Sugar had to be redesigned before it killed us.
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Source: 24.hu Written by: László Dévai, 2020.
Our daily healthy sugar intake is roughly equivalent to six teaspoons of white granulated sugar.
Just one can of soda contains at least that much, but often much more.
If we calculate how many times we exceed this value on average per day, we understand why our situation is untenable, since we haven't even talked about the sugar content of cookies, chews, and sauces.
But what efforts are there to reform sugar?
According to a 2015 resolution by the World Health Organization (WHO), no more than 10 percent of an adult's calorie needs should be covered by sugar intake, but it is better if this ratio is only around 5 percent.
However, it is important to note that moderate sugar consumption is not dangerous; our body needs it to function properly.
Carbohydrates are our fuel, and one of the fastest-digesting carbohydrates is sugar.
It is no coincidence that soldiers' quick-use supplies are also rich in carbohydrates: in a pinch, a grain of glucose or an energy bar can quickly give the body a new boost.
Sugar can be toxic when consumed in large quantities
Refined sugar raises insulin levels, causing our bodies to start storing fat.
This happens because after the increase, there is a sudden drop in insulin, which makes you feel hungry again.
Thus begins the vicious circle that, fueling itself, never ends.
The aforementioned 10 percent limit is reached quite quickly through fruits or dairy products, so the excess refined sugar consumed is responsible for diabetes and, in close connection with it, obesity.
Breaking down the extra sugar requires large amounts of vitamin B1, a deficiency of which causes irritability and exhaustion.
Sugar also stimulates adrenaline production, which can result in digestive problems or even respiratory problems.
But that's not all: excessive sugar consumption also binds uric acid in the blood, which causes the body to extract calcium from the bones to neutralize the acid, and the extracted calcium can cause osteoporosis.
Redesign
One of the biggest misconceptions about sugar is that it just happens to be found in nature and we use it without modification.
The situation, on the other hand, is that sugar is a product produced by profit-oriented companies.
The sugar and confectionery industry has now grown to a gigantic size, with sugar in almost everything in some form, making it practically unavoidable.
The history of solid sugar began sometime between the fourth and seventh centuries in the Far East.
In India, cane honey was used to produce sugar, the juice of the sugarcane was boiled until thick, and then this thick juice was used for sweetening.
Later, they realized that it was much more effective to dry this dense mass and then break it into crystals.
The production of sugar obtained in this way was more economical than the honey used until then, and cane sugar thus took over the leading role.
World sugar production amounts to 170-180 million tons annually, and Hungary contributes 125 thousand tons to this figure.
This brutal amount is consumed by all of humanity:
We drink, eat, and suck up almost 180 million tons of sugar.
The number of people with diabetes and those struggling with obesity has been increasing in recent decades, but in the meantime, the opposite has also appeared.
There is almost no product that does not have a sugar-free version, and consumers have increasingly started looking for sugar-free alternatives in recent years.
According to recent surveys, the primary consideration for those leading a healthy lifestyle is avoiding sugary foods and drinks.
An industry that generates the aforementioned turnover annually will not allow people to buy products with less sugar content, so the interests of people and the market are one and the same when it comes to sugar production: a healthier solution must be found.
The story of this was summarized in an article in the New Yorker :
One of the largest confectionery consortiums – consisting of Mars Wrigley, Ferrero and Russell Stover, among others – has stated that from 2022, the products they produce will contain less than 200 calories per package.
The Sweetener Dead End
The problem is that sugar is difficult to replace.
The best solution humanity has come up with so far, even with the goodwill of sweeteners, can only be called a half-solution.
The sweetener is not sugar, it is inferior to sugar in taste, consistency, handling, and processability.
Although high-quality sweeteners often come close to the taste of real sugar, the difference is always noticeable.
This is because our receptors are evolutionarily calibrated to sugar.
Even though we have been consuming artificially produced sugar for a long time, we can still distinguish the real natural sweet taste from the artificial one, and this will continue to be the case for a very long time until our aforementioned sensors adjust.
This won't happen anytime soon, it will take thousands of years, so we need to find a real solution.
The new sugar
Avraham Baniel, now 101, started working in sugar production in the 1990s.
The Israeli chemist was working for a British food company at the time.
The company was trying to introduce a sweetener to the American market, and Baniel assisted in this project as a consultant.
The project ended in mixed success, with surveys showing that most consumers, especially young people, immediately noticed that they were not consuming a product made with real sugar.
Baniel reflected on the failure and remembered an incident in 1940 when his neighbor, who worked as an elementary school teacher, approached him to ask if he could make a paste out of cornstarch that would coat the tongue.
According to the teacher, if children find the food sweeter because of the paste, then it would be enough to prepare it with less sugar.
Baniel tried the method himself and it worked, but for nearly sixty years he never thought that this could be the solution to the sugar industry's problem.
Baniel's theory goes like this:
Sucrose, or table sugar, is delivered to the receptors on our tongue by saliva as the sugar crystals dissolve in our mouth.
Let's say we eat a traditional sugar cookie.
We find the bites sweet, but not nearly as sweet as the amount of sugar the cake contains.
This is because only about a fifth of the sugars in products bind to the receptors on our tongue.
