Introduction: When considering your own health, when deciding to reduce the proportion of sugar and calories in your diet, you will occasionally consider using sweetening additives or sugar substitutes instead of ordinary edible sugars. This seems to be a more fashionable and reasonable choice. In line with the principle of being responsible for food and responsible for our own health, we need to understand what sweetening additives are, what sugar substitutes are, and what exactly we eat.
With the global epidemic of high blood sugar and excessive weight, more and more food manufacturers have turned their attention to sugar substitutes. Currently, more and more sugar substitutes and other sweetening additives are being used in foods and beverages, which are labeled as "natural sugars," "sugar-free," or "low calories." What exactly are these things?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="35" > starts with sweetness</h1>
People's perception of taste such as sweetness is due to the G protein-coupled receptors distributed by taste bud cells, which combine with some specific chemical structures in the outside world, which can produce a series of reactions, form nerve signals transmitted to the brain, and form a sense of taste. The sweetened chemicals all have a similar chemical structure, i.e. a hydrogen bond donor (AH) and a Lewis base. This theory also applies to sweeteners, including sugar substitutes.
By definition, sweetener additives contain any sweetener that is sweeter than white sugar (sugar substitutes are only one of the sweetener additives). In the category of sweetener additives, there are mainly the following four main categories:
Sugar substitute | sugar substitute refers specifically to sweetening additives that do not come from natural products, but from laboratories. Usually contains low or zero calories.
Including: acesulfame potassium, aspartame, neo sweetener, saccharin, sucralose, etc.
Sugar alcohols | refers to the reduction of aldehyde groups or ketones on sugar molecules to hydroxyl groups to form sugar alcohol compounds. Due to the presence of hydrogen bond donors and Lewis bases, sweetness can be produced, often containing a certain amount of heat.
Including: erythritol, hydrogenated starch, isomaltitol, lactitol, maltitol, mannitol, sorbitol, xylitol and so on.
The new sweetener | refers to some sweeteners that have been gradually developed in recent years. Usually contains a certain amount of calories.
Includes: Stevia, tagloids, trehalose.
Natural sweeteners | refer to sweeteners that are extracted from natural compounds without any chemical modifications. Usually contains a certain amount of calories.
Contains: Agave nectar, date sugar, juice concentrate sugar, honey, maple syrup, syrup.
At present, different food manufacturers will use different methods to label food ingredients. Some manufacturers will use exaggerated fonts on food packaging to indicate "no chemical additives". In fact, as long as there is a refining process, even if it is natural sugar, it can be regarded as chemical additives. So don't be superstitious about the ads of merchants, pick up the goods, look carefully at the labels, and look for products that suit you.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="243" > benefits of sugar substitutes</h1>
Sugar substitutes bring many benefits to people's lives and are widely used in clinical and daily life.
Clinical application >>>
One of the traits of people who lose weight | sugar substitute is that they don't provide a little calorie to the human body. Ordinary carbohydrates, on the other hand, can provide 4 calories per gram for the human body. A spoonful of regular sugar is about 5 grams, which is 20 calories. A can of Coca-Cola contains 37g of sugar, which is 148 kcal. For people who lose weight, daily calorie intake needs to be restricted, so sugar substitutes are a more suitable choice than ordinary sugar products with 4 calories per gram.
Diabetics | for diabetics, sugar substitutes may be a good choice. Because strictly speaking, sugar substitutes do not belong to the category of carbohydrates. That is to say, after ingesting sugar substitutes, blood sugar does not fluctuate. This is very beneficial for diabetics. However, in the current market, the labeling of commodity food labels on the market is not uniform, which is easy to cause confusion among consumers. In addition, many foods advertise "special foods for diabetics", but only sweetener additives use sugar substitutes, but in fact contain a lot of carbohydrates. After human consumption, it will still cause blood sugar fluctuations, so diabetics can not eat too much at a time.
Dental care | common sugars are more likely to cause microorganisms to multiply in the surface area of the teeth, causing oral problems such as tooth decay. Sugar substitutes do not have this problem. Therefore, for children, who are susceptible to tooth decay, sugar substitutes are not a solution, but care should be taken to control the dosage and exclude the effects of other potential sugars.
Patients with stress hypoglycemia | stress hypoglycemia produce excess insulin in their bodies after ingesting common sugars. This reaction can cause symptoms of postprandial hypoglycemia. Sugar substitutes avoid this insulin surge, which avoids a rapid drop in blood sugar. Therefore, for patients with stress hypoglycemia, it is a good choice to avoid eating foods with too high glycemic index, such as white bread, and at the same time replace ordinary sugars with sugar substitutes.
>>> for non-clinical applications
As a substitute for sugar| sugar substitute tastes very close to ordinary sugars. In particular, a variety of sugar substitutes will also improve their taste, while only low or zero calorie intake. Therefore, sugar substitutes can be used as a substitute for sugar.
Enhance and expand product flavor| take aspartame, for example, which enhances and expands the flavor of fruits, such as cherry and orange-flavored products. In chewing gum, aspartame can make the product sweeter and prolong the duration of the taste.
The cost | most sugar substitutes are cheaper than ordinary sugars.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="244" > health hazards caused by sugar substitutes</h1>
Although the sugar substitute itself does not contain calories, in some experiments with unrestricted eating in mice, it has been shown that the mice in the sugar substitute group gained weight faster than the control group. The explanation given by the researchers for this conclusion is [1], that sweetness induces the secretion of insulin in the body, which in turn causes cells to absorb more blood sugar from the bloodstream and convert it to more fat storage. Because the intake of sugar substitutes does not raise blood sugar, the organism's own blood sugar will be lowered, and it is more likely to have symptoms of hypoglycemia. Under dietary restrictions, the low-glycemic mice would eat more feed, resulting in more weight gain. At this point, we may wonder whether sugar substitutes can really replace sugar.
