Is sugar-free food really sugar-free?

A few years ago, a company specializing in egg roll processing came to us and entrusted us with the Shanghai Food Research Institute to develop sugar-free egg rolls. It turns out that the market for egg rolls has become saturated and no new products will be developed. Companies will face closures. We studied formulas and production processes to help that company produce new products without sugar cones. The result was very fast and quickly sold on the market. The sales volume was unexpected and the company was back to life.

I thought that the market for sugar-free foods was small and insignificant compared with the food consumed by the general public. However, this incident started to revisit the sugar-free food market. After investigation and study, I found that the previous idea was wrong.

The incidence of diabetes has soared

Sugar-free food market is huge

Now, China has become the country with the highest incidence of diabetes. The Ministry of Health announced that the incidence of diabetes among residents over the age of 18 in China is 9.7%. Based on this calculation, the number of diabetic patients in China is about 92 million, and there are more than 3,000 new cases a day. In addition, prediabetic patients account for 15.5% of the nation's total, which means that there are still 140 million people who are potentially at high risk for diabetes. This shows that as many as hundreds of millions of people consume sugar-free food, who dares to say that this market is "insignificant"!

The rapid increase in the incidence of diabetes, in addition to genetic and population aging, is also associated with modern lifestyles.

There are many people with diabetes in my colleagues and friends. I know a very young diabetic patient. He eats a piece of sugar-free sliced ​​bread and soy milk every morning. At noon, he is a low sugar crop bread and vegetables, a sugarless biscuit and vegetables at night; fruits, snacks, and meat cannot be eaten. Just eat a little bit of fish.

With the current medical level, diabetes cannot be eradicated. Being sick throughout life means having to control your diet for life. For the health of more than 100 million people, food production and researchers should pay attention to the development and production of foods suitable for diabetics. At the same time, they must seriously consider the quality and safety of sugar-free foods. When researching and developing sugar-free foods suitable for diabetics, we should first stand in front of the patient and think of what type of sugar-free food I would like to eat if I were diabetic.

In recent years, many food production companies have realized the enormous potential of the sugar-free food market and have successively developed many products. Going to the market to see, at present the major supermarkets and shops, almost common food has appeared "sugar-free version." What sugar-free chewing gum, sugar-free biscuits, sugar-free drinks, sugar-free dairy products, and even sugar-free toffee, sugar-free ice cream, and sugar-free chocolates.

In the sugar-free food counters, some "sugar-free foods" were marked with "no sugar". Salespeople in shopping malls announced when they promoted their products: "These sugar-free foods do not contain sugar, and diabetics can rest assured that they will not eat and will not affect the blood sugar of people with diabetes." Are these "sugar-free foods" really sugar-free?

"No sucrose" ≠ "No sugar"

In October 2011, the Ministry of Health issued the “General Rules for the Management of Nutrition Labels for Prepackaged Foods”, which is a mandatory national standard and will be formally implemented on January 1, 2013. According to the General Principles, foods claiming to be "without sugar" or "sugar-free" have a sugar content of no more than 0.5 grams per 100 grams; foods claiming to be "low-sugar" cannot contain more than 5 grams of sugar per 100 grams.

The sugar mentioned here refers not only to sucrose but also other monosaccharides such as glucose, maltose, and disaccharides (polysaccharides such as starch, which do not contain macromolecules). Therefore, "no sucrose" and "no sugar" can not be equal.

Some foods may contain fructose, maltose, and other ingredients even though they are labeled "no sugar." Maltose and sucrose can both be converted into glucose in the human body. Excessive consumption of maltose can cause the body's blood glucose to rise, which may cause harm to diabetic patients. Therefore, fructose and maltose are components that diabetics should control for intake. According to the requirements of the national standards, foods labeled "no sugar" cannot be called "sugar-free foods". Such labels are likely to mislead consumers.

