Wen 丨1DU Finance
Recently, "post-90s dare not look at the physical examination report" on the hot search. Even without 996 and without workplace PUA, the post-90s physical examination report is also the word "instigation". No, Lisa has been depressed lately: the fasting blood glucose value reached 6.1mmol/L, and the doctor warned her: blood sugar is the highest value in the normal range, you are still young, you must pay attention.
Lisa couldn't figure it out, "In the past two years, I have been busy at work, overworked, gained nearly 10 pounds, have no time to exercise and can only control my diet, and rarely eat snacks, even if I eat, it is generally low-sugar low-calorie, or even 0-sugar 0 calorie, I dare to eat, I really can't imagine ah, so I still get caught." ”
After ruling out physical functions and genetic factors, the dietitian said after listening to Lisa talk about eating habits: "It may be the disaster of "0 sugar", the so-called 0 zero is not sugar-free, and eating too much is also prone to problems. ”
"0 sugar 0 calorie", is the concept of more popular in recent years, once proposed, soon become a new dietary trend, 0 sugar drinks, 0 sugar biscuits, 0 sugar children's cheese, even can be imported can be transformed into "healthy 0 sugar food".
But, are these "0 sugars" really 0 zeros?
01、 Everything can be 0 sugar?
After the first shot of "0 sugar" fired by Yuanqi Forest, when "0 sugar" was mentioned, the first thing consumers thought of was the sparkling water of Yuanqi Forest.
In fact, in recent years, there have been more and more "zero sugar", low-fat, low-calorie foods on the market. Taobao, Little Red Book and other Apps search for "0 sugar", tens of thousands of goods will "jump" to the eye, carbonated drinks are regular, 0 sugar ice cream is also welcomed by everyone.
According to the survey, ice cream with non-milk formula, low sugar, low fat, ketogenic friendly and other ingredients has become a new trend in the development of cold drink desserts in 2021. India's Habbit Health Nutrition recently launched a series of ice creams known as "the healthiest ice creams on the planet," which contain zero sugar and contain no more than 50 calories per serving.
There are also foods such as bread and cakes, which have always been representatives of high sugar and high calories, but now there are also companies dedicated to the development of 0 sugar bread, puffs and so on.
The development of the low-sugar and low-fat industrial chain abroad is more comprehensive, and even the sauce has 0 sugar. There are many Little Red Book bloggers who have shared foreign sauces, such as Walden Farms' salad dressing, look at the ingredient list is 0 sugar, 0 calories, 0 fat, 0 carbs, the taste is a little more sour than normal salad dressing, but it is very delicious to mix vegetables. There is also Walden Farms' chocolate sauce, although the taste is a little worse, but it is also 0 sugar, 0 fat, known as very healthy.
The trend of zero sugar has also spread to alcoholic products. RIO has also introduced zero sugar wine, so that drinking alcohol is no longer a burden when losing weight. "0 sugar is also delicious, the body is light and responsible" has attracted many young people to place orders.
But is 0 sugar the same thing as consumers understand sugar-free?
02, "0 sugar" is a false proposition?
Let's first look at the wind direction of the policy.
It was reported that in March 2018, Yuanqi Forest (Beijing) Food Technology Group Co., Ltd., the main company of Yuanqi Forest, was administratively punished by the Haidian Branch of the Food and Drug Administration, confiscating more than 40,000 yuan of yuan of illegal gains of Yuanqi Forest and fining more than 280,000 yuan. The reason for the penalty was that the main company of Yuanqi Forest violated the first paragraph (9) and paragraph 3 of Article 67 of the Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China, which are some relevant provisions of product packaging and labeling.
However, it was not until April this year that Yuanqi Forest apologized to consumers for improperly promoting "0 sucrose" products. Many netizens commented: "Yuanqi Forest is afraid of being punished again, so it takes the initiative to stand up and tell consumers that "0 sugar" is not equal to '0 sugar'. ”
According to the formula table, yuanqi forest milk tea is added to the crystalline fructose, this sugar and sucrose can be absorbed by the human body, the human body may form fat after absorption, resulting in fat, so "0 sucrose" is not equal to "0 sugar".
That is to say, most of the "0 sugar" products are actually word games played by merchants.
China's "General Principles of Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Food" points out that in the case of less than 0.5g/100g (solid) or 100mL (liquid) in food, it can be marked as "sugar-free food" on the production label; if the calorie does not exceed 17 kJ, it can be marked as "zero".
This also means that "0 sugar" is not really "0 sugar".
Some manufacturers like to add artificial sweeteners, that is, sugar substitutes, to food and beverages to achieve the so-called "0 sugar". For example, the sparkling water of the Yuanqi Forest contains the sweetener erythritol.
Are there any side effects of artificial sweeteners? Studies have shown that artificial sweeteners may affect the health of the gut, causing the digestive system to produce adverse symptoms.
