In recent years, as health awareness has increased, many people have begun to discover the health hazards of "sugar", which can accelerate aging, cause obesity, and even high blood cholesterol, diabetes, cancer, endocrine disorders, etc., but still can not resist the sweet temptation, so many companies began to launch many sugar substitutes drinks, desserts, focusing on low calories, but also enjoy the sweet taste, especially under the call for sugar reduction, so that "sugar substitutes" gradually attracted attention. But sugar substitutes and sweeteners are really a good choice to replace sugar?
1. What is sugar substitute?
Sugar substitutes, also known as sweeteners, as the name implies, are substitutes for sugar, and there are many different kinds and have the characteristics of sweetness and low calorie. Nowadays, there are many drinks that claim to be "zero-cal". As long as the calorie content is less than 5 calories per 100 ml, the product can be labeled as "zero calorie".
Sugar substitutes can be divided by source into the following two types.
*Natural sources: Stevia, Mongroside and sugar alcohols such as Erythritol, Sorbitol, Xylitol, Maltitol, etc.
*Synthetic: Saccharin, Neotame, Aspartame, etc.
In fact, sugar substitutes can be divided into two major categories: nutritive sweeteners and non-nutritive sweeteners, depending on whether they have calories or not.
*Nutritional sweeteners: Although they produce calories, the amount of calories per gram is lower than that of sucrose, about 2 to 3 calories, and the common ones are xylitol, sorbitol, and erythritol, which are often added to chewing gum or other foods.
*Non-nutritive sweeteners: sugar substitutes that do not produce calories after consumption, also known as artificial sweeteners, are developed by laboratories, and are usually tens or hundreds of times sweeter than sucrose, such as the earliest sweetener saccharin and often heard of aspartame belongs to this category, commonly used in candies, drinks, snacks and other flavoring.
Currently, the following artificial sweeteners are commonly available on the market.
Saccharin: a non-caloric, synthetic sweetener, 300 times sweeter than sucrose, is not metabolized by decomposition and can be excreted directly from the urine. Saccharin is heat stable and is approved for use in carbonated beverages and preserves.
2. Sweet essence: no heat, synthetic sweetener, sweetness is 30 times that of sucrose, there have been animal experiments found that excessive intake of fear of kidney failure, hypophosphatasia, dermatitis, often used in melon seeds, candied fruit and other products.
Aspartame: no heat, synthetic sweetener, sweetness is 150 to 200 times that of sucrose, can be used in all kinds of food, but heating will make the loss of sweetness, so it is not recommended to use in the need for prolonged heating and baking food, mainly for cold drinks. It is worth noting that it should be avoided by patients with phenylketonuria.
4. Potassium Ace-K: No heat, 200 times sweeter than sucrose, heat stable, can be used in various foods in appropriate amounts.
5. Sucralose: non-caloric, 600 times sweeter than normal cane sugar, heat does not affect sweetness, and can be used in various foods.
As for sweeteners of more natural origin, the common ones are
Stevia: Extracted from herbs of the Asteraceae family, it is 200-300 times sweeter than sucrose and has almost negligible calories.
2. Erythritol: also known as erythritol, exists in many fruits (grapes, pears, etc.), mostly as a low-calorie sweetener and flavor enhancer in food additives, the sweetness of erythritol is 70% of sucrose, with extremely low calorie production, about 0.4 calories per gram, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Union and Japan even allow it to be labeled as 0 calories per gram, which can be said to have almost no calories.
3. Sorbitol: also known as sorbitol, has a fresh feeling, often used in the manufacture of chewing gum or sugar-free candy. It is a nutritional sweetener with a calorie content of about 2.6 calories per gram and a sweetness of about half that of sucrose.
4. Xylitol: It is a natural sweetener often extracted from birch, corn cob, bagasse, etc. It belongs to the sugar alcohol category and produces a cooling sensation in the mouth and does not cause tooth decay, so it is often used in chewing gum or cooling tablets. The sweetness is similar to cane sugar, about 90% of cane sugar.
