Sweetening substance

A sweetening substance is a product having a sweetened taste.

Generally, the term sweetening substance refers to products which give a taste sweetened without generating heat, or which give a taste sweetened while generating less heat than the sugar of table (Saccharose).

Various types of sweetening substances

Strictly speaking , a sweetening substance is “a substance which gives a soft savor”. Thus, the sugar of table (saccharose), the Honey, the Maple syrup, the Aspartame, the Saccharin, the Acésulfame-K, the Sucralose or the Maltitol are as many sweetening substances.

However, the word sweetening substance generally gets busy to indicate products which give a savor sweetened without generating heat, or which give a savor sweetened while generating less heat than sugar.

Among these sweetening substances, one distinguishes two types from them:

intense sweetening substances . They have a To be able sweetening high (the sweetening capacity of the sugar of table is of 1).
the polyols weighty or sweetening substances. They have a sweetening capacity rather near to that of the sugar of table (from 0,5 to 1,4); they are used in particular in many chewings-gum and confectioneries.

Question of the harmlessness of the intense sweetening substances

Apart from the sweetening substances as the sugar of table, itself targets criticisms frequent, the intense sweetening substances are the subject of a certain mistrust. On another side, they are largely employed and voted by plebiscite by a considerable part of the population.

Certain countries like the Japan or the Australia use natural sweetening substances like the Stévia and prohibited the use of the artificial sweetening substances (aspartame, saccharin) considered as harmful.,

In Europe, it is rather the opposite opinion which prevails influenced by the position of the industrialists, the giants of agroalimentary just like the pharmaceutical laboratories, and a certain protectionism.

In 1991, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States prohibited the importation under the pressure of the powerful lobby of the artificial sweetening substances. A vast campaign, supported by the Japanese, was at once launched in order to raise this American interdict.

Under the pressure of the consumers, the FDA finally authorized, in 1995, the sale of the stévia as supplement. However, its use is always interdict as food additive that it is in the United States, Canada and in the Member States of the European Union.

The intense sweetening substances have seemingly several advantages:

first is that they make it possible to obtain a taste sweetened without caloric intake, which can be useful in particular within the framework of a mode hypocaloric, within the framework of a mode of maintenance of the body weight, or for the people diabetics, for which the saccharose consumption is in general disadvised.
They practical of employment, are presented in various forms easily usable (shelves, powder, etc).

However, they are sometimes disadvised by dieticians or nutritionnists for certain reasons:

the generally called upon reason is that they would maintain the taste for sugar and that thus, the regular consumers of products sweetened with intense sweetening substances will tend to choose more sweetened products, which could support obesity in particular by increasing the caloric intake.
Another reason called upon is that, in spite of their caloric intake no one, they can involve an answer of insulin, though weak, being given their sweetened savor, which can not be desirable in certain circumstances (in particular in the diabetics of the type 2, apart from the meals).

In addition, the intense sweetening substances are regularly the object of various charges. For example, the aspartame would be implied in the following cases: Headaches, insomnia, chronic tiredness, gray rings under the eyes, drops and sight trouble, more or less serious cutaneous reactions, rednesses with the face, itchings, taken weight, depression, falls more or less important of the hair, hunger and thirst excessive, pains abdominal, distensions, diarrheas, joint pains, cramps, insomnia, losses of memory, nosebleed, giddinesses, strong sensitivity to the noises, feeling to be cold even in full summer, menstrual problems, impotence, problems sexual, hyperventilation, attacks and convulsions, epilepsy, nauseas, vomiting, hypo and hyperglycemias, lowers intelligence, pains in the chest, problems of thyroid, tremors, pains while swallowing or also while urinating, sensitivity to the infections, hypertension, asthma… But also personality disorder like: sudden crises of aggressiveness sometimes with physical violences, paranoia, agoraphobia, phobias, panics, feelings of “already considering”, irritability, crises of insanity, deterioration of the character, difficulty of concentration, confusion, hyperactivity… And, more serious, cancer of the brain, aneurysmal rupture, cardiac problems, apoplectic attacks, and even dead!

Moreover, the aspartame would cause symptoms similar to the following diseases or would worsen them: fibromyalgie, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, lupus, diabetes and complications diabetics, epilepsy, disease of Alzheimer, lymphoma, congenital malformations, chronic syndrome of tiredness.