According to a paper published in 2019 by the authoritative journal "Advanced Nutrition", some artificial sweeteners similar to sucralose and stevia may reduce the number of beneficial bacteria in the intestine and hinder the growth of beneficial bacteria, which can lead to imbalances in the intestine, further leading to gastrointestinal conditions such as spasms and flatulence.
Although the "0 sugar" products on the market are not really 0 sugar, and sweeteners are also very prone to side effects, the food and beverage industry still takes "0 sugar" as an important selling point for marketing. And this has also become the point of consumer complaints.
Some netizens said that RIO's "0 sugar" cocktail, although the product label said "0 sugar", but in the product's Jingdong product detail page prompted that the juice content of the cocktail ≥ 1.5%. If juice is added, can it still be called a sugar-free drink in the strict sense?
More merchants also do not let go of the food that children eat. Miaofei's 0 sugar cheese has always said that it is "0 sucrose" in the publicity, but if you look through the ingredient list, you can find that the cheese also contains various ingredients such as crystalline fructose, polydextrose, erythritol and so on.
There is also the upgraded "0 sugar" version of Oreo, there are Little Red Book bloggers complaining, the formula is still the formula of the past, although less sugar, but the calories are still very high, the new model is only 5kcal less than the original, the taste is still very sweet. Even without sugar, it didn't make Oreo healthier.
From the current situation, "0 sugar" has invaded all kinds of snacks, consumers are not completely unprepared, and the national regulatory authorities have also shot, so why do so many manufacturers still have to rush to launch "0 sugar" products?
03. Why are manufacturers scrambling to enter the game?
According to the survey of the "2021 Netizen Body Anxiety Report", 54.1% of netizens are not satisfied with their body, and 46.4% of netizens believe that they need to lose weight at this stage. From the perspective of purchasing behavior, the report said that consumers are willing to try new products, with 36% of them willing to try low-calorie and low-fat snacks. The main motivation for young people to buy low-calorie and low-fat foods is to lose weight, and the second reason is to prevent obesity.
In fact, there are many ways to lose weight and live a healthy life, such as going to bed early, and then exercising more. But eating healthy food is obviously easier than going to bed early and exercising more, and eating does not require too much sweat to give yourself psychological hints: "I eat healthy food, I live a healthy life."
From the perspective of various social platforms, the evaluation of the sugar content, calories, protein components, etc. of health products and meal replacement products is becoming more and more popular among young people, and everyone has a higher and higher pursuit of eating health.
But consumers have also paid a lot of "IQ tax" for this.
So we have seen the yuanqi forest, WonderLab and other new brands that focus on healthy snacks, and also see the innovation of classic snacks such as wahaha and Oreo, and everyone wants to catch up with this new wave of consumption.
However, for the old brands, they are stuck in the dilemma of innovation. At its peak, the annual sales of 20 billion yuan of nutrition express is a beverage that many consumers drink from small to large, and the product is fully renovated 15 years after the advent of the company, and the company launched a new version of the low-sugar version of the nutrition express.
Mr. Dirk Van de Put, CEO of Oreo's parent company, has publicly expressed his views that they have found that low-sugar and sugar-free diets are popular on social media in China, but the current zero-sugar cookie products on the market are limited, so they have developed and launched Oreo with zero sugar.
However, the low-sugar version of the Nutrition Express and the 0-sugar Oreo did not continue the original buying boom. When nutrition express was at its most popular in 2009, a large number of dealers waited outside the factory door, and dealers could sell at a higher price as long as they could mention the goods.
Now, open Taobao, the monthly sales of the low-sugar version of the nutrition express line in each store are about several hundred pieces, and the sales volume is much worse than the classic version of the nutrition express line at the peak. The improved 0-sugar version of Oreo also sold well, with oreo CEO saying in an interview with Reuters that "the consumer response was a bit disappointing."
Wahaha's new product "Angry Meow" that went on sale last summer has the meaning of benchmarking Yuanqi Forest Sparkling Water, and Wang Yibo became a spokesperson for a short time to make "Angry Meow" angry for a while, but then the sales volume gradually decreased.
Several of Wahaha's new products have traces of "imitating" the explosion of new brands, and it is difficult to say that they are completely innovative. Zong Qinghou once bluntly said in the CCTV "Dialogue" column that the reason for Wahaha's decline is the lack of innovation. This is also a problem faced by many old brands, innovation is difficult, it can only be led by new brands such as Yuanqi Forest.
This generation of consumers is indeed harder to please. The lack of innovation by manufacturers has made consumers less interested in most "copy+paste" products. Consumers have also popularized what is the real "0 sugar" through the example of brand rollover in the past one or two years, and have a more stringent judgment on the same low-sugar low-calorie snacks.
Write at the end
More and more "low-sugar, low-calorie" snacks are being brought to market by manufacturers, which is certainly a good thing for people who pursue a healthy life. But in terms of publicity, manufacturers have the obligation to sincerely tell the public what is really a healthy snack. Manufacturers should also increase their research and development efforts, so that the real health food is popular in the market, and it is certainly not feasible to sell goods by stealing the concept.