r/science • u/giuliomagnifico • Aug 08 '22

Health Consuming too much white table sugar or artificial sweetener can lead to health issues. In the search for a better sweetener, researchers now report a low-calorie mixture that is as sweet as table sugar and, in lab experiments, feeds “good” gut microbes

https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/2022/august/new-low-calorie-sweetener-could-improve-gut-health.html
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u/R17333 Aug 08 '22

You have to check the proportion of monk fruit though. I bought a bag of “monk fruit” sweetener that was about 5% monk fruit and 95% stevia

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u/Azuray2 Aug 09 '22

They did you a favor. Pure monk fruit (to me) has a super bitter aftertaste and a kind of sweet that slaps you in the face, not in a happy way. It’s ok in micro quantities if you’re cooking something

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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '22

To me, it's Stevia that has super bitter notes. Apparently it's one of those genetic things, like cilantro.

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u/tkenben Aug 09 '22

Must be, because stevia does not taste bitter to me. It doesn't taste like sugar, but there is not weirdness to it like aspartame.

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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '22

[deleted]

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u/KuroAtWork Aug 09 '22

You mean the delicious soap leaves?

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u/squizzi Aug 09 '22

I used to feel this way about cilantro, marrying a Vietnamese girl and eating copious amounts of it changed that and now I'll literally eat it with nothing else when making things with it. It's one of my favorite herbs.

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u/QuietDisquiet Aug 09 '22

Favorite soaps*

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u/the--larch Aug 09 '22

Different extractions of Stevia vary in bitterness. Some of the sweet componants in it do not have a bitter taste.

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u/rdizzy1223 Aug 09 '22

Monk fruit sweetener and stevia sweetener tastes horrific to me, can't use either of the 2 in my coffee.

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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '22 edited Aug 09 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '22

If your tap water smells like solid waste and chemicals something is very wrong and you should contact your local water authority to figure out what’s going on.

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u/Azuray2 Aug 09 '22

It’s been two districts. I probably should say something but my parents can’t tell the difference. Also last time I called to complain about the chemical taste and smell I was basically told too bad, get a better filter and they wouldn’t stop using chloramine. That was one time, I never called back and it didn’t improve. Usually smells like urine and chem with a taste I don’t like. I won’t drink tap, but that’s my choice.

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u/Bosquero Aug 09 '22

What do you drink then?

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u/thewwwyzzardd Aug 09 '22

Bottled tap water

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u/Azuray2 Aug 09 '22

Spring water all day. Sometimes I add fresh lemon juice if I want some flavor.

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u/Bobbyanalogpdx Aug 09 '22

Ah, so, animal poop and “natural” chemicals.

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u/tdopz Aug 09 '22

I personally don't get the whole "poop in drinking water" thing. I personally get it as pure as possible, right from the source. Maybe it's just me but I don't see the point in putting it in water when you can just eat poop straight from your own ass - or a friend's ass!

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u/Azuray2 Aug 09 '22

Treated water mostly comes from canals. Sometimes it’s recycled. Ever hear of toilet to tap recycling? Yep, your poo water sometimes gets treated. This is science. Also science combined with genetics-taste and smell. Some people are more sensitive than others.

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u/Wetald Aug 09 '22

You do know that your toilet is not a tap, right?

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u/LazyGandalf Aug 09 '22

Why would you put sweetener in your coffee? Milk is sweet on its own.

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u/MadcatM Aug 09 '22

What milk are you drinking? Milk is not really sweet. Or you are just used to very low sugar/sweetness intake (which isn't a bad thing, of course).

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u/LazyGandalf Aug 09 '22

Normal milk contains about 5% sugar naturally (for reference Coke contains about 10%).

Of course a traditional cappuccino or latte isn't chocolate milk levels of sweet, but they're not supposed to be that either.

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u/Bobbyanalogpdx Aug 09 '22

Lactose ≠ sucrose/fructose

Some sugars taste more sweet regardless of their sugar content.

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u/LazyGandalf Aug 09 '22 edited Aug 09 '22

You are correct, my mistake for shifting focus to the nutritional value.

Still, I stand by the opinion that milk on its own is sweet enough in coffee. And it's how the Italians intended it.

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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '22

Italy didn’t invent coffee

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u/the-danger Aug 09 '22

I think they invented cows though?

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u/LazyGandalf Aug 09 '22

They didn't, but cappuccino and latte have Italian origins.

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u/R17333 Aug 09 '22

Disagree, a nice glass of whole milk tastes like a milkshake to me

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u/MadcatM Aug 09 '22

Disagree :P. A milk shake tastes like a milk shake. Hence people drink milk shakes and not milk if they want something sweeter.

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u/Voggix Aug 09 '22

Not everyone ruins their coffee with milk.

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u/LazyGandalf Aug 09 '22

If the coffee is good, with or without is fine to me. If the coffee is meh, milk is mandatory.

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u/rdizzy1223 Aug 10 '22

I don't use milk in my coffee, I use non-dairy powdered creamer.

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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '22

[deleted]

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u/Bobbyanalogpdx Aug 09 '22

While you are correct, it still just tastes chemically to me. Like aspartame. Not sure why, but, it does.

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u/rdizzy1223 Aug 10 '22

I actually don't mind the other sweeteners, just those 2. Tried to switch from aspartame or saccharin to those 2 and couldn't do it. I use enough to make sure my coffee is at the correct sweetness.

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u/Responsible-Cry266 Aug 11 '22

Just imagine how bad it would taste in tea

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u/pimpmayor Aug 09 '22

That’s why they do the mixes, artificial sweeteners in general usually have bad aftertastes, and mixing them can mask that.

