Sugar, oh no. Please, don't! Or just a little. There is a lot of debate, discussion, and philosophizing about sugar. But one thing is certain. Sugar is a useful substance for our physical well-being.
What is sugar?
Another name for sugar is sucrose, which we know as cubed or granulated sugar. Monosaccharides, such as B glucose or disaccharides, and cube sugar (sucrose) are defined as sugar from a food-regulation point of view. But how is sugar produced in the first place?
How is sugar made?
Sugar is mainly extracted from sugar beet. The process of making sugar includes these steps:
- After harvesting, the sugar beet is cleaned and sliced
- Sugar beet chips are mixed with hot water in extraction tanks
- The sugar contained in the sugar beet chips is diffused, producing raw juice
- Raw sugar is purified and filtered – non-sugar substances are bound in the juice
- After the evaporation process, the sugar is crystallized to produce granulated sugar
Sugar and possible alternatives
Sugar often has a bad reputation and is considered unhealthy. Does it contribute to weight gain and bad teeth? In recent years there have been contradicting views on nutrition. We all remember the days when fat was to be banned from our diets because deemed unhealthy. Now there are categories of fat – “good fat” – as opposed to “bad fat.” So, what about sugar? Should sugar be avoided and, if so, what are the alternatives?
What is sugar-free?
Foods containing less than 0.5% residual sugar are defined as sugar-free. These products have fewer calories than sugary ones and have little effect on insulin or blood sugar levels.
What is sugar-reduced?
According to the Food Act, foods may be advertised as reduced in sugar if the sugar content is at least 30% lower than competing products.
Sugar Substitutes
Sugar can be replaced with natural sweeteners. Scaled sugar substitutes as presented below.
Fructo-Oligosaccharide (FOS)
Fructo-oligosaccharides, such as inulin from the chicory root, are oligo- and polysaccharides, which have a sweetness of 30 – 50% compared to sugar. However, because FOS has a relatively high residual sugar content of 5-12%, its use as a sugar substitute is less suitable.
Polyols
Polyols are produced by the hydrogenation of sugars and are used for sugar-free products. Most of the time, polyols such as maltitol, xylitol, sorbitol, or isomaltose are used. However, since these sugar substitutes have a lower sweetening power than sugar, potent sweeteners such as stevia, glycosides, sucralose or aspartame still need to be used. Polyols also have fewer calories than, for example, sugar.
For many, however, these polyols are difficult to digest and can cause abdominal cramps or diarrhea. Therefore, it must also be labeled on the packaging, according to food regulations.
Erythritol
Erythritol is a polyol but is considered to be significantly more tolerable than the previously mentioned polyols. It has a pleasant taste but is less 50-70% less sweet, requiring other stronger sweeteners.
Allulose
Allulose is in a mono-saccharide and thus a sugar. Currently, allulose is considered a novel food in the EU and must be approved. Allulose is approved for use in the USA, and is used in various products on the market.
Allulose’s effect on blood sugar levels is similar to that of polyol’s. But it is 70% less sweet compared to sugar. Since allulose is sugar, it cannot be used in sugar-free foods.
Why sugar is used in Innutri products
Sugar substitute or sugar? Oh no, oh yes. What now? At Innutri we have a simple opinion on the importance of sugar. We use natural sugar but in smaller quantities. That is why Innutri products are approved and labeled as “sugar-reduced.”
For the human body, a moderate amount of sugar can be beneficial. For this reason, we believe that sugar, at a low dosage, has fewer adverse effects than “sugar-free substitutes.” This is in line with the findings of studies and most nutritionists.
Sugar has an impact on taste, texture, elasticity and also pleasure.
We strongly believe that consuming a limited amount of “real sugar” is healthier than consuming artificial sugar substitutes. At Innutri, we generally produce sugar-reduced and sugar-free products.
Innutri, sugar-free version:
At Innutri, we use polyols in our sugar-free product variants. Polyols have less sweetening power than sugar, so additional sweeteners must be added. These sugar-free products have fewer calories and no effect on blood sugar levels. However, polyols can cause digestive problems.
Innutri, sugar-reduced version:
Sugar has a bad reputation, as said at the beginning of this article and is considered to be a thickener and harmful to enamel. But sugar is also a natural raw material well absorbed by the body. For this reason, sugar is considered to be healthier than sugar substitutes.
Paracelsus, the famous 16th-century Swiss doctor, had a good understanding of this when he said, “All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; only the dose does, because a thing is not a poison.”
Of course, all the better if the products are reduced in sugar and still taste good, as with our sugar-reduced Soft GumsTM. There is 2.95g of sugar in a daily dose of 2 Soft GumsTM. The recommended daily intake of sugar is 3.3%. The following table compares the nutritional value of some popular foods with our Soft GumsTM I109.
Or in words:
7 x less sugar than 1 banana.
4 x less sugar than 1 apple
8 times less sugar than 1 glass of orange juice.