As health concerns grow, the health risks of sugar are increasingly recognized. Various types of “sugar-free foods” have emerged, often accompanied by attractive marketing language such as “healthier”, “suitable for diabetics” and “helps weight loss”. Let’s talk about “sugar-free food”. What is “sugar-free food”? First of all, there is a clear national standard for “sugar-free food”. In China’s national standard, it refers to 100 grams of solid or 100 milliliters of liquid containing no more than 0.5 grams of sugar. In addition, there is also a concept of “low-sugar food”, and the Chinese standard is no more than 5 grams of sugar per 100 grams of solid (or 100 milliliters of liquid). In addition to this, it should be emphasized that: 1. “Sugar” here is not just sucrose (what we often call white granulated sugar), but refers to all mono- and disaccharides that have a sweet taste. In addition to sucrose, fructose, glucose, lactose, maltose, etc. are common. Honey and high fructose syrup are both mixtures of fructose and glucose, which are also referred to as “sugar” in the national standard. 2. “Low-sugar” and “no-sugar” do not only refer to added sugars, but also sugars naturally present in food. For example, the natural sugar content in orange or apple juice can be about 10%. This means that even if they are 100% sugar-free, they do not meet the definition of “low sugar” or “no sugar”. Are sugar-free foods lower in calories? The number of calories in a food is not necessarily related to whether it is “sugar-free” or not. Sugar’s primary role in food processing is to produce sweetness, and some foods also rely on it to improve texture. Whether a “sugar-free” food is lower in calories and healthier depends on what is used instead of sugar. For example, in sugar-free beverages, the use of low-calorie sweeteners to produce sweetness instead of sugar does reduce calories. Moreover, the corrosive effects of sugar on teeth, the elevation of blood sugar caused by glucose, and the metabolic syndrome triggered by fructose can be avoided. In this sense, sugar-free beverages can be considered lower in calories and healthier. However, sweeteners do not induce satiety signals in the body like glucose does, which is not conducive to appetite control – simply put, you don’t feel full as easily with a sugar-free cola. If appetite control self-control is low, then sugar-free foods have the potential to make you eat more. Replacing sugar with sweeteners is easy to do with beverages, but it’s not so simple in solid foods – instead of using sugar, you have to fill in the sugar’s place with other ingredients. The macro-ingredients in food are, in addition to sugar, ‘complex carbohydrates’ such as starch, as well as proteins and fats. (1) If fat is used to replace sugar, it is just “out of the tiger’s mouth and into the wolf’s den”, with more calories than sugar; (2) If protein is used to replace sugar, it is nutritionally good, but it will be completely different in price and taste; (3) If starch or dextrin is used to replace sugar, it will help to lower the glycemic index of the food, but it will not lower the calories…. Starch, dextrin and even protein have almost the same amount of calories as sugar of the same quality; (4) If dietary fiber is used instead of sugar, since we cannot digest these substances, it can reduce the calories and has other health values, such as laxative and cholesterol-lowering, etc. However, the physical properties of dietary fiber are not the same as those of sugar, so it is not the same as sugar. However, the physical and chemical properties of dietary fiber are so different from sugar that it is very difficult to replace it. Should diabetics choose sugar-free foods? Not necessarily. The key to a diabetic’s diet is to control large fluctuations in blood sugar. In general, if glucose or maltose is replaced by sugar alcohols in food, the glycemic index will be lower than the corresponding sugary foods. However, it should be noted that certain food manufacturers will add dextrin, refined flour, rice flour, etc. to sugar-free foods, which is better than sucrose in causing blood sugar fluctuations, but it is only a 50-steps and 100-steps relationship. So, ‘sugar-free’ is not a peace of mind, and diabetics still can’t take it lightly. Pay attention to this information on the food package: In addition to the ‘sugar-free’ label on the package, you should also check the ingredient list. If there are starch dextrin, cyclodextrin, refined flour, rice flour, etc. in it, you need to treat it with care. The higher the ranking of these ingredients in the list of ingredients, the higher their content. Can sugar-free food lose weight? Many people choose sugar-free foods in order to lose weight. In fact, from a dietary perspective, the key to weight loss lies in controlling total calorie intake and dietary balance. Therefore, whether it is ‘sugar-free’ or not is not the key, but ‘what is there’ after sugar-free is the key. If you have the need to lose weight, you do not need to be obsessed with whether you should choose sugar-free food, but should pay more attention to the “energy” value indicated on the food label. Are added sweeteners safe? If you want sweetness but not calories, you have to use sweeteners. When it comes to sweeteners, as with other food additives, there are always questions about their safety. In fact, there are many substances that can produce sweetness, but they need to go through a lot of tests to get the “license” to become sweeteners. Moreover, the state for these “on duty” sweeteners are limited to a strict “safe use level”. In addition to sweeteners, other commonly used sweeteners (such as sugar alcohols, aspartame, acesulfame, etc.) “safe use” is equivalent to a few hundred grams of sucrose per day to produce the sweetness, want to “exceed the standard” is also very difficult. Therefore, for sugar-free foods produced by regular manufacturers, there is no need to worry about the safety of sweeteners.