The remaining large amount of sugar enters our body and is absorbed.
So the solution may be to deliver these sugar crystals to our receptors much more efficiently.
If this were successful, sugar consumption could be reduced to an amazing extent, as the same taste could be achieved with less sugar, but without the harmful overdose.
To achieve this, the chemist tried mixing sugar crystals with different carriers.
The choice ultimately fell on a substance called silicon dioxide, which is a compound of silicon and oxygen.
It is used in many areas, from the glass and ceramic industries to cement production and microelectronics.
Silicon dioxide passes through the human digestive system without being metabolized, so there is no need to fear it, it has no harmful effects on us, and it is no coincidence that it has been used in the food industry for decades.
According to Baniel's method, these tiny grains of silica, invisible to the naked eye, are embedded in the crystal structure of the sugar, just like blueberries are embedded in a muffin during baking.
Silica crystals
The resulting sugar with a reinterpreted crystal structure, due to the addition of silicon dioxide, seems much sweeter, meaning that even a small amount of sugar tastes much more intense.
This is because the bond between the silicon dioxide and the sugar breaks down in the mouth, allowing the sucrose to flood our saliva much more effectively, resulting in a much more intense taste of the sugar crystals.
The atoms in the sucrose molecule are normally arranged in a regular lattice, but the structure of these lattices becomes amorphous with the addition of silica.
This process allows for 40 percent less sugar to be used to flavor a cake made with this solution.
Perhaps the best way to understand how the chemist's concept works is with the analogy of cotton candy.
Melting cotton candy brings the sugar crystals into an amorphous state, and the new shape and changed structure result in a much stronger, more intense flavor.
This is practically what happens with Baniel's reimagined sugar crystal.
Avraham Baniel and his son Eran Baniel founded a company called DouxMatok in 2014 to bring the solution to fruition.
The first step, of course, was to obtain patents for the process, and they are currently in talks with several large companies.
The fight for the new sugar
But Baniel's solution is not the only one that exists.
The project of the large food manufacturer Tate & Lyle is also at an advanced stage, so much so that their product has already been launched on the market.
Tate & Lyle was founded by Henry Tate and Abram Lyle
The former introduced and popularized sugar cubes in the United Kingdom, while the latter became rich from the byproduct of sugar refining, golden syrup, or more precisely from its sale and resale.
The company was a long-time dominant force in the sugar industry, but they no longer produce commodities.
Roughly a fifth of the company's profits come from a sweetener called Splenda, which was developed back in 1976.
And in 2010, around the same time that Avraham Baniel began experimenting with sugar crystals, scientists at Tate & Lyle also began thinking about sugar reform.
“It was obvious at the time. Our customers wanted sugar to be healthier, more nutritious, and to reduce calories,” Jim Carr, the company’s head of sweetener technology, told the New Yorker.
The large company experimented with many types of sugar found in nature.
Glucose and fructose were both promising, but unfortunately the former is only three-quarters and the latter only half as sweet as sucrose, so they did not prove to be suitable alternatives.
Sugar occurs in many areas in nature, including algae found deep in the sea, meteors, and even our bodies.
However, finding a suitable replacement for sucrose was not an easy task.
Allulose from fructose
The solution finally came in 1991, when Ken Izumori, a professor in the Department of Agriculture at Kagawa University in Japan, made a breakthrough.
Izumori found an enzyme that can reverse the orientation of three carbon atoms in fructose , which converts it into a completely different type of sugar, specifically psicose.
Allulose, or allulose, is also found in very small amounts in nature, for example in figs and maple syrup.
Interestingly, the Japanese professor spent nearly twenty years searching for the enzyme in question, but finally found it thanks to a bacterium from a soil sample taken from behind a cafeteria.
The patent was acquired by Tate & Lyle, and it is currently sold under the name Dolcia Prima.
But what does the psycho know?
According to a report by New Yorker magazine reporter Nicola Twilley, the psychosis-based sugar grains are not as shiny as regular sugar.
This is due to its elongated, slightly rod-like shape.
Twilley, who visited Tate & Lyle's demonstration complex and testing facility, said that psychosis is much more subdued, more consumable than your average sugar.
According to the company's experts, this is because psicose only reaches 70 percent of the sweetness of traditional sugar, but it has a huge advantage:
It has only one-tenth the calories of sucrose (table sugar).
In Hungarian, psychosis is only slightly less intense than everyday sugar, but much healthier.
But despite the great results, the company had trouble getting the product licensed, as the authorities imposed the same special taxes on products sweetened with psicose as on goods made with traditional sugar.
The company lobbied various government agencies for about five years, but for a long time they refused to take into account that products made with psychosis do not raise blood sugar levels.
In the end, it was decided that psicose is not considered sugar, so Dolcia Prima products were given a different classification.
According to the journalist who tested savory and sweet dishes made with psicóz, the difference was not or barely noticeable, but there were dishes that turned out even better with psicóz.
Producing psychosis requires corn, which makes it fairly simple, quick, and cheap.
This is an important aspect because any reform is only functional if it can be implemented in practice.
So the new types of sugars are already here, the only question is when will foods and drinks made with reformulated sugar reach the tables.
