with the addition of dextrose since it acts as a preservative.
Bodybuilders and other extreme athletes rapidly deplete energy stores when working out on a punishing schedule. Dextrose replenishes glycogen stored in the liver. Quickly restoring glycogen allows muscles to retain strength and add bulk.
Bell Chem is a food and ingredient supplier based in Longwood, FL (just north of Orlando) with hundreds of products stocked in their 50,000+ square-foot warehouse, including CSANTM sanitation products. You can expect the highest quality products, expedited shipping options for maximum efficiency, and unrivaled personalized customer service. Let our knowledgeable and friendly customer service representatives and accounting staff personalize all your needs by either calling 407-339-BELL (2355) or by sending us an online message.