Hello and this week we're going to

Hello and welcome to the Nutrition Diva podcast. I'm your host Monica Reinagal and

this week we're going in search of the perfect sweetener. Last week's

last week's Wall Street Journal included a special section on the

future of food with a cover story by Annie Gasparo

on the search for sweet, how food manufacturers are racing to identify

or develop new ingredients that can be used to sweeten foods and beverages without adding calories or worrisome chemicals.

The American consumer, you see, has decided that sugar is bad for them, and this is hardly

surprising given the steady drumbeat of public health

messaging about the evils of sweetened beverages and added sugars. A recent Nielsen poll

finds that 22% of Americans are now trying to reduce their sugar intake.

At the same time, more than half of them are also trying to avoid artificial sweeteners like

equal, otherwise known as aspartame, and

splenda known as sucralose.

Some of the more natural low calorie sweeteners like monk fruit extract, Stevia, and sugar alcohols are a lot more appealing

to consumers, but these have limitations as well. Stevia can have a really bitter after taste. Sugar alcohols can have a very weird mouth feel.

And when you replace sugar with any of these high intensity non-chloric sweeteners, it can have a negative impact on the texture,

the moisture and the volume of these processed foods and in some cases even shorten their shelf life. These challenges are driving a frantic

global search for solutions by the food manufacturing industry. They're

feverishly trying to figure out how to offset the off flavors,

compensate for the effects and texture and volume,

and even to alter the shape of the molecules in our foods

...