The concept of sugar-free food originated from domestic and foreign markets. The so-called sugar-free can be understood as replacing simple sugars (sucrose, fructose and maltose, etc. ) and other substances that are easy to cause tooth decay, obesity and hyperglycemia, polyols and functional oligosaccharides that are not easily absorbed by the human body. Its function is to make food not only have the taste of sugar, but also have no high energy of simple sugar, which is more conducive to health.

Sugar-free food soon found a place in the domestic market. Its popularity is actually not difficult to understand. With the improvement of living standards, there are more and more obese and diabetic patients in the world, and they just need sugar-free food. There are also more and more people who believe that it is healthier to choose sugar-free foods for themselves, their families and friends.

For people who want to eat sweets, lose weight and keep fit, a series of foods such as sugar-free biscuits, sugar-free cakes, sugar-free yogurt and sugar-free milk tea are really good choices. But before choosing, we should not take it for granted that the "sugar-free" on the product packaging is not necessarily the "sugar-free" you imagined.

According to international practice, sugar-free food refers to sweet food without sugar, that is, it does not contain sucrose (sucrose and beet sugar) and starch sugar (glucose, maltose and fructose), and sugar substitutes with sugar properties should be used. According to China's national standard "General Rules for Labeling Special Diets in prepackaged foods", sugar-free foods require that the sugar content in solid or liquid foods should not be higher than 0.5g per 100g or 100ml. Sugar in food cannot be completely removed, so "sugar-free" in sugar-free food only means that the sugar content in it does not exceed the prescribed standard.

(2) the taste can also be very sweet

Usually sugar-free products will contain sweeteners such as sugar alcohols, oligosaccharides and high sweetness. They are sweet, but they will not affect blood sugar and reduce the calorie intake of consumers.

Sweetener is a kind of food additive that can give food sweetness. Sweeteners can be divided into nutritional sweeteners and non-nutritional sweeteners according to their nutritional value; According to sweetness, it can be divided into low sweetness sweeteners and high sweetness sweeteners; According to the source, it can be divided into natural sweeteners and synthetic sweeteners.

Specifically, there are three main sweeteners used in food.

sugar alcohol

Sugar alcohol is a kind of polyol, which is formed by hydrogenation and reduction of sugar. It is not sugar, but it has some characteristics of sugar. Common sugar alcohols are xylitol, sorbitol, maltitol, erythritol, mannitol, lactitol, isomaltulose and so on. And their sweetness is slightly lower than sucrose. As a nutritional food ingredient, it has certain viscosity, hygroscopicity and heat resistance, and the heat generated is lower than that of sucrose, which is between 2-3kcal/g, so it is called nutritional sweetener.

Sugar alcohol is not affected by microorganisms in the mouth and does not produce acid, so it will not lead to dental caries; Sugar alcohol is not sugar, and its metabolism is generally not controlled by insulin, which has no effect on the increase of blood sugar level; It can provide a certain amount of heat for diabetics and is beneficial to diabetics or ordinary consumers, so it is widely used in sugar-free foods.

Functional oligosaccharide

Functional oligosaccharide refers to oligosaccharide polymerized by 2- 10 glycosidic bond, which mainly includes xylooligosaccharide, isomaltooligosaccharide, inulin (long chain fructan), fructooligosaccharide, galactooligosaccharide and soybean oligosaccharide. It has some characteristics of sugar, such as sweetness, viscosity and water solubility. The sweetness is 40%-60% of sucrose, and the sweetness is soft and natural, so it can be used as a nutritional supplement for foods such as infant milk powder or a substitute for sucrose.

Because the human body has no enzyme system to decompose and digest oligosaccharides, functional oligosaccharides can not be degraded by human gastric acid and gastric enzymes, can not be absorbed by the small intestine, and can directly enter the large intestine, providing little or no energy value. Functional oligosaccharides can promote intestinal peristalsis, inhibit harmful bacteria, promote probiotic reproduction and moisten intestines; Can not be used by human oral spoilage bacteria; Non-insulin does not raise blood sugar, so it is widely used in food, health care products, beverages, medicines, feed additives and other fields.

High power sweetener

Its sweetness is 30-600 times that of sucrose, so it is called high-power sweetener. Under the same sweetness, the heat generated by it can be ignored, so it is called non-nutritive sweetener. Can be divided into natural and synthetic. At present, natural sweeteners mainly include stevia extract, Siraitia grosvenorii extract and somatofen. Synthetic sweeteners usually include saccharin, acesulfame K, aspartame and sucralose.

High-power sweetener has the advantages of high sweetness, low calorie, less caries, less participation in metabolic process and no influence on blood sugar. They are widely used as food additives, especially in foods for preventing dental caries and foods for special consumer groups such as diabetics and obese patients.

It should be noted that although sugar alcohols and high-power sweeteners are both "sugar substitutes", only foods made of sugar alcohols can be called "sugar-free foods". Foods made from high-energy sweeteners such as saccharin, aspartame and acesulfame K are generally called calorie-free foods or low-calorie foods.

