How to cook sweeteners

Sweeteners come from various sources. They have been sought throughout history for their pleasing taste and many uses. Just stop and think of what you have eaten today. This morning you may have sweetened your tea with honey and put maple syrup on your pancakes. At lunch, you may have eaten a snack food made with corn syrup, a form of sugar, and, perhaps, you finished off dinner with a cake made with the most commonly used and best known sweetener of all, granulated sugar.

The science of sweetness, however, goes beyond the source of the foodstuff for the sweetener. At a molecular level, approximately 100 chemicals are sweet. They all are referred to as sugars. Common ones you may have heard of include the following:

Sucrose – Table sugar is the crystallized form of sucrose. Sucrose is referred to as a simple sugar. It is naturally occurring in all plants that depend on sunlight to produce energy. Sugar cane and sugar beets are among the most abundant producers of sucrose in the plant kingdom.

Glucose – A simple sugar that plays many key roles in the body, glucose is a simple sugar found in fruits, honey, cereal, flour, and nuts.

Fructose – The sweetest of all sugars is found in abundance in honey and fruit.

Lactose – Another simple sugar, lactose occurs only in milk. It is often added to other foods during processing to improve taste.

Maltose – The result of a chemical processing that uses starch and malt, maltose has numerous commercial food uses. It is often used in beer, bread, and baby food, among other things.

Pectin – A complex sugar, pectin is found in apples, citrus fruits, and some vegetables. It is a form of fiber.

Nutrition

All sugars are carbohydrates and play a key role in providing the body with energy. The calorie content depends on the type of sweetener used. For example, table sugar has about 16 calories per teaspoon, and honey has about 21 calories per teaspoon.

Generally, sweeteners often are referred to as having “empty calories”. They contain few or no vitamins, minerals, or other nutrients. And, because they are appealing, it can be easy to eat too much. This excess could make it difficult to maintain a healthy weight. Heavy use of sweeteners also may increase the risk of tooth decay, which is why it is important to brush after eating a sweet food, particularly one that is sticky, such as caramel. For these reasons, it is best to minimize the amount of sweeteners in your diet.

Selection and storage

These factors depend on the type of sweetener. Check the following pages, which provide more information on common types of sweeteners.