As a six-year old kid with a sweet tooth, I would always ask my grandfather what sugar-free meant. Of course, he had diabetes and would drink a diet soda instead of the regular one that I used to have when we ate out at the mall. At a certain point, my grandmother would buy sugar-free ice cream and I always wondered what they would taste like. Like how the Professor added sugar with spice and everything nice to make the Powerpuff Girls, as a child, I used to associate sweetness with just sugar – that white powder that smells so sweet and ants would go after. I didn’t know what sugar-free meant because my parents said it isn’t for kids. But what I realized now is that sugar-free is far from being “not-sweet”. In fact, what I learned is that it is sweeter than sweet but in a different sort of way.
Common table sugar, that nice thing I just described, is chemically known as sucrose – a disaccharide of fructose and glucose. It is harvested from sugar cane and milled and refined to be the sugar we use in our coffee or in our pancakes or what mommy might add in her cupcakes. It is the most common sweetener used in a lot of products that we consider a taste of heaven. Of course, sugar is bedeviled by the fact that people afflicted by chronic conditions like diabetes or extreme obesity can no longer just enjoy the normally sweet delights. The main reasons why sugar is avoided include assisting in weight loss, taking care of the teeth, dealing with conditions like diabetes mellitus and reactivehypoglycemia. My parents were right when they said sugar-free isn’t for kids, probably because they knew when I grew up, I would probably have to get used to a life without sugar.
So was I right when, as a child, I thought these sugar-free products, were, in fact, not sweet at all and that having diabetes was to be condemned to such a miserable life? That wasn’t true at all thanks to artificial sweeteners. Some of the well-known artificial sweeteners include saccharin, aspartame, sucralose, neotame, acesulfame potassium and stevia. Let’s focus on two sweeteners that you’ll probably regularly find in the food labels of your favorite brand of sugar-free deserts.
One of the most well known, and controversial, artificial sweeteners still allowed in the Philippines is Aspartame or dipeptide aspartylphenylalanine methyl ester. First synthesized in 1965, it is also known by its commericial name of NutraSweet. Though 200 times sweeter than sucrose, its calorie per teaspoon content compared to sucrose is 1:16. In the Philippines, you’ll probably find Aspartame in your favorite diet soda. It can degrade at very high temparatures to its constituent amino acids so it is important to remember not to use it when you bake sugar-free cupcakes! Though approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) way back in 1981, there has been a lot of speculation that this sweetener is not sweet at all to a person’s health. The introduction of a bill filled by Sen. Miriam Santiago in the 14thCongress actually calls Aspartame as “by far, the most dangerous substance on the market that is added to foods.” However, the U.S. FDA has continues to insist that aspartame is safe for human regular consumption.
Another much older sweetener is saccharin or benzoic sulfimide. First produced in 1878, saccharin is also sweeter than sugar and has very negligible calorie contribution. However, it has a characteristic bitter aftertaste that makes it necessary to often use saccharin with other sweeteners. Though also unstable at higher temperatures, it mostly does not react with other food ingredients and is therefore ideal for high shelf-life products. In most countries, saccharin is used together with aspartame in diet soda. It is interesting to note that, like aspartame, it had a rough history with its approval as a sweetener marred by controversy and speculation of its carcinogenic properties. Today, most countries allow for its use and others that had previously banned this special sweetener have now allowed it.
Sugar free might not be so liberating after all, despite the freedom from calories, which we think we get from using these sweeteners. Aside from the possible, undetermined risk of cancer among other things, the freedom might lull us to a sense of complacency. I can drink five cans when I used to just drink one because it doesn’t really matter in terms of sugar content. This is, of course, a recipe for disaster. It is a misnomer to think that sugar free products actually give a license for unlimited consumption. It is not as if we are eating nothing and this may be hard to remember when we get products that have the “sugar free” label. As with my experience with my own family, moderation, not artificial sweeteners, is the real key to a healthier life. “Sugar free” may allow people like me who just need the delight of sweetness to enjoy it despite any health conditions, but, as Spiderman would say, with great power, comes great responsibility. “Sugar free” may also mean a warning sign. Health is not about “cheating sugar” but understanding that to be healthy is vigilant moderation.
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