Sugar Reduction – A Necessary Factor in the Beverage Market
Sugar reduction in beverages – it’s on everyone’s mind. Health-conscious adults, parents, and governments are implementing ways of reducing or removing added sugar from drinks. This trend is to protect and boost health and help address concerns around diseases and conditions related to excessive sugar intake.
Most soda, fruit juice, tea, and coffee brands offer sugar-free or low-sugar beverage options. However, why is sugar reduction so essential?
Why Less Sugar Means Less Disease and Better Health
Sugar is one of the most basic carbohydrates. The category includes fructose from fruits, galactose and lactose in milk products, and disaccharides like sucrose. In the US, the sugar in beverages has historically been sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup.
These substances, while natural, are empty calories – without nutrition, and are associated empirically and scientifically with weight gain, obesity, and tooth decay. They also contribute to the onset and exacerbation of chronic cardiometabolic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular conditions. Additionally, unlike the fructose in many whole fruits, free sugar is absorbed quickly into the system, causing an unhealthy and metabolically disruptive sugar spike.
While sweetness is integral to beverage enjoyment, added sugar has increased over the decades to reach harmful levels beyond moderate consumption. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends consuming less than 5% of daily calorie requirements as free sugars. This amount equates to around 25 grams of sugar per person a day1.
In contrast, according to the American Heart Association, American adults and children consume, on average, 17 teaspoons or 68 grams daily – close to three times as much2. Beverages such as sodas, teas, coffees, milk, fruit juices, and sports drinks account for over a third of this consumption3.
In response, authorities are introducing measures to curb sugar overconsumption by setting regulations and standards, including labeling requirements, and promoting the reformulation of sugar-rich beverages and other products.
Supplying Alternative Sweetness to Existing Products
Excluding sweetness altogether is unfeasible and likely to be unappealing to consumers. Some manufacturers may avoid refined sugar by using alternative sweeteners such as honey, maple syrup, and coconut sugar. However, while more nutritious than the original, these options are still sugars, with the same physical responses and concerns. Instead, producers turn to low-calorie sweeteners to produce zero or low-sugar variants.
Familiar natural options include plant-based stevia, monk fruit extract, and sugar alcohols such as sorbitol and xylitol. Artificial sweeteners include saccharin, sucralose, and aspartame. One benefit of synthetic products is that they are much sweeter than natural sweeteners, with less required to match flavor profiles.
At the same time, with consumers increasingly demanding healthier, more natural ingredients, sweeteners must be as pure as possible and chemical-free. Artificial options tend to leave an unpleasant chemical aftertaste. Also, while aspartame and saccharin are safe for healthy individuals in limited amounts, the possible long-term effects of overconsumption may be unhealthy.
Aftertaste-Free, Soon to Be Affordable Allulose
Researchers have recently found a way to process allulose from fruits such as raisins and figs to yield a “good-for-you,” low-calorie, safe, and healthy sugar. It also has an appealing flavor with suitable solubility and hygroscopic and browning properties, which are essential for specific outcomes. Previously prohibitively expensive to produce, technological advances using microbial fermentation now allow competitively cost-effective allulose extraction.
So, there’s a wide choice of sugar alternatives to keep your portfolio sweet while helping reduce sugar consumption. Clean label products in beverages also mean sourcing high quality, natural flavor, and aroma ingredients.
Keep Your Low-Sugar Drinks Healthy and Flavorful With Advanced Biotech
Beyond choosing the healthiest sugar substitutes for your low-sugar beverage line, choose 100% natural, EU-certified taste and odor ingredients from Advanced Biotech. Browse our pyrazines, distillates, oleoresins, Koolada cooling agents, and other pure and concentrated extracts. Contact us to place your order today.
1 https://www.emro.who.int/noncommunicable-diseases/publications/questions-and-answers-on-reducing-sugar-consumption-to-prevent-and-control-noncommunicable-diseases.html
2,3 https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/sugar/how-much-sugar-is-too-much