SWEETENERS NATURAL
The desire for sweet taste is inborn. The use of honey dates back to 2000 BC but it is sugar which has been the sweetener of choice for centuries.
Sugar is a most important flavoring substance. It gives the sensation of sweetness and provides a source of energy. However, excessive sugar intake is linked with a number of health problems including tooth decay, obesity and diabetes.
The desire for sweet taste is inborn. The use of honey dates back to 2000 BC but it is sugar which has been the sweetener of choice for centuries.
Sugar is a most important flavouring substance. It gives the sensation of sweetness and provides a source of energy. However, excessive sugar intake is linked with a number of health problems including tooth decay, obesity and diabetes.
Alternatives to sugar have therefore been developed which provide the sweetness without the energy content. Saccharin was discovered in 1878 but it was not until the 1950’s, when consumers became interested in low calorie foods, that sweeteners came into significant use.
Alternative sweeteners can be divided into two main categories:
Artificial or intense sweeteners
Many times sweeter than sugar and are therefore typically used at very low levels to replace the sweetness normally provided by sugar
Intense sweeteners are many times sweeter than sugar. A small amount of intense sweetener replaces a large amount of sugar
Bulk sweeteners
Provide both bulk and sweetness. Depending on the individual sweetener, they are 35% to 100% as sweet as sugar and so have similar bulk to sugar.
Sweeteners in food
Obviously sweeteners provide the sweet taste! However, sugar also has other functions in food:
1-provide texture in baked goods
2- is a humectant in cakes (stops them from drying out)
3-lowers the freezing point in ice creams it acts as a preservative in jams it strengthens “mouthfeel” in soft drinks
4- adds bulk to baked goods.
Intense sweeteners cannot provide all of these properties. For example, they cannot replace sugar in cakes because the sugar also adds bulk and stiffness. Possibly the main use of intense sweeteners is in the production of low calorie, or low energy foods. These are especially suitable to people suffering from diabetes. Bulk sweeteners, such as xylitol and malitol, are less sweet but can be used to regulate the texture of the food.
Slimming and sweeteners
The energy in foods is measured in calories . On food labels 1 Calorie (with a capital ‘C’) is equivalent to 1,000 calories or 4.2 kiloJoules (kJ). Foods and drinks that have fewer calories (kcal or kJ) than their traditional counterparts can help prevent obesity or aid people who are trying to lose weight. One way to do this is to replace sugar with a sweet tasting, non-calorific or reduced-calorie sweetener.
Another reason for using sweeteners is in foods and drinks for diabetics. They cannot regulate their blood sugar levels properly and eating a sugary meal could be dangerous. Artificial sweeteners allow diabetics to have sugar-free but sweet-tasting foods.
Foods that typically contain alternative sweeteners include:
1-drinks (carbonated, non- carbonated, milk-based and alcoholic)
2-breakfast cereals
3- confectionery (including chewing gum)
4-desserts, fillings and toppings (ice-cream, sweet whipped cream)
5-processed fruit and vegetable products (jams, jellies, baked beans, canned fruit)
6-medicines syrups salad dressings and condiments
7-baked goods
8-maltitol syrup
9-Description: a sugar alcohol (a polyol) used as a sugar substitute. It has 75-90% of the sweetness of sucrose (table sugar) and nearly identical properties, except for browning. It is used to replace table sugar because it has fewer calories, does not promote tooth decay, and has a somewhat lesser effect on blood glucose.
10-sodium lactate
11-Description: the sodium salt of lactic acid that has a mild saline taste. It is produced by fermentation of a sugar source, such as corn or beets, and then neutralizing the resulting lactic acid.
12-sorbitol and sorbitol syrup
13-Description: a sugar alcohol, which the human body metabolises slowly. It can be obtained by reduction of glucose, changing the aldehyde group to a hydroxyl group.
14-lactitol
15-Description: a sugar alcohol used as a replacement bulk sweetener for low calorie foods with approximately 40% of the sweetness of sugar. It is also used medically as a laxative.
16-xylitol
17-Description: used to denote sugar alcohols) is a sugar alcohol sweetener used as a sugar substitute. It is actively beneficial for dental health, reducing caries to a third in regular use, and has been shown to reduce the incidence of ear infections.
lo-han-kuo extract
18-Description: It is sweet, acidic and cool, It can relieve heat and cool blood, engender liquid and check coughing induce laxation, invigorate the skin, lubricate the lung and eliminate phlegm so that It can be used to prolong life, freshen the complexion, treat heat phlegm, coughing ,throat-swelling constipation and depression.
19-tripotassium glycyrrhizinate
20-Description: mainly applied in pharmaceutical industry with the function of anti-hepatitis virus
21-monopotassium glycyrrhizinate
22-Description: mainly applied in pharmaceutical industry with the function of anti-hepatitis virus
23-ammonium glycyrrhizinate
24-Description: white or yellowish-white crystalline powder, odorless,and has a special sweet taste. It is mainly used in pharmaceuticals and food additives.
25-glycyrrhiza
26-Description: a genus of about 18 accepted species in the legume family (Fabaceae), with a subcosmopolitan distribution in Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Americas.
27-alitame
28-Description: an artificial sweetener developed by Pfizer in the early 1980s and currently marketed in some countries under the brand name Aclame. Like aspartame, alitame is an aspartic acid-containing dipeptide.
29-acesulfame potassium
30-Description: a calorie-free sugar substitute (artificial sweetener), also known as Acesulfame K or Ace K (K being the symbol for potassium), and marketed under the trade names Sunett and Sweet One
31-isomaltulose
32-Description: a disaccharide that is commercially manufactured enzymatically from sucrose via bacterial fermentation. It is a natural constituent of honey and sugar cane and has a very natural sweet taste.
32-erythritol
33-Description: a sugar alcohol (or polyol) that has been approved for use as a food additive in the United States and throughout much of the world.
34-D-mannitol
35-Description: a white, crystalline sugar alcohol with the chemical formula (C6H8(OH)6). It is used as an osmotic diuretic agent and a weak renal vasodilator.
36-sodium saccharin
37-Description: an artificial sweetener. The basic substance, benzoic sulfilimine, has effectively no food energy and is much sweeter than sucrose, but has a bitter or metallic after-taste, especially at high concentrations. It is used to sweeten products such as drinks, candies, cookies, medicines, and toothpaste.
38-sodium cyclamate
39-Description: an artificial sweetener. It is 30–50 times sweeter than sugar (depending on concentration; it is not a linear relationship), making it the least potent of the commercially used artificial sweeteners
40-steviol glycosides
41-Description: Steviol glycosides are responsible for the sweet taste of the leaves of the stevia plant (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni). These compounds range in sweetness from 40 to 300 times sweeter than sucrose
42-Sucralose
43-Description: Sucralose is an artificial sweetener. The majority of ingested sucralose is not broken down by the body, so is noncaloric.[3] In the European Union, it is also known under the E number (additive code) E955.
44-neotame
45-Description: Neotame is an artificial sweetener made by NutraSweet that is between 7,000 and 13,000 times as sweet as sucrose (table sugar). In the European Union, it is known by the E number E961.
46-aspartame
47-Description: an artificial, non-saccharide sweetener used as a sugar substitute in some foods and beverages.
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