Let's take Coke Zero as an example to talk about this concept. The ingredients list of a brand of cola in the city is: water, high fructose syrup, white sugar, food additives (carbon dioxide, caramel pigment, phosphoric acid, caffeine, food essence); The ingredients list of Zero Luck is: water, food additives (carbon dioxide, caramel pigment, phosphoric acid, caffeine, aspartame, acesulfame, sucralose, sodium benzoate, sodium citrate) and edible spices. It can be seen that the difference between the two is that the fructose syrup and white sugar in zero-degree cola are removed, and the sweetness is provided by sweeteners such as aspartame, acesulfame K and sucralose. Therefore, coke zero can be called a calorie-free drink, but it is generally not called a sugar-free drink.

(3) Is sweetener safe for human body?

Any food additive must undergo strict safety assessment before it is approved for use. Food safety in China. The National Standard for the Use of Food Additives (GB 2760-20 14) clearly stipulates the variety, application scope and maximum allowable dosage of sweeteners. Therefore, the food added with sweeteners produced by regular manufacturers can be safely eaten. However, the edible safety of some high-magnification sweeteners, such as saccharin, sodium cyclamate and stevioside, is still controversial in the world, so it is suggested to minimize the intake.

The recent "0-calorie candy" food is actually added with sweeteners such as erythritol and stevioside. According to national standards, if the contents of fat and sugar per 100ml are less than or equal to 0.5g, it can be labeled as "zero fat" and "zero sugar", and if the energy of the beverage is less than or equal to per 17kj (4 calories), it can be labeled as "zero calories". Therefore, even a beverage with "0 sugar, 0 fat and 0 calories" does not mean that it contains no sugar and no calories at all.

In short, any sweetener should be eaten in moderation to prevent excessive intake. A large intake of sweeteners may cause changes in the structure and composition of human intestinal flora, causing abdominal distension or diarrhea. Adults have good immunity, and the problem is not big. For children whose organs are not fully developed, don't drink drinks with sweeteners, otherwise it is likely to cause severe diarrhea. In addition, some studies have found that long-term consumption of foods containing sweeteners will reduce the glucose tolerance of mice and lead to an increase in blood sugar. In the long run, insulin resistance may occur, and even lead to diabetes and obesity.

In addition, we need to focus on the high-energy sweetener "aspartame". According to the national and national standards, "Aspartame (containing phenylalanine)" must be marked in the ingredient list of foods added with Aspartame. This is because there is a genetic disease-phenylketonuria patients are congenitally lacking an enzyme, which leads to phenylalanine metabolism disorder. Aspartame can be decomposed into phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol under the action of human gastrointestinal enzymes. Therefore, patients with phenylketonuria are especially reminded not to eat foods containing aspartame because they cannot metabolize phenylalanine.

(4) How to choose sugar-free food

The key to sugar-free food is not to add sucrose. But consumers can't take it at will just because they are labeled as "sugar-free". After eating some sugar-free foods, there will still be problems such as high blood sugar and high calories. For example, sugar-free biscuits and sugar-free cakes are made of starch, and milk, eggs and a lot of oil are added in the production process. After people eat it, the starch and oil in it will gradually metabolize into small molecular glucose, and the blood sugar will naturally rise. In addition, the "sugar-free" on the milk tea cup can only show that it has no extra sugar, but the ingredients that make up the milk tea itself contain sugar.

So, how to choose sugar-free food?

1. To choose sugar-free foods produced by regular manufacturers, relatively speaking, regular manufacturers have standardized production and accurate feeding.

2. Look at the ingredients list, not only to see whether there is sucrose content, but also to consider whether the food itself contains sugar. As mentioned earlier, sugar-free cakes are made of starch, the essence of which is sugar, which can be decomposed into glucose in the human body.

3. Although some foods are marked as "sucrose-free", the ingredients list is marked with white sugar or glucose. In fact, sucrose and white sugar are the same thing, but they are called differently. Others are marked with dextrin, maltose, starch syrup and corn syrup, all of which are sugars. Everyone should pay attention to screening, and don't be misled by the word games of merchants.

In short, when choosing sugar-free food, we must pay attention to the contents marked on the food label and make clear the meaning represented by the nutritional indicators. Priority should be given to foods with natural sugar substitutes and functional oligosaccharides added with sugar alcohols, and products containing sweeteners such as saccharin, cyclamate and stevioside should be minimized.

Extended reading

What is sugar?

In life, we will encounter all kinds of sugar, mainly including the following five kinds.

"Monosaccharide" includes glucose, fructose, galactose and so on. , can be directly digested and absorbed by the body, and the speed of raising blood sugar is particularly fast. Common foods containing monosaccharides are honey, milk, beets and so on.

"Disaccharide" includes sucrose, maltose, lactose, etc. It needs to be decomposed into monosaccharides in the human body and then absorbed by the human body, and the speed of raising blood sugar is slightly slower than that of monosaccharides. Common foods containing disaccharide include white sugar, brown sugar, milk sugar, cakes, wheat, glutinous rice and so on.

"Oligosaccharides", also known as "oligosaccharides", include ordinary oligosaccharides and functional oligosaccharides. Common foods containing oligosaccharides are garlic, onions, soybeans and so on.

"Polysaccharide" is a polymeric carbohydrate composed of more than 10 monosaccharides, such as starch and cellulose. Common foods containing polysaccharides are cereals, potatoes, rice, noodles and so on.

"Sugar substitute" is mainly divided into sugar alcohol and high-power sweetener, which is widely used as food additive.