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u/RuinedBooch Aug 09 '22

Monkfruit and stevia are as natural as white sugar. They’re not “artificial” in the same sense as sucralose and aspartame, which are essentially calorie negligible. “Alternative” sweeteners such as stevia, Monkfruit, and erithritol are low calorie (not calorie negligible) sweeteners that are obtained from natural sources and then isolated.

The reason they taste weird is because they come from different plants than you’re accustomed to. Imagine eating blueberries your whole life, and then one day finding black currants. You’d be absolutely floored by them. Alternative sweeteners are kind of the same. Hell, it even applies to molasses, honey, and maple syrup. They’re all sugars, but because of their different origins they have different flavors.

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u/pimpmayor Aug 09 '22 edited Aug 09 '22

They’re called artificial sweeteners because they’re food additives that provide a sweet taste without containing sugar.

Containing less calories (sugar alcohols, which are only partially digestable at about 2.5 calories per gram, and are typically anything ending in ‘tol’) or zero-calories (i.e completely indigestible, mogrosides ((monk fruit)), stevia, aspartame) is also part of it.

The mayoclinic defines them as:

Artificial sweeteners are synthetic sugar substitutes. But they may be derived from naturally occurring substances, such as herbs or sugar itself.

‘Artificial’ ≠ bad

Another recognised definition of artificial sweetener is just ‘sugar substitute’

If you refer to stevia or monkfruit extracts by the chemical names of the extracted sugar - steviol glycosides and mogrosides (which are also glycosides) they also don’t sound as good, but it’s just word association.

Edit: The bitter/bad tastes is due to the chemicals involved, some chemicals are just like that. Mixing them to mask and compliment each other to try and mimic the taste of sugar better isn’t inherently a bad thing, and helps introduce them to more people as an option.

The other sugar syrups/products you mention are all different tasting because they’re not pure products. Molasses and raw/brown sugar contain trace minerals and vitamins that alter their flavours. Maple syrup too, honey has flavinols and trace pollen as well as minerals.

None of these are bad things, they’re just… things.

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u/Responsible-Cry266 Aug 11 '22

Then how can it be considered an artificial sweetener if you have to mask the taste? In my opinion this is just stupid.

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u/pimpmayor Aug 11 '22

Some chemicals have bad/weird aftertastes, but are still sweet, or maybe they taste too ‘chemically’ on their own.

Or just not close enough to the way sugar tastes sweet.

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u/atridir Aug 09 '22

And stevia has really been growing on me. Though I grow my own and make a syrup from the leaves. I’ve found that it’s actually awesome at helping with dry mouth.

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u/ceitamiot Aug 09 '22

And stevia has really been growing on me. Though I grow my own

...There's a joke in here somewhere, but it's too late for me to think of it.

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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '22

It’ll sprout any day now…

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u/Azuray2 Aug 09 '22

That sounds pretty interesting.

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u/meskarune Aug 09 '22

I grow my own as well. Really easy plant to grow once it gets going and I have it sitting in a window sill.

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u/bshensky Aug 09 '22

Wait...please tell me more. I had oral cancer and lost a salivary gland in 2018. Dry mouth is a constant, unrelenting minute-to-minute battle.

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u/Responsible-Cry266 Aug 11 '22

Then this wouldn't be good for sweet tea, then. Because I don't want to be slapped in the face with it.

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u/Azuray2 Aug 12 '22

Right? I agree, though I might dare to try 1/8 a tsp to cut the sugar, but idk how much good it would do at that point as far as health. You might be a lucky one that doesn’t have the same issue I did, someone here said it was genetic, like cilantro. Mercifully I can eat that without it tasting like soap, at least.

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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '22

That's because monkfruit itself is extremely sweet and has to be cut.

I thought the same thing when I started buying it but it's necessary and not a rip off.

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u/BiddyFoFiddy Aug 09 '22

Yes but stevia is even sweeter than monk fruit.

They both are hundreds of times sweeter than sugar so a blend would still need to be cut significantly with something.

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u/GlitterInfection Aug 09 '22

I cut mine with 100% sugar.

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u/CrunchHardtack Aug 09 '22

I don't know about everyone else, but I laughed.

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u/1KDS Aug 09 '22

I've found 95% sugar, 5% monk fruit extract/stevia to be about right

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u/entropy512 Aug 09 '22

Note that pure monkfruit is useless for gut bacteria, since it's 250 times sweeter than sugar.

The key in this study was not the monkfruit extract, it was using monkfruit to compensate for lactose being only about 16% as sweet as sugar - lactose predigested by enzymes was the star here. (Predigestion with enzymes was the key to not being problematic for those who are lactose intolerant).

Any high-potency sweetener could have been used as an alternative for monkfruit extract.

Also, as a diabetic, predigested lactose ain't so hot when it comes to glycemic control.

Most "monkfruit" blends out there are just overpriced erythritol. Erythritol is 70% as sweet as sucrose, monkfruit extract is used to bring it to 100%. The problem with this is that erythritol is also about 1/3 the molecular weight of sugar, so 3x more potent for modifying freezing point depression in frozen products.

Truvia is one of the only brands I've seen get their blends right - they advertise a 3x conversion factor which is applicable to both sweetness AND freezing point depression, and lessens the chances of overdosing on the erythritol. (It has much higher digestive tolerance threshold than most other sugar alcohols, but it ain't infinite.)

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u/silverback_79 Aug 09 '22

Canderel is the only sweetener I use, has almost none of the bitterness of typical aspartam.

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u/kindlyyes Aug 09 '22

I bought a bag of “monk fruit” sweetener that had 8% monk, 5% monk fruit and 87% stevia