2. Will sugar substitutes affect health?
Whether sugar substitutes will affect health or not has long been discussed, especially artificial sweeteners such as saccharin and aspartame. "Artificial sweeteners are made in laboratories, so people are inevitably afraid of the health effects, but in fact there is no clear evidence that these artificial sweeteners, which are allowed to be used, will have adverse effects on the human body," said Dr. Jiejian Xiao, attending physician for weight management at the Sanshu Jinying Clinic.
In the early 1970s, saccharin was suspected of causing bladder cancer in experiments on rats, but no clear evidence has been found to link saccharin to cancer in humans, so saccharin has been allowed to be added to beverages and foods in the United States since 2000; aspartame has not yet been scientifically proven to be harmful to human health.
According to the data, the current empirical studies show that sugar substitutes are not carcinogenic, and the FDA has no clear evidence of a link between sugar substitutes and human carcinogenicity. In fact, artificial sweeteners have been researched and tested for many years both inside and outside of China, and are therefore allowed to be used. In Taiwan, there are norms and standards for the use of artificial sweeteners. If the industry follows the norms, it should not cause any discomfort, and most of the foods that use sweeteners are snacks rather than staple foods.
However, it should be noted that since sugar alcohols are difficult to be digested in the intestines, the decomposition process is likely to produce gas accumulation in the stomach and intestines, and if a large amount of sugar alcohols are consumed, it may cause bloating and gastrointestinal discomfort.
The studies that show that sugar substitutes are of concern are mostly conducted in large doses or are animal experiments, so more experiments are needed to prove that sugar substitutes are harmful to humans. However, hospital nutritionists reminded that most sugar substitutes still require artificial assistance in the manufacturing process, especially synthetic sugar substitutes, too much intake will still cause a burden on the human liver and kidneys.
3. Is sugar substitute a good option to replace sugar?
"If you are a diabetic with poor blood sugar control, want to control weight, or to avoid tooth decay, you may be able to moderate intake, the general public do not need to use sugar substitutes," said Shuhui Huang, sugar substitutes will begin to appear, in fact, because some people must control sugar intake, but also want to feel the sweet taste, or some people want to lose weight, control calories, but also want to satisfy the appetite of the mouth, sugar substitutes also have a benefit, is to prevent tooth decay, but also many chewing gum will add sugar alcohol, sweeteners more refined sugar, can reduce the chance of tooth decay, help overweight people control weight, can allow diabetic patients to make suitable food.
"The sweetener is still a better option than refined sugar," but it is worth noting that although sugar substitutes are less likely to affect blood sugar, some sugar substitutes will still raise insulin, and elevated insulin will allow the body to absorb better and slow down the breakdown of fat, so switching to sugar substitutes does not necessarily help with weight loss, and although sugar substitutes can make the tongue feel sweet, but not like real sugar, to satisfy cravings, may instead allow us to Sugar substitutes only sweet taste, no calories, past research found that from the brain's functional MRI shows that sugar substitutes can not fully feed the brain's saturation center, so instead may increase appetite and appetite, until you eat real sugar.
If you want to judge whether it is a relatively good sugar substitute, you can judge it by whether it affects insulin or not.
The American Diabetes Association also recommends that sugar lovers can choose coconut palm sugar as a healthy sugar substitute, which can also give the finished product a unique coconut aroma when baking, or they can use maltitol to bake cakes as a sweetener instead of granulated sugar.
Instead of wondering whether to use sugar substitutes, the fundamental way is to start with prototype foods and let the taste buds feel the natural original taste and sweetness of food, so that gradually you don't need to rely on sugar. She also shared that she would make her own dried fruit to flavor her black tea, adding a slice of dried orange fruit to bring out the natural sweetness of oranges and add more flavor to the tea.
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