Sweets for my sweet, sugar-free for my honey
Are sugar substitutes safe for teeth or best avoided? Kati Leskinen puts the icing on the cake for Vital readers. A glance at the supermarket shelves indicates that ‘sugar-free’ is becoming a standard in several product categories. Food manufacturers claim that sugar substitutes are better for teeth, waistline and blood sugar levels than sugar itself. British consumers often tend to think that sugar substitutes are something ‘artificial’ – yet they have many beneficial properties, at least in confectionery and soft drink categories. People have an inborn desire for the sweet taste, one of the four fundamental taste sensations. Honey and fruits have long been sought out for their sweet taste; however, since it was first refined some 600 years ago, table sugar (sucrose) has been the standard for sweetness. Until recent decades, sucrose was virtually the only sweetener in general use. After the Second World War, other alternative sweeteners became popular, first among diabetics and later ...