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Sweetness and low-calorie sweeteners

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  • What is sweetness?
  • Sweet means "pleasing" to the taste. And sweetness is the pleasure or enjoyment that comes from food that tastes sweet. The desire for the pleasure of sweetness has a strong influence on what people choose to eat and drink. Since early times, people have sought out foods with sweet taste; for example, drawings on the walls of Egyptian tombs show bee-keepers collecting honey and sugar cane was grown in India some 2000 years ago. Today, sucrose, or table sugar, is the taste standard by which all other sweeteners are measured. An "ideal" sweetener tastes like sucrose, is colourless, odourless, readily soluble, stable and economical. Some sweeteners, like sugar, contain calories. And some are low-calorie or calorie-free.
  • Is it natural for people to desire foods and beverages that taste sweet?
  • People prefer foods and beverages that taste sweet. And they tend to avoid things that taste bitter. This preference for sweetness begins at birth -- the sweeter the bottle, the more baby drinks. Babies respond to a sweet taste with a facial expression that says, "I'm happy and I like this." Early man may have relied on this innate preference for survival: sweet fruits, berries and vegetables tend to be safe to eat, and sometimes bitter foods are dangerous to eat. This natural desire for sweetness and the habits that come from culture and experience both influences what people choose to eat and drink throughout life.
  • Are sweet foods OK to eat?
  • Sweet foods provide pleasure, and they also help improve food acceptance and palatability. And this is why sweetness can play a powerful role in determining what and how much people eat. But with the abundance of affordable food in many parts of the world today, people often eat too much food and consume too many calories. So, an important health goal is to include the pleasure of sweet foods without taking in too many calories. Fortunately, there are several ways that sweet foods can fit into a calorie-balanced and healthy lifestyle. Using low-calorie sweeteners is one way that people can have the pleasure of sweetness without too many calories.
  • Can a healthy diet include sweet foods and beverages?
  • A healthy diet provides all of the essential nutrients that your body needs to promote health, support a fit and active life, and reduce your risk of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, diabetes or cancer. A healthy diet includes a variety of foods: cereals and grains; fruits and vegetables; protein foods such as meats, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts and vegetables; milk and other dairy products like cheese or yoghurt; and small amounts of fats and oils. A diet that includes moderate amounts of sweet foods adds positive value to the eating experience by improving taste and palatability.
  • What are low-calorie sweeteners?
  • Low-calorie sweeteners provide a sweet taste without calories, or with very few calories. Most low-calorie sweeteners are not digested by the body and provide no calories. An exception is aspartame, which is metabolised naturally. But since aspartame is approximately 200 times sweeter than sucrose, only a tiny amount of aspartame (1/10 of a kilocalorie) is needed to equal the sweetness of a teaspoon of sugar (16 kilocalories). Low-calorie sweeteners are also called "non-nutritive sweeteners", "intense sweeteners", "high intensity sweeteners", "high potency sweeteners” or "alternative sweeteners".

    The first low-calorie sweetener, saccharin, was discovered in 1878. And since then, a number of other low-calorie sweeteners including cyclamate, aspartame, acesulfame-K, aspartame-acesulfame salt, neohesperidine DC, thaumatin, and sucralose have been produced and used around the world.

    The consumption of low-calorie sweeteners continues to increase. And consumer demand for low-calorie foods and beverages has been the major force behind this growth. The increasing interest in a health-conscious lifestyle and advances in food technology are pushing the development of more and better tasting low-calorie foods and beverages. In 2002, in terms of sugar equivalence, the global intense sweeteners market grew by 4.3%; global consumption of sugar, in comparison, grew by 3.1% (Source: LMC International). Low calorie sweeteners in 2002 accounted for almost 11% of the overall sweetener market compared to about 8% in 1990.
  • What are the benefits of using low-calorie sweeteners?
  • Low-calorie sweeteners provide consumers with calorie-smart choices that give pleasure. People around the world are increasingly health, weight and fitness conscious. But they also continue to seek the pleasure of sweetness and good taste. Low-calorie sweeteners give weight-conscious and calorie-conscious consumers products that satisfy their desire for sweet pleasure without extra calories. The big benefit: saved calories to lose weight; or, to help maintain weight as part of a fit and healthy lifestyle.

    But that's not all. Low-calorie sweeteners have been shown to play a useful role in helping people lose and maintain weight. Preventing obesity is an important factor in reducing the risk of Type II diabetes or non-insulin dependent diabetes (NIDDM). And although including moderate amounts of sugar in a diabetic diet is OK, low-calorie sweeteners make it possible to include a greater variety of sweet foods without adding too many calories.

    Low-calorie sweeteners are also beneficial in the management of and the reduction of dental caries (tooth decay). Since low-calorie sweeteners cannot be used by oral bacteria that cause tooth decay, foods and beverages sweetened with low-calorie sweeteners aid in the promotion of dental health. Low-calorie sweeteners are also used in oral hygiene products for the same reason.