Nowadays, when we go shopping in shopping malls, we can almost see some chewing gum next to each checkout counter to attract consumers. Chewing gum usually tastes a bit sweet, which is very much in line with the public's taste. It is favored and recognized by many young people. Let us take a look at what sweeteners make up these chewing gums!

Sugar alcohols: healthy, but not in excess

Xylitol is just one of the sugar alcohols. Daoxiangyuan's Cantonese mooncakes contain maltitol, Xu Fuji's marshmallows contain sorbitol. And Orion's xylitol chewing gum also contains a certain amount of maltitol. They are the three most popular sugar alcohol sweeteners on the market. Xylitol is mostly used in chewing gum, while maltitol and sorbitol are mostly used in cakes and desserts.

The reason why xylitol caused the "chewing gum revolution" is because it is advertised as being good for health. Indeed, xylitol and other members of the sugar alcohol family do not cause tooth decay or increase blood sugar levels. The calories of sugar alcohols are also lower than those of sucrose. The calories of xylitol are 75% of those of sucrose, and the calories of maltitol are 90% of those of sucrose. Another type of erythritol is basically zero calories.

Xylitol and its cousins are all extracted from corn or other crops by enzymes. Compared with highly sweet chemically synthesized sweeteners, sugar alcohols do not have a significant advantage in reducing calories. The sweetness of sugar alcohols is only equivalent to or lower than that of sucrose, so under the same sweetness requirements, the dosage of sugar alcohols required is much larger. This is why sugar alcohols are rarely used as sweeteners in beverages---the cost of sugar alcohols is also much higher, even higher than the rising price of sucrose.

Although sugar alcohols avoid many of the defects of sucrose, they cannot be consumed arbitrarily. In addition to their high price, sugar alcohols are also difficult to digest, with an intestinal absorption rate of less than 20%. Excessive consumption can cause diarrhea. Some countries require that food packaging containing sugar alcohols must be marked to remind consumers, but my country does not have any labeling regulations.

Stevia: Naturally extracted, generally considered safe

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are making another sweetener, stevia, popular, claiming that it is completely extracted from nature. Last summer, the two companies launched stevia sweetener products. Coca-Cola teamed up with agricultural company Cargill to develop Truvia, and PepsiCo teamed up with Whole Earth Sweeteners to develop Purevia. After the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) passed the "Generally Recognized as Safe" (GRAS) resolution for stevia at the end of last year, the two companies immediately launched a series of "natural sweetened beverages" on the market.

The United States is actually a country that issued a stevia pass relatively late. 40% of Japanese foods already use stevia as a sweetener, and China has become a stevia producer. However, due to the high price of stevia, it is rarely used in domestic food and most of it is exported. However, you can still see stevia in potato chips, shrimp crackers and instant noodles in supermarkets.

According to surveys, stevia is extracted naturally from stevia, and its sweetness is 300 times that of sucrose, but its calories are only 1/300 of sucrose. In 2002, Hong Kong and Singapore urgently recalled stevia-containing foods, which caused doubts about the safety of stevia in the mainland. This incident was called the "Stevia Storm". However, compared with sweeteners such as aspartame, there is currently less evidence against the safety of stevia. It is generally believed that naturally extracted sweeteners are safer than artificially synthesized ones.