By now you may have noticed a new "zero calorie" sweetner appearing on your local supermarket shelves called Truvia which is touting itself to be "Nature's Calorie Free Sweetner". This product was developed jointly by Cargill and Coca-Cola. (Gee, did we decide that giving all our customers diabetes is a bad business move?)

Always on the lookout for a way to satisfy my sweet tooth without piling on the calories, I decided to invest the $3.99 on a 40-packet box.

First of all, a quick peek at the side panel shows that a 3.5 gram serving contains zero calories, and just 3 grams of carbohydrates (as Erythritol). The ingredients are Erythritol, rebiana and natural flavors.

Let's take a quick peek at just what these substances are.

Erythritol is a "sugar alcohol" (or polyol), named so because it is very similar on a molecular level to both glucose and alcohol. Other sweeteners which fall into this category are sorbitol, xylitol, mannitol, lactitol and maltitol. These sugars are generally incompletely digested in the small intestine, which causes them to have very little effect on blood glucose, making them an ideal choice for diabetics. This also means that the bacteria that cause tooth decay are unable to feed on Truvia, which will make your dentist happy.

It should be noted that excessive consumption of polyols may produce effects similar to excessive fiber intake - bloating, abdominal gas or diarrhea - however erythritol seems to be excluded from this due to the fact most of it is absorbed before reaching the intestine.

Erythritol is made during the fermentation of sugar, and is found naturally in melons, grapes and pears. It is current legal as a food additive many parts of the world, including the US, the European Union and Japan.

The other main ingredient is rebiana, which is a commercially derived extract of the Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni plant which is native to South America, Central America, and Mexico. In 1991, the FDA labeled stevia as an "unsafe food additive", despite having no evidence that it was harmful in any way - the ban was based on an "anonymous complaint". Ironically, it was still considered safe as a dietary supplement by the very same government agency. Isn't bureaucracy great?

There is currently some debate amongst scientists as to how safe stevia is, but the vast majority of the research has shown no adverse effects. It is even thought to increase insulin response, and even increase insulin production - helping to reverse the onset of diabetes and metabolic syndrome! Research has also shown both ingredients to have some antioxidant properties as well.

So far, this sounds like a pretty good product... Now, let's tear open that little packet and give it the taste test...

The texture is just like that of granulated sugar, unlike Splenda or other artificial sweeteners which tend to be more like powdered sugar. As for the flavor - it is definitely a mild sweetness, kind of like sucralose - it takes a fair amount of this stuff to really sweeten a cup of coffee (I added about 10 packets plus some flavored creamer). In the coffee it was pretty good, by itself - well, it has kind of a bad aftertaste - not quite as bad as the little pink packets, but enough to keep me from eating it alone again.

The site claims you can bake with it, although your cookies won't get brown and the Truvia won't help hold them together like caramelized sugar would.

Final verdict - I would probably buy this product again, there seems to be no real looming health issues like we find with a majority of the other sweeteners, and potentially some health benefits as well. Of course, you probably don't want consume this stuff in ridiculous quantities, but overall it seems quite safe, especially when compared to the alternatives.

I am curious to see if Coca-Cola starts to use this product in any of their beverages, perhaps we could finally have a diet soda that isn't scary to drink!

If anyone has any opinions on this product, or more information on it that I didn't present here, leave a comment - I'd love to find out more about this stuff.

This Blog Entry Was Posted On Friday, October 10th at 07:10 pm