Can you have both health and happiness in a sugar-free drink?

Original title: Can health and happiness have both in sugar-free drinks?

Can you have both health and happiness in a sugar-free drink?

In order to drink a sip of "happy water", we escaped the "high sugar hazard theory" and ushered in the "bad sugar theory" of sugar substitutes

In recent years, "low-sugarism" has become the choice of young Chinese.

Coca-Cola launches a sugar-free version

Humans have been using sugar substitutes for 143 years

How to control sugar healthily? Consumers need to view the advantages and risks of sugar and sugar substitutes objectively and rationally according to their personal physical conditions, consciously control the intake of sugar, and implement a reasonable diet

From high sugar to sugar free

More than 40,000 people are monitoring each other in groups such as Douban "Today I also insisted on not drinking sugar-sweetened beverages" and "No Added Sugar Food Research Institute".

Douban "Today I also insisted on not drinking sugary drinks" group

A 500ml bottle of Coca-Cola contains 53 grams of sugar, and 3 grams is a scoop, which is about 18 scoops of sugar

According to the World Health Organization's healthy eating recommendations, normal-weight adults should consume no more than 50 grams of free sugars per day, preferably within 25 grams

The sugar content of a bottle of cola has exceeded the daily sugar intake of adults, not including the sugar in the morning bread, the afternoon cake, the potato chips before bed, and the juice you drink

Sugar is everywhere

In 2022, the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022)" issued by the Chinese Nutrition Society shows that the overweight and obesity rate of children and adolescents aged 6-17 has reached 19%, while the overweight and obesity rate of Chinese adult residents has exceeded 50%

Documentaries such as "Sugar: A New Generation of Health Killers", "A Movie About Sugar" and "Sweet Misery - A Toxic World" are all trying to uncover the massive sugar problem around the world

Excessive consumption of sugar can cause various symptoms in our body

Chen Junshi, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and general consultant of the National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment, mentioned in his speech "Advocating Healthy Drinks - Sugar Reduction" that the key to the impact of sugar on the body is to eat more or less

In order to control the intake of sugar from the source, beverage giants have thought of sugar substitutes

However, in China, the development of sugar-free beverages has not been smooth sailing.
Before Nongfu Spring launched "Oriental Leaf" in 2011, many sugar-free teas appeared, but they were not accepted by the market
.
It was not until around 2016 that Yuanqi Forest successfully stimulated China's beverage market with soda sparkling water with "zero sugar, zero fat, and zero calories", and sugar-free beverages ushered in a stage of rapid development in China
.

Around 2016, Yuanqi Forest successfully stimulated China's beverage market with soda sparkling water with "zero sugar, zero fat, and zero calories", and sugar-free beverages ushered in a stage of rapid development in China
.
/Weibo@Original Qi Forest Official Weibo

When "sugar" becomes synonymous with unhealthy, will sugar substitute usher in new development opportunities?

Sweeteners "Bad Sugar Says"

Sugar substitutes in diet drinks are food additives that provide only sweetness and no or very few calories
.
There are many types of sugar substitutes, which are divided into nutritive sweeteners and non-nutritive sweeteners according to whether they generate calories.
Non-calorie non-nutritive sweeteners are further divided into artificial sweeteners and natural sweeteners
.
Among them, acesulfame potassium, aspartame, and sucralose, which are common in the beverage ingredient list, are all artificial sweeteners
.

Artificial sweeteners can satisfy the sweet pleasure of human beings without causing the stress of obesity
.
/Figure · pexels

According to GB28050-2011 "National Food Safety Standard Prepackaged Food Nutrition Labeling General Rules", the sugar content in food is less than 0.
5g/100g (solid) or 0.
5g/100mL (liquid), can be classified as "sugar-free food" "
.
From this point of view, not all sugar-free beverages are "zero sugar", and consumers need to check the ingredient list and nutrition list before purchasing
.

When you drink "Happy Water" "tons and tons" and the artificial sweetener touches your tongue, the sweet taste will activate dopamine in your brain, and you will feel the happiness obtained for a short time.
At this time, your blood sugar is stable, Insulin is not secreted, and the glucose in the cells is not converted into fat
.

The biggest advantage of artificial sweeteners is high sweetness and no calorie production
.
Therefore, under the trend of sugar control and sugar reduction, artificial sweeteners have become one of the most important ingredients in sugar-free beverages
.
In addition to being sweet, artificial sweeteners and sugars have completely different molecular structures, or can be said to be unrelated
.

In addition to being sweet, artificial sweeteners and sugars have completely different molecular structures, or can be said to be unrelated
.
/Figure · pexels

In 1879, the first generation of artificial sweetener saccharin was born, then from sodium cyclamate, aspartame, acesulfame potassium, sucralose, to the emergence of the sixth generation of artificial sweetener neotame in 1993.
Research has gone through 143 years of history
.
Since the birth of saccharin, artificial sweeteners have been accompanied by huge controversy, and researchers have been worried about its safety
.
Over the years, they have conducted research through animal experiments and human tracking
.

