Sugar substitutes help make meals healthier
In addition to the study of already known sugar substitutes, the search for new sweet substances is actively underway. And they are found among seemingly unexpected compounds, such as proteins.
Sweet proteins were first isolated from tropical plants in the second half of the 20th century. The first paper mentioning them was published in 1969. George Inglett and Joanne May from the International Agricultural Corporation (USA) discovered that the fruits of the African plant Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii, which in English is called serendipity berries, which can be translated as “good luck berries”, contain a substance that is 1500 times sweeter than sucrose. Subsequent studies were conducted by another research team from Monell Chemical Senses Center. The scientists found that the new substance is of protein nature and named it after their employer - monellin.
Manufacturers of food products have high hopes for these substances and quite reasonably: at the moment their negative impact on the human body has not been revealed. For example, the sweet protein thaumatin is already used in some countries as a sweetener, and brazzein from the African plant Pentadiplandra brazzeana has been certified in the Eurasian Economic Union. Thus, Russia has become the second country in the world after the UAE, where this sweet protein has been officially registered.
To date, brazzein and monellin are being actively researched worldwide to confirm the absence of toxicity, mutagenicity, oncogenicity, allergenicity and impact on the gut microbiota.
Sweet proteins are 800-3000 times sweeter than sugar. Where before it was necessary, for example, 2 kilograms of sugar, brazein will be enough only about 1 gram. The main difference from analogs is that it is a protein, not a carbohydrate, and brazzein does not raise blood glucose levels. Its safety has been proven through comprehensive clinical studies, the results of which have been published in reputable scientific journals.
In a recent study published in Frontiers in Nutrition, a group of scientists decided to investigate how long-term consumption of the sweet proteins brazzein and monellin would affect the gut microflora of rats. To do this, they conducted two series of experiments involving a total of 80 animals. For 150 days, the rats received sweet proteins or sucrose, and the control group - distilled water. Scientists took fecal samples from the animals for genetic analysis of intestinal microflora. The study showed that the presence of sweet proteins in the diet affected the gut microflora, but all changes were neutral, indicating that brazein and monellin are safe for the microflora.
For manufacturers, this is primarily an opportunity to offer the customer a truly healthy treat, especially if in the process of revising the recipe, taking into account the extremely high coefficient of sweetness, the vacated part of the product is replaced with ingredients that are also healthy - for example, vegetable dietary fiber. Before our eyes, sweetness is no longer a pampering, but a superfood.
It's hard to believe it now. But on the other hand, given the pace of development of science and technology, it is quite possible that we may not have long to wait for sweet superfoods.