Body Reactions
The body reacts to sweeteners by releasing insulin. However, since there is no increased blood sugar level in the body, the insulin causes a low blood sugar level. The person then feels an intense hunger that wants to be satisfied further.
Synthetic Sweeteners
Sweeteners are food additives that are synthetically produced. They primarily differ in their extraction and processing, and have a sweetness that exceeds sugar by 30 to 3000 times. Their advantage over natural sugar lies in the fact that they practically contain no calories, do not promote tooth decay in children, and are suitable for diabetics to sweeten foods. Sweeteners thus replace the number of unnecessary calories in products. Vitamins and minerals remain as valuable nutrients. The energy content is reduced by 90% compared to sugar.
Sweeteners exist as tablets, sprinkles or liquid sweeteners.
Our foods already contain a wide range of sweeteners, e.g., yogurt, milk mix drinks, milk puddings, ice cream, jams, candies, fruit gums, canned fruits, meat and fish salads, mayonnaises, and pickled foods.
Approved Sweeteners in Europe
The European Union has approved eight sweeteners for food use after thorough scientific investigations: Acesulfam-K, Cyclamate, Saccharin, Sucralose, Thaumatin, Neohesperidin DC, and Aspartame-Acesulfame Salt. These ingredients can be identified in foods by their approval numbers (E-number) (E950-1518 = sweeteners). Often a mix of different sweeteners is used in foods. The sweetness increases significantly again when combining various sweeteners. The relative sweetness of different sweetening agents with increased concentration in the reference quantity can increase up to 30% due to synergistic effects.
The term "sugar equivalent" refers to the amount of sugar that must be added to produce the same level of sweetness as a given amount of sweetener produces. The starting point for evaluating the sweetness is sucrose, which has a sweetness value of 1. Based on this, Aspartame (E951) has a sweetness of about 200, Cyclamate (E952) of 30, Saccharin (E954) of 500, Neohesperidin (E955) of 400, and Thaumatin (E957) of 2000. Thaumatin with this high value is primarily found in cocoa products, sweets, and vitamin products.