Softdrinks Lover!

Artificial Sweeteners - Aspartame

Aspartame, saccharin and sucralose are common replacements for sugar in our foods. While we are so hooked on cutting the calories by reducing the sugar content in our foods, we should not overlook the side effects of synthesized sweeteners.

The fact that they are all linked to some serious (often fatal) ailments, poses the question: "How did they get accepted through the FDA and the other food and drug authorities in the first place?

Although aspartame metabolises to produce 4 kilo-calories per gram of energy, because it is 200 times sweeter than sugar, the quantity of aspartame needed to produce a sweet taste is so small that its caloric contribution is negligible. Put simply - gram for gram, aspartame is far higher in calories than sugar but because it is 200 times sweeter, we use 0.02 times as much. The result is the same sweetness for 0.02 of the original calories - usually not enough calories to add to the equation!

For food manufacturers this is a huge bonus in todays marketplace where the focus is on weightloss.

Now for the master stroke - unlike the other sugar substitutes which are subject to patents, aspartame's patent has expired. This makes it much cheaper than the competing sugar substitutes. From a manufacturers point of view they can't lose!

The taste of aspartame and other artificial sweeteners differ from that of table sugar in the times of onset and how long the sweetness lasts, though aspartame comes closest amongst artificial sweeteners to sugar's taste profile. The sweetness of aspartame does last longer than sucrose, so it is often blended with other artificial sweeteners like acesulfame potassium to produce an overall taste more like sugar.