Sweeteners Sweeteners


Bittersweet


ugar once made the world go round. As early as the reign of George I, the UK derived 1% of its annual GDP from this simple carbohydrate, a figure that had risen to 4% by the Age of Revolutions. Fortunes were made by it, with handsome cities like Bristol and Liverpool basically built on sugar money – and, of course, the backs of thousands of plantation slaves. Over recent decades, however, our century-old obsession for sugar has perhaps begun to relent. In the UK, for instance, a BMC Medicine article reported that the average sale of sugars in soft drinks dropped by


S Ingredients Insight / www.ingredients-insight.com


sweeteners


At the end of July, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an agency of the World Health Organisation, declared that aspartame is a possible carcinogen. While it’s a startling statement for most, if the claim would have obvious consequences for both human health and business – fi rms like Coca-Cola add the artifi cial sweetener to a range of drinks – the truth is perhaps more complicated than the headline warning suggests. Andrea Valentino looks into it, along the way talking to Harriet Burt of World Action on Salt, Sugar and Health and Marjorie McCullough of the American Cancer Society.


30% between 2015 and 2018, equivalent to a daily personal reduction of 4.6g. In Norway, meanwhile, the typical citizen consumed 24kg of sugar in 2018, down from 43kg at the turn of the century. There are several ways to understand this phenomenon. One is the rising awareness of healthy eating, with a McKinsey poll finding that 50% of American consumers now prioritising healthy eating. Another is probably the stern hand of government: the UK is just one of several European countries instituting so-called sugar taxes, even as


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