Many sugar-free pastries contain large amounts of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are converted into glucose in the human body and are consumed in large quantities, which can still have adverse effects on the body of diabetic patients. Therefore, diabetics should properly control the intake of carbohydrates in order to prevent excessive blood sugar. Even if there are no sugar foods, diabetics should insist on eating less frequently to control sugar intake.

When eating carbohydrate-rich foods, it is best to eat foods rich in dietary fiber, such as oatmeal, fresh vegetables, etc., slow down the rate of digestion and absorption of carbohydrates, prevent blood sugar from rising too fast, and keep blood sugar stable.

Some companies advertise that sugar-free foods can play a hypoglycemic effect, which is totally a lie! All blood sugar rises after all food is eaten. Sugar-free foods are also foods, but there is no or almost no sugar, which can help control blood sugar, but it can never be used as an alternative to taking injections or taking medicines.

Patients who have been diagnosed with diabetes must follow the doctor’s orders for regular treatment. People with high-risk diabetes should also be careful not to think that eating sugar-free food can not control diet, strengthen exercise, blood sugar will be well controlled.

What sweeteners are good for sugar-free foods?

The sugar-free food on the market is still sweet. What kind of substance is added? It is actually a sweetener in food additives.

When choosing a sugar-free food, the most important thing is to see what kind of substitute is the “sweetener” on the label. Some "unsweetened foods" are labelled with only generic names such as "sweeteners," "complex sweeteners," and "protein sugars," without specifying the actual chemical name. Some so-called "protein sugars" are actually made from saccharin and sugar.

At present, there are several types of sweeteners used in sugar-free foods. One is sugar alcohol sweeteners such as xylitol, sorbitol, maltitol, mannitol, etc. The sweetness is similar to sucrose; Non-alcoholic synthetic sweeteners such as saccharin, cyclamate, aspartame, acesulfame (AK sugar), sucralose, etc. They have high sweetness, low dosage, and low calorific value; Natural sweeteners such as stevia, disodium glycyrrhizinate, are naturally safe.

What sweeteners are good for sugar-free foods? What kind of cooking food do you use instead of white sugar? Diabetics and friends who want to lose weight are certainly interested in these issues. The following are the main sweeteners and their usage.

Saccharin - everyone knows the earliest sweetener, its sweetness is 300 to 500 times that of sucrose. There is a lot of debate about whether saccharin is harmful. Now that there is a new sweetener, consumers ignore it and generally do not recommend it. Because saccharin is cheap, it is often seen in some candied products.

Aspartame - discovered in 1965, is 160 to 200 times as sweet as sucrose. The debate over the safety of aspartame is fierce, but no major security issues have yet been discovered. There are many countries in the world that have approved the use of aspartame, and the World Health Organization’s joint expert group has approved the use. Aspartame is mainly used in beverages. People with diabetes and obesity can add a small amount to their unheated drinks, but it should be noted that it is not suitable for patients with phenylketonuria.

Sucralose - using sucrose as a raw material, the sweetness is up to 600 times that of sucrose, and the sweetness duration and aftertaste are very close to sucrose. After more than 20 years of safety assessment, it has been approved for use in more than 30 countries. It is characterized by relatively high heat resistance and can be used for baking food or cooking dishes.

Xylitol - A natural plant sweetener extracted from plants. It is slightly sweeter than sucrose and has a similar taste to sucrose. You can add some xylitol when you do cold dishes, because the effect of low-temperature tasting is better. Xylitol has low calories and good safety and is the best sweetener for caries prevention. However, eating too much may also cause side effects such as diarrhea and elevated blood lipids. Therefore, patients with diabetes should not eat xylitol.

Stevia - natural sweetener extracted from Stevia, 150 to 300 times as sweet as sucrose. Stevia is safe and has not been found to be toxic or harmful. It has high sweetness after dissolution at low temperature, low sweetness after dissolution at high temperature but good taste, suitable for baking foods.

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