First of all, let's take a look at what kinds of sugar substitutes are. According to different sources, there are three categories: natural extracts, chemical modification (semi-synthetic) products of natural products, and pure chemical synthesis products. At present, there are bulk supplies of natural extracts mainly including stevia extract and oromegame, chemically modified products of natural products such as aspartame, neosweet and sucralose, and pure chemical synthetic products such as saccharin, cyclamate and acesulfame potassium.
Natural extracts >>>
Stevioside – Stevia is a derivative of stevia extracted from plants. Although it is a natural ingredient, it does not mean that it is safe and non-toxic. The US FDA has established the maximum amount of stevia added to food and forced manufacturers to label stevia on the label. Some countries in Europe have not adopted the "add stevia to food" regulation.
Chemically modified products of natural products >>>
Aspartame | aspartame is one of the more controversial sugar substitutes. In the body, aspartame can be completely broken down into an amino acid, aspartic acid, phenylpropanine and a very small amount of ethanol. These decomposing elements are abundant in common foods, such as meat, milk, fruits, vegetables, etc. So their metabolic pathways are the same as other foods, and they don't produce different pathways because they're sugar substitutes.
Some animal experiments have shown that aspartame has antipyretic, analgesic, and anti-inflammatory effects, and can also alleviate symptoms such as pain and limited mobility caused by chronic rheumatoid arthritis [2]. But the mechanism is not clear.
There is also a lot of research on the threats that aspartame poses to health. Because many people claim that aspartame produces headaches and other health problems, Duke University and other institutions have adopted double-blind experiments, and the results show that there is no significant difference in headache frequency and blood pressure between the experimental group that consumes aspartame and the control group that consumes ordinary sugars [3]. There have been reports of allergic reactions to aspartame in sensitive people, such as symptoms such as rashes and dysphagia [4]. There is no clear mechanism for directly linking aspartame to allergic reactions, possibly diketopiperazine, a breakdown product of aspartame, causing allergic reactions. Data show that allergic reactions due to aspartame are no more numerous than with placebo [5]. Also in terms of cancer incidence, mouse experiments have shown that aspartame is not more carcinogenic than placebo [6].
The European Food Safety Organization in 2013 [7] has announced that, based on current research, aspartame is a sweetening additive that can be safely used.
Neotame | neotame is very sweet, more than 40 times as sweet as asparta. Neoteme is a derivative of aspartame, but is more structurally stable than aspartame and therefore serves as a sweetener for baked goods. Because the price of new sweet is much higher than that of aspartame, and because it is too sweet, it is not convenient to use in small doses, so the current degree of application is not high.
Sucralose | also known as sucralose (TGS), and its use has a long history. The main concern about sucralose is that it belongs to organic chlorides, and most of the organic chlorides are toxic. However, sucralose is not toxic to living organisms because sucralose does not dissolve and accumulate in lipids like other organic chlorides, nor is it broken down during routine digestion and absorption. Therefore, sucralose is considered a safe sugar substitute.
Pure chemical synthetic products >>>
Saccharin | the use of saccharin dates back a century and has a long history of industrialization. Animal tests have shown that foods containing saccharin affect the metabolic system and lead to symptoms such as weight gain and obesity [8]. High doses of saccharin form crystals in mouse urine, which cause damage to cells and are carcinogenic. Since the structure of human urine is different from that of mice, this crystallization does not occur in human urine. At present, most countries limit the amount of saccharin added to prevent excessive saccharin addition from affecting the human body.
Acesulfame potassium | Acesulfame potassium is a sugar substitute recognized for its good taste and strong sweetness. It is very stable and does not decompose even during machining at very high temperatures. It is also very soluble and widely used in processed foods.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="245" > polar view</h1>
At present, sweetening additives are widely used in the food market, and their benefits to our body are supported by a lot of evidence, such as blood sugar control, dental care and assisted weight loss.
The mechanism of action of various types of sugar substitutes for the human body is not clear, and it is not appropriate to completely replace the sugar substitutes for daily use.
We need to carefully choose the type and dosage of sugar substitutes we eat from various angles such as safety, nutrition, taste, etc., and if necessary, consult a dietitian or doctor to choose the appropriate sugar substitute.
Write | Xingbo MS
Proofreader | Haoran PHD| Xinyin PHD, RD
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Reference
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[2] RAMSLAND P A, MOVAFAGH B F, REICHLIN M et al. Interference of rheumatoid factor activity by aspartame, a dipeptide methyl ester[J]. Journal of molecular recognition: JMR, 1999, 12(5): 249–257.
[3] SCHIFFMAN S S, BUCKLEY C E, SAMPSON H A et al. Aspartame and susceptibility to headache[J]. The New England Journal of Medicine, 1987, 317(19): 1181–1185.
[4] RASTOGI S, ZAKRZEWSKI M, SURYANARAYANAN R. Investigation of solid-state reactions using variable temperature X-ray powder diffractrometry. I. Aspartame hemihydrate[J]. Pharmaceutical Research, 2001, 18(3): 267–273.
[5] GEHA R, BUCKLEY C E, GREENBERGER P et al. Aspartame is no more likely than placebo to cause urticaria/angioedema: results of a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study[J]. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 1993, 92(4): 513–520.
[6] MALLIKARJUN S, SIEBURTH R M. Aspartame and Risk of Cancer: A Meta-analytic Review[J]. Archives of Environmental & Occupational Health, 2015, 70(3): 133–141.
[7] Aspartame | European Food Safety Authority[EB/OL]. [2016-12-13]. http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/topics/topic/aspartame.
[8] HAMPTON T. Sugar substitutes linked to weight gain[J]. JAMA, 2008, 299(18): 2137–2138