Coke Zero,

or Coke Naught, as we call it in my house, apparently tastes just like real Coke. Which brings me to the point of this post.

Today's lesson is about aritfical sweetners. There are a few main kinds of them and every single kind has ongoing raging debate about whether it is likely to cause cancer of the arm.

Anyway--on to the sweetners!

1) Sugar Alcohols, like mannitol and sorbitol
2) Saccharin, what Sweet-N-Low is made of
3) Aspartame, what NutraSweet is made of
4) Sucralose, what Splenda is made of
5) Acesulfame potassium, what, uh, acesulfame potassium is made of.

Sugar alcohols are just chemistry. They're naturally occurring compounds that happens to taste sweet--usually found in gum and candies. The main problem with them? The, um, digestive effect they can have. Try eating one too many sugar-free candies from the dentist's (booo)

Saccharin (Sweet-N-Low) is also a chemical--a sodium salt. It's sweeter than sugar, but has a bitter aftertaste at high concentrations and isn't heat-stable. No saccharin brownies for you. They used to think it caused cancer, but it doesn't (uh, they think).

Aspartame (NutraSweet) is the one we grew up with. It's basically a 2-amino acid amalgam that happens to taste sweet. One is aspartic acid and the other phenylalanine. The phenyl. is why cans of pop say "Warning: Phenylketonurics" People with phenylketonuria (or PKU) can't digest phenyl. and they keel over and die. It's pretty important. I guess.

It's not digestible (which is how many AS work, they might taste sweet, but the body doesn't recognize them as food) and has that bitter aftertaste thing too.

Sucralose (Splenda) is engineered chemistry. They took a carbon molecule (which is a bunch of carbon [C], hydrogen [H], and oxygen [O or OH] atoms bonded together); then, simply put, they yanked off an OH and replaced it a chloride ion (a Cl-).

Bitter taste? Better. Heat stable? Yep. Tastes more like sugar? Some say yes. Is it okay to replace an OH with a Cl? Hmmm...

Acesulfame potassium (well, you know) has been around for about 15 years. It's heat stable and is plain old non-engineered chemistry. An acetic acid compound, plus potassium, et voila! It can be used alone, but is usually combined with one of its siblings to give "a better sugar taste".

Which brings me back to Coke Naught. It's Acesulfame K plus aspartame, which is apparently really tastes like sugar.

Not that I would know. I don't use artifical sweetners.



(Next entry--> what pain meds are made from what stuff. Or, "If I offer you Advil and you say, 'No, I prefer Motrin, it works better', I guarantee your headache will be the least of your worries.")