In the 1970s, the National Cancer Institute found that saccharin saccharin caused bladder cancer in experimental rats, but later found that the mechanism by which saccharin saccharin causes cancer in rats does not exist in humans; 2013, "American Clinical Nutrition" A report published in the Journal of Science pointed out that after a 14-year research survey of 66,118 women, it was found that long-term intake of beverages containing artificial sweeteners is more likely to induce obesity and type 2 diabetes; Chronic ingestion of flavors induces glucose intolerance by altering the composition and function of the gut microbiota
.

It has been pointed out that long-term intake of high-intensity artificial sweeteners induces glucose intolerance by altering the composition and function of the gut microbiota
.
/Figure · pexels

There is also a saying that long-term consumption of sugar-free beverages meets the demand for sweetness, but sugar does not participate in metabolism, so that blood sugar and insulin secretion cannot reach the same level, resulting in greater thirst for food and energy, which will lead to obesity
.
At present, it is certain that patients with phenylketonuria should not consume aspartame, while for ordinary people, excessive intake of sugar alcohol substitutes at one time can easily cause symptoms such as diarrhea
.

As the diet drinks market expands, consumers are also questioning the safety of sweeteners
.
Academician Chen Junshi once said that sweeteners are a type of food additives, and some consumers may think that additives are unsafe
.
In fact, sweeteners are an integral part of the modern food industry
.
With the development of the food industry, especially the development of scientific and technological research, more, better and safer sweeteners have been continuously developed
.
At present, experts and scholars at home and abroad have different opinions on the safety of sweeteners
.
But it is certain that the unsafe factors of artificial sweeteners are positively related to the frequency and quantity of intake
.

sugar substitute economy

How to find a sweetener that is more suitable for consumers' taste? "Coca-Cola Fiber+" and "Sprite Fiber+" use sugar substitute aspartame; Yuanqi Forest Sparkling Water, "Jianlibao Fiber+" orange honey-flavored sports drink, Magic Claw Monster sugar-free energy drink use erythritol and three Sucralose
.
Different sweeteners have different sweetness, irritation, duration, and application range, and their stability under light and thermal environments is also different.
Different sweeteners will form different sweetness effects when they meet
.

"Low-sugarism" makes Coca-Cola no longer satisfied with the taste of classic styles
.
/Figure unsplash

The rise of sugar reduction demand has given birth to the current domestic sugar substitute market scale of 10 billion yuan, and sugar substitute manufacturers have quietly become "invisible champion" companies
.
According to Wind data, the share price of Jinhe Industrial will increase by as much as 60.
51% in 2021, and the share price of Baolingbao will increase by 19.
23% in 2021
.

In 2021, the factors for the price increase of sugar substitutes include rising costs, poor shipments caused by the epidemic, and the reasons for the relatively sharp increase in demand
.
After erythritol was successfully brought on fire by Yuanqi Forest, the manufacturer behind it, Sanyuan Bio, has become one of the companies with the largest production capacity, largest output and highest market share in the global erythritol industry
.

Erythritol is a bulk sweetener, a four-carbon sugar alcohol with the molecular formula C4H10O4
.
/Figure · Baidu Encyclopedia

The "2021 China Sugar Substitute Market Research Report" shows that erythritol has become the sweetener with the fastest growth rate at a compound annual growth rate of 29.
9%, and the output has increased from 18,000 tons in 2015 to 5.
1 tons in 2019.
tons
.
Shandong Sanyuan Bio and Shandong Baolingbao Bio, two listed raw material manufacturers, doubled their performance due to the rapid development of sugar-free beverages
.

From 2015 to 2020, the production and sales of acesulfame potassium, sucralose and erythritol continued to increase
.
Today, domestic and foreign beverage manufacturers such as Nongfu Spring, Suntory, Master Kong, Coca-Cola, Yuanqi Forest, and Heytea are accelerating the research and development of more products on the sugar-free beverage track
.
It has to be said that the update and iteration of sugar-free beverage products are getting faster, and their homogeneity is also deepening
.

HEYTEA launched the HEYTEA sea salt and lychee flavored sugar-free sparkling water
.
/Weibo@Hi Tea

In November last year, the Key Laboratory of Big Data Mining and Knowledge Management of the Chinese Academy of Sciences released the "2021 China Sugar Free Beverage Market Trend Insight Report".
By 2020, this figure will increase to 11.
78 billion yuan, and the market size is expected to reach 27.
6 billion yuan by 2027
.

In addition, the report also shows that compared with artificial sweeteners, the market share of natural sweeteners is increasing year by year, from 8.
16% in 2010 to 29.
41% in 2020
.
Erythritol has become the first choice for natural sugar substitutes because of its safety and no involvement in body metabolism
.
In contrast, artificial sweeteners such as aspartame are being replaced by natural sweeteners due to questionable safety
.
The sugar substitute industry behind sugar-free beverages is also going through an unprecedented period of change
.

Editor: