"Sugar free drinks" are popular, but are they really healthy?
2022-04-11
In recent years, people pay more and more attention to health and sugar reduction. Therefore, many consumers selectively take "sugar free drinks" on the shelves of convenience stores, and a new blue sea in the subdivided field of beverage industry has been quietly born. So does "sugar free drink" really contain no sugar? Is "sugar free drink" healthy? In the action of healthy China (2019 - 2030), 15 major actions were proposed, including rational diet action, health knowledge popularization action, diabetes prevention and control action, and 124 main indicators, including daily sugar intake less than 25g, edible salt intake less than 5g, edible oil intake between 25g and 30g. There is no doubt that reducing sugar, salt and oil has become a healthy lifestyle strongly advocated in China. According to the "Shanghai Z generation consumers' beverage preference report" released by Shanghai Consumer Protection Commission, many Z generation consumers have expressed increasing concern for their own health and have spontaneously started "anti sugar" and "sugar reduction". The survey results show that generation Z in Shanghai also pursues the "low sugar doctrine" when drinking drinks. They want both a good drink and a lower sugar content. In this context, "sugar free drinks" are highly sought after in the market. Does "sugar free drink" really contain no sugar? According to the national food safety standard general rules for nutrition labeling of prepackaged food, "sugar" is not only the well-known white granulated sugar, but mainly refers to carbohydrates such as monosaccharide (glucose, fructose and galactose), disaccharide (sucrose, lactose and maltose) and polysaccharide (cellulose, plant starch and animal glycogen). "Sugar free food" means that the sugar content in 100 grams of solid or 100 ml of liquid food does not exceed 0.5 grams. Therefore, "sugar free" only limits the content of sugars in food, not without sugar. So why does "sugar free drink" taste sweet? Because it has added sugar substitutes. The sweet source of "sugar free drink" is sugar substitute, which is an additive product with sweet taste to replace sugar food. The common sugar substitute components include erythritol, sucralose, sucralose, acesulfame, aspartame, stevia, cyclamate, saccharin sodium, etc. the sweetness and safety of these sugar substitutes vary greatly. In the current beverage market, cola mainly uses aspartame, while bubble water uses erythritol and other sweeteners. At present, the price of aspartame is about 100 yuan per kilogram, while the market price of aspartame is about 30 yuan per kilogram. However, the sweetness of aspartame is 150 ~ 200 times that of sucrose, while the sweetness of erythritol is 0.6 to 0.7 times that of sucrose. This means that the cost of erythritol is much higher than that of aspartame to achieve the same sweetness. Why does erythritol have to be used in bubble water? This is because erythritol has very low calories. According to the 2021 China sugar free beverage market trend insight report issued by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, erythritol has good functional characteristics such as high thermal stability, coordinated sweetness, zero calorific value and no cariogenic property. Therefore, erythritol is also the preferred high-quality sugar substitute for bubble water. So, is "sugar free drink" healthy? Ruan Guangfeng, director of science and Technology Communication Department of Kexin food and health information exchange center, believes that the sweetener market will continue to grow. After all, in the context of healthy China and sugar reduction (three reductions), the obesity rate will increase, people will have a stronger desire to control weight and eat healthily, and there will be more and more choices of sugar substitute foods. At this stage, if you want to eat something sweet, sweetener is still a better choice. Insiders also pointed out that boiled water must be the healthiest. If you don't have the habit of drinking drinks before, don't deliberately drink sugar free drinks because sugar substitutes have no calories; But compared with sugary drinks, "sugar free drinks" are undoubtedly a healthier choice. (outlook new era)
Edit：Yuanqi Tang Responsible editor：Xiao Yu
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