The intense sweetening substances are the subject of very many contradictory studies. This reveals that, even with the usually consumed amounts, these products are in certain cases the cause of disorders specific and alarming, among which 92 side effects related to the aspartame and officially recognized by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) American since 1995 but also some of generally accepted ideas since the experimentation forever carried out on the man but only on animals.

However, the detractors of these products point out that these studies are partly financed by the producing industry of these sweetening substances, in particular for the aspartame (marketed under various names), manufactured by Monsanto which would have been approved by the FDA in the United States under doubtful conditions, implying the direct intervention of Donald Rumsfeld. The support of food industry diffusing these products is manifest per annum for an immense market potential, estimated at more than one billion dollar.

Moreover, the detractors of these products put the fact also ahead that one does not know the consequences of the mixture of several sweetening substances whereas, frequently, the aspartame and the acésulfame-K are employed simultaneously. In the same way with high temperatures, the aspartame is transformed more quickly into methanol with neurotoxic effects.

The aspartame is disadvised in theory to the children or in the event of allergic antecedents. It must imperatively be avoided by the phenylcetonuric . These people suffer from phénylcétonurie, a rare genetic disease, and present an allergy to the Phénylalanine, whose aspartame is a source. On the other hand, phenylalanine in it even does not pose problems recognized for the general population: it is an amino-acid which is present at the natural state in many food.

Intense sweetening substances and polyols employed in human consumption

There exist many molecules having a To be able sweetening more or less high; little of them is authorized and really employed in human consumption. (The sweetening capacity is given as an indication.)

The intense sweetening substances are the subject of a permissible amount day laborer (DJA): a consumption going until this amount is regarded as sure by the official authorities. In practice and for the general population, the consumption of intense sweetening substances is quite lower than the DJA. The DJA is expressed in milligrams of sweetening substance per kilograms of body weight. For example, the DJA of a person of 60 kg is of 40 X 60 = 2400 Mg.

Intense sweetening substances

Acésulfame potassium (acésulfame-K). E950. To be able sweetening of 200. DJA of 15 mg/kg.
Aspartame . E951. To be able sweetening of 200. DJA of 40 mg/kg.
Cyclamate . E952. To be able sweetening of 35. DJA of 11 mg/kg.
Saccharin. E954. To be able sweetening of 450. DJA of 5 mg/kg.
Sucralose . E955. To be able sweetening of 600. DJA of 15 mg/kg.

Polyols

Sorbitol . E420. To be able sweetening of 0,6.
Glycérol. E422. To be able sweetening of 0,6.
Isomalt. E953. To be able sweetening of 0,5.
Maltitol. E965. To be able sweetening of 0,7.
Lactitol. E956. To be able sweetening of 0,5.
Xylitol. E967. To be able sweetening of 0,5.
Érythritol. To be able sweetening of 0,7.

Other intense sweetening substances and polyols

There exist other intense sweetening substances and polyols, but they are generally not employed in human consumption; here is a list, inevitably nonexhaustive.

Brazzéine - Protein, sweetening capacity: 2000 times superior with saccharose (with equal weight).
Curculine - Protein, capacity sweetening 550 times superior with saccharose (with equal weight).
Glycyrrhizine - To be able sweetening 50 times superior with saccharose (with equal weight).
Hydrolysat of hydrogenated starch - To be able sweetening 0,4 to 0,9 times (with equal weight), 0,5 to 1,2 times (to heating capacity are equivalent) higher than saccharose.
Mabinline - Protein, capacity sweetening 100 to 400 times (with equal weight) higher than saccharose.
Miraculine - Protein, sweetening capacity?? time (with equal weight) higher than saccharose.
Monelline - Protein, sweetening capacity: 3000 times (with equal weight) higher than saccharose.
Pentadine - Protein, capacity sweetening 500 times (with equal weight) higher than saccharose.
Stevia - Plant with the capacity sweetening 250 times (with equal weight) higher than saccharose, used with the Japan and in other countries
Tagatose - to be able sweetening 0,92 times (with equal weight), 2,4 times (to heating capacity are equivalent) higher than saccharose.
Thaumatine - Protein, sweetening capacity: 2000 with: 3000 times superior with saccharose (with equal weight).

See too

sweetening substances in the food additives
Succedaneous
Substitute

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