Is it really healthier to drink sugar-free beverages?

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"Get me a drink, sugar-free." In the past two years, sugar-free beverages have become the first choice of summer drinks in the minds of countless consumers. The Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned on July 29 that, on the one hand, the banner of "zero sugar" makes consumers think that such drinks are "healthier", but on the other hand, there has been controversy over the health of the sweeteners added to sugar-free drinks. Can sugar-free drinks really achieve the effect of "weight loss" and "blood sugar control" that consumers have in mind?

Sugar-free beverages occupy the C-position in display cabinets

Many brands rely on it to drive performance

North Youth Daily reporter visited the market and found that a variety of sugar-free drinks have become the new favorite this summer. Not only in the major supermarkets "off" the shelves, with a special float on both sides of the main supermarket road, the supermarkets of major beverage brands refrigerated cabinet is already tight position also have a place for sugar-free drinks. In the convenience stores, sugar-free beverages, especially sugar-free sparkling water products are occupying the C-position of the display refrigerator, as far as the eye can see a variety of white based beverage packaging.

Is it really healthier to drink sugar-free beverages?

Not only are there more products, but many brands are also relying on sugar-free beverages to drive performance.

On July 28, Coca-Cola announced its second quarter earnings, with revenue of $11.325 billion for the quarter, up 12% year-on-year; net profit was $1.9 billion. In particular, global unit case sales of sugar-free Coca-Cola increased 12%, outpacing the average growth rate of Coca-Cola's aerated beverages. And unit case sales in Asia Pacific grew 11 percent year-over-year.

Yuanqi Forest, which brought up the sugar-free sparkling water market on its own, also revealed some of its performance data in April this year, when Li Guoxun, vice president of Yuanqi Forest, said that Yuanqi Forest's revenue in 2021 was 2.6 times that of the previous year.

According to data from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the market size of domestic sugar-free beverages will further maintain growth momentum. 2020 market size reached 11.78 billion yuan, a sevenfold increase from 2014, and the market is expected to increase to 22.74 billion yuan in 2025, doubling in size within five years. 2027, the market will continue to climb to 27.6 billion yuan in size.

Consumers choose sugar-free drinks

They think it is healthier

Behind the pursuit of "sugar-free" is the current demand of many consumers who want to be healthy but are not willing to give up the taste. And to meet this demand for sugar-free drinks, many products also have a price premium.

North Youth Daily reporter found that many brands of sugar-free beverages, than the same brand of similar sugary drinks, the price is often higher. For example, coconut juice sugar-free 24 cans sold for 120 yuan, while the sugar-containing is as little as 102 yuan. In addition, the current market sugar-free drinks, mostly concentrated in the 5 yuan price band level, slightly more expensive than the 3 yuan price band sugary drinks.

According to the "2021 China Sugar Free Beverage Market Trends Insight Report" released by CAS, the most important reason for consumers to choose sugar-free beverages is that they are considered healthier, accounting for more than 78%. Another part of consumers themselves need to control their sugar intake, such as losing weight or suffering from diabetes, and actually for their health.

Many consumers believe that sugar-free beverages have "zero sugar" and "zero calories", so they can enjoy the pleasure of sweets without worrying about gaining weight, which is much healthier than ordinary sugary drinks. But are sugar-free beverages really as "healthy" as advertised by businesses?

Sugar-free beverages do not have weight loss and other effects

There is a debate on whether sweeteners are healthy or not in the industry

According to the national food safety standard GB28050-2011 "General Rules for Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Food", if the carbohydrates in a hundred milliliters of beverage are not higher than 0.5 grams, it can be stated in the product label that "0 carbohydrates" or "0 sugar The" 0 carbohydrates "or" 0 sugar "can be stated on the product label. Many sugar-free beverages actually use sweeteners instead of added sugar such as white granulated sugar, and the energy and sugar content is indeed less. Sweeteners are not harmful to humans when used within the prescribed limits.

However, the scientific community has debated whether "sugar-free" drinks are healthy or not. Some foreign studies have found that long-term intake of sweeteners may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, and may lead to diarrhea and other adverse reactions. Trying to rely on sugar-free drinks to lose weight and overcome diabetes can be counterproductive.

The director of the Department of Endocrinology at the First Medical Center of the PLA General Hospital, Mu Yiming, said that sugar substitute foods, especially many sugar-free drinks, are actually not good for the human body. Many recent studies have found that long-term drinking of sugar-free beverages, if it is sweetened, is not fundamentally different from sugary drinks in terms of causing diabetes to occur. On the contrary these sugar-free, sweetened beverages may be more harmful than drinking sweetened sugary beverages in terms of causing the development of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Studies have shown that the sweetness of sweeteners can make people feel like they are eating sugary foods, which in turn stimulates the body to produce insulin, leading to a drop in blood sugar, a feeling of hunger, and an increased appetite. Although the "sweetener" in sugar-free drinks has zero calories, long-term intake of artificial sugar substitutes can lead to an imbalance in insulin endocrine secretion, which can lead to metabolic disorders in the human body.

In addition, the Beijing CDC has also debunked the claim that sugar-free beverages can help you lose weight: not sweet ≠ "0 sugar" and "0 sugar" ≠ healthy. Drinking "0 sugar" drinks to lose weight is purely cheating the brain, and consuming "0 sugar" foods has nothing to do with preventing diabetes. The Beijing CDC reminds that absolute "sugar-free foods" do not exist. If your blood sugar is stable, you can eat less "sugar-free foods" under the premise of controlling your total daily staple food intake. To recognize the ingredient labels, "sugar-free food" is not superstitious and not blindly follow.

The reporter Zhang Xin co-ordination / Chi Haibo

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