As the concept of healthy eating becomes more and more popular, "sugar-free" concept products emerge in endlessly on the market, especially in summer, "sugar-free", "0 sugar", "0 sucrose", "sugar-reduced" and "low-sugar" have become more and more popular in recent years. Promotion points for multiple drinks.
Are these products worthy of the name?
What "sugars" are there in the 41 drinks?
The Paper reporter sorted out 41 drinks involving the concepts of "sugar-free" and "low-sugar" through offline supermarkets and e-commerce platforms, including carbonated drinks, sparkling water, tea drinks and other drinks that are common on the market.
The two giants, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, have almost occupied the "sugar-free" carbonated beverage market, and most of them regard "0 sugar", "0 fat" and "0 energy" as their selling points.
Sparkling water drinks represented by Yuanqi Forest soda sparkling water emphasize "0 calorie sugar" and "0 calorie".
Suntory jasmine oolong tea, oriental leaf oolong tea and other tea beverages have almost no sweeteners added, focusing on the concept of "sugar-free", while sugar-free iced black tea like Master Kong has added a variety of sweeteners.
Other drinks such as simple yogurt are generally marked with "no sucrose" and "0 lactose".
Except for some tea drinks, most of the drinks that claim to be "sugar-free" contain at least two kinds of sweeteners. odorant.
Sugar-free drinks on the market mostly use traditional synthetic sugar substitutes such as sucralose, or sugar alcohol substitutes such as erythritol.
In the diet cola that consumers often drink, sucralose, acesulfame potassium and aspartame mainly provide sweetness.
Due to its high sweetness and low cost, sucralose is also commonly used in combination with other sweeteners.
Erythritol itself is less sweet than sucrose, and relatively expensive, but it has a better taste and is also a common sweetener in sugar-free drinks.
0 sugar?
Cane sugar free?
Routine charming eyes
For consumers, the main purpose of choosing "sugar-free" is health. ) may have played with words, so I don't trust that kind of 'sugar-free' product."
It is worth noting that the packaging of some beverages will highlight conceptual words such as "0 sugar" and "healthy", such as "Hey Tea Kyoho Grape Sugar-Free Sparkling Water", which is marked with "fiber" in large characters on the package and declared "zero sugar". ".
However, a closer look at the ingredient list of HEYTEA drink shows that this drink has added red grape juice concentrate (≥0.1%), purple carrot juice concentrate (≥0.1%) and sucralose.
HEYTEA’s online customer service claims that HEYTEA’s sparkling water has “0 sugar, 0 calories, and 0 fat” and is “a must for those who control sugar.” It does not add any added sugar, and the sweetness mainly comes from the sugar substitute erythritol.
Zhai Tianchang, an assistant researcher at the Institute of Rural Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has paid attention to the consumption of sugar and the field of nutrition and health in recent years. He pointed out to The Paper: "Concentrated fruit juice is theoretically added sugar, unless the content of free sugar components such as fructose in it is controlled. Only the prescribed sugar-free standard can be called 'sugar-free'."
The World Health Organization once recommended limiting the intake of free sugars in the "Guideline: Sugars intake for adults and children" (Guideline: Sugars intake for adults and children).
Free sugars refer to monosaccharides (such as glucose, fructose), disaccharides (such as sucrose), and sugars naturally present in honey, syrup, fruit juice and concentrated fruit juice.
Heytea online customer service responded that because a small amount of fruit juice is added to the product, a little bit of natural fructose in the fruit juice will be introduced, and the total content, including fructose and sugar substitutes in the fruit juice, is lower than the national standard of 0.5g/100ml. Therefore, it is labeled as "zero sugar" according to the national standard.
A consumer who needs sugar control also reported to The Paper that on the product packaging of "Lechun Zero Sucrose Flavored Fermented Milk", the big "0" occupies nearly half of the bottle, and only the big "0" is seen on the packaging. I thought it was sugar-free, but if you look carefully, you will find that it is only sucrose-free. If you look at the ingredient list carefully, although sucrose is not added, crystalline fructose (>5%) is added.
The above-mentioned consumers believe that product packaging like this is obviously taking advantage of consumers' "sugar-free and healthier" psychology, and it is easy to mislead without carefully reading the product packaging or ingredient list.
"Many companies are constantly adjusting their marketing strategies in order to maximize their own interests. In the past, 'sugar-free' was written as 'sugar-free', but now the false 'sugar reduction' is actually the same, and it is a sneaky change of concept." Zhai Tianchang told The Paper News reporters pointed out that the "Daily Barista Reduced Sugar Latte Drink", which claims to reduce sugar by 35%, is also playing tricks on words.
Although it contains 35% less sugar than the brand's equivalent, the drink has reduced lactose rather than free sugar.
Zhai Tianchang explained that the "subtracted" lactose has low sweetness, and its calorie value per unit mass is not high compared with added sugars such as sucrose, and lactose also promotes the absorption of calcium, iron and other minerals, regulates Intestinal function and other effects.
For most people who are pursuing low-calorie beverage consumption, what really needs to be reduced should be the added sugar in milk beverage ingredients.
"Deceiving consumers, taking advantage of consumers' psychology, taking advantage of the 'sugar reduction' enthusiasm, repackaging products, and reducing the sugar that really needs to be reduced." Zhai Tianchang said that at present, my country has no strict regulations on the labeling of "sugar-free" foods , There have been irregular market behaviors such as "sugar-free" is actually just "sucrose-free", and "sugar-reduced" drinks actually reduce lactose instead of sucrose.
Sugar-free drinks are relatively healthy, but any food has risks and hidden dangers caused by excessive intake, so it is necessary to scientifically understand sugar-free drinks.
Sugar-free drinks with added sweeteners are so common, and they do have lower calories than sugar-sweetened drinks in the past, but the health risks behind them are also attracting increasing attention.
A number of authoritative medical journals have published papers stating that long-term drinking of sugar substitute drinks also affects blood sugar, and may even be related to cardiovascular disease.