Sugar and spice and everything nice

[madlori]

Somebody over on Facebook asked me a question about Splenda today, and it got me thinking, saaaaaay. This might be a good topic for those Posts of Science Goodness that you guys seem to enjoy

Comments

[fabrisse]

Splenda -- to quote Phoebe Bouffay -- "That's what evil tastes like."

Aspartame and Saccharine aren't great either, but they don't fool me first.

[aerodactylus]

So I can blame the chlorine for Splenda's nasty aftertaste. So, if sucrose is made of one glucose molecule and one fructose molecule, and glucose occurs naturally in...everywhere, where does fructose come from?

[madlori]

Fructose occurs naturally everywhere, too. Fructose is fruit sugar. And chlorine doesn't taste like...well, chlorine. Do you taste it when you taste salt? Saccharin has sulfur in it, but it doesn't taste like sulfur.

[aerodactylus]

I know chlorine doesn't taste like chlorine, I was joking. And I find it interesting, if fructose is natural too, what the big deal is about fructose in our diets. Do we manufacture synthetic bad-for-you fructose or something?

[madlori]

Whether it's natural or synthetic, fructose is fructose. It's digested differently in the body because it bypasses the sucrose cleavage step and heads straight for the small intestine. Most of the blame is placed on the fact that fructose does not cause an insulin response (which is why diabetics can have fruit), which means it doesn't make you feel full and can lead to overeating. Messing with an insulin response is risky business. Fructose itself isn't bad for you. Sucrose is half fructose, after all.

[shygryf]

this is great! I have wondered for ages.

[aome]

Very cool lesson - thank you!

[harmoniouslife]

This is very interesting! So is Truvia one of these types of sweeteners? I see the commercial ALL the time and it makes me curious.

[madlori]

No, Truvia is stevia, the new kid on the block. Stevia is a plant extract not related to any of the molecules I've talked about here.