June 6, 2012 |
It's been a wild week in the sugar wars. Disney just
announced
that it will ban ads for candy, sweet cereals and other sugary foods on
all child-focused broadcasting. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
proposed a
ban on the sale of large sugary drinks. On the heels of a brand-new UCLA study linking high-fructose corn-syrup consumption with
memory loss, the USDA
rejected a petition last Thursday from the Corn Refiners Association to change the name of high-fructose corn syrup to "corn sugar."
Every anti-sugar, anti-HFCS fusillade boosts a booming business sector: The global market for non-sugar sweeteners, now
topping $9 billion,
is expected to reach nearly $10 billion by 2016. We're spending big
money on stevia and agave, and just starting to discover dark horses
such as erythritol and monk fruit.
What's in this stuff, and is it worth the switch? Here are six to consider.
1. Stevia
Stevia gets most of the buzz and leads the industry, with stevia-sweetened products expected to comprise a
$1 billion sector
all its own by 2014. Up to 300 times as sweet as table sugar, powdered
stevia extract is derived from the leaves of subtropical shrubs that
have been consumed by indigenous South Americans for centuries. Yet it
has virtually no calories and doesn't raise blood-sugar levels or
promote tooth decay. The FDA approved stevia for food use in 2008; now
Coke, Pepsi and Starbucks put it in drinks. What could possibly go
wrong? Well -- a yucky bitter aftertaste. But two weeks ago, German
researchers announced their
discovery
of two taste receptors on the human tongue that specifically detect
stevia's aftertaste. This new data could revolutionize the way stevia is
cultivated and refined.
2. Agave Nectar
Made from the sap of succulents native to Mexico, agave nectar is about
150 percent as sweet as sugar but lower on the glycemic index. Loaded
with cachet -- evoking sunshine and tequila -- it's turning up
everywhere: in Coca-Cola's Full Throttle Blue Agave energy drink, for
instance. But agave is highly processed and about 90 percent fructose,
"so it dumps right into your liver," warns wellness expert
Maria Emmerich, author of
The Art of Eating Healthy: Sweets
(CreateSpace, 2011). "Things that are lower on the glycemic index are
not necessarily better for your health. I received a huge box of agave
nectar from a company to review for my blog recently, and I couldn't
even bring myself to give it away for free."
3. Erythritol
Far less familiar is erythritol, a non-glycemic, virtually non-caloric,
aftertaste-free polyol or "sugar alcohol" that occurs naturally in
fruits such as melons, pears and grapes. About 70 percent as sweet as
table sugar, whose taste it resembles, erythritol comes in white
crystalline powder form and is a common ingredient in foods --
especially baked goods -- labeled as "light" and "low-calorie." Studies
show that up to 90 percent of erythritol is excreted unchanged in human
urine within 24 hours of consumption -- thus it's not absorbed into the
body -- and that, like stevia, it
does not harm teeth.
4. Monk Fruit (Lohan Guo)
Industry insiders predict that monk fruit, aka lohan guo, is on the
verge of becoming stevia's fiercest new rival. Calorie-free,
aftertaste-free and non-glycemic but about 300 times sweeter than sugar,
liquid and powdered lohan guo concentrate is derived from the
antioxidant-rich, lemon-sized fruits of trees that thrive in the hot,
misty mountains of southern China and northern Thailand and were
allegedly first cultivated by Buddhist monks 800 years ago. Its presence
in Kellogg's Kashi Squares Berry Blossoms cereal and Kashi Cocoa Beach
granola is just the beginning.
5. Tagatose
You've probably never heard of tagatose, but it's a low-calorie,
low-glycemic, aftertaste-free, probiotic ... sugar. FDA-approved for US
food use since 2003 but still seldom seen, tagatose is over 90 percent
as sweet as table sugar, yet contains far fewer than half as many
calories. Molecularly speaking, tagatose is a form of sugar that occurs
naturally in dairy products. But the body metabolizes tagatose
differently than it metabolizes sucrose, aka table sugar, so as to
produce different effects: Amazingly, some
studies suggest that tagatose actually
lowers blood sugar. Thus it is being studied for use in
anti-diabetes drugs.
6. Barley-Malt Syrup
Barley-malt syrup is made by soaking and sprouting barley grains, then
drying and cooking them until the mash becomes viscous, dark and
earthily sweet -- but not quite as sweet as table sugar. Relatively low
on the glycemic index, barley-malt syrup digests slowly, thus guarding
against blood-sugar spikes and crashes. It's a leading sweetener in the
macrobiotic diet, which credits whole grains with fighting disease.
"Flavorwise, barley-malt syrup is reminiscent of molasses and brown
sugar," explains Barbara Johnston-Brown, who bakes with it at her
vegan-macrobiotic Green Earth Café in Berkeley, CA. "It can be a little
bitter if you overuse it, but used judiciously it heightens the richness
of whatever you're making."
Wellness expert Emmerich, who favors erythritol, doesn't try to
persuade her clients -- even the most obese ones -- to stop eating
sweets. Rather, she educates them about non-sugar alternatives and
suggests that they bake their own treats to keep in the freezer.
"If a donut or Pop Tart is screaming in your face and you can't resist
the idea of a donut or Pop Tart, then I would prefer that you have a
healthier version on hand. If you just tell people no, no, no, and give
them no other options, they tend to give up and not even try."
She denounces the marketing tactics used by the alternative-sweetener industry -- which is an industry, after all.
"They promote honey instead of sugar. Well, honey is the
highest-caloric sweetener out there. Why do you think the only animal
found in nature that has tooth decay is the honey bear? And agave is
widely promoted as being '100-percent natural.' Just because things are
natural doesn't mean they're good for us. Heroin's natural, too."
Anneli Rufus is the author of several books, most recently
The Scavenger's Manifesto (Tarcher Press, 2009). Read more of Anneli's writings on scavenging at
scavenging.wordpress.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment