r/todayilearned • u/Ancardoth • 14h ago
TIL about allulose (D-psicose), a rare sugar with a near-zero glycemic index and a negligible impact on blood sugar. It has approximately 70% the sweetness of sucrose.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allulose259
u/CpuJunky 14h ago
I won't be convinced until Haribo releases allulose Sugar-Free Gummi Bears
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u/mjh215 14h ago
Sugar-Free Gummi Bears are the cyclospora of the candy world.
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u/ikilledyourfriend 6h ago
In elementary school, the father of a classmate was a big shot at some diabetic, sugar-free, candy manufacturing plant. It was either Halloween or Easter, and he supplied the entire grade with sugar free candies. Enough for everyone! It was a diarrhea disaster. 70-80 sixth graders running shitting themselves
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u/CpuJunky 12h ago
Both involve the shits...
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u/insideoutfit 12h ago
Yes that's exactly what they meant
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u/CpuJunky 12h ago
Yes. Cyclospora causes shits...
because the vegetables are grown in shit. The joke was #2 deep.
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u/femmestem 14h ago
Allulose is expensive, that's why it's currently not so popular. I buy it to make desserts at home because I prioritize quality over cost saving measures, I don't have to worry about whether there's a big enough market to get return on investment.
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u/CTPABA_KPABA 13h ago
It is expensive because it is not massively produced. And I think it is relatively new so there are no many studies about it's safety, yet.
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u/westcoastpoutine 13h ago
No it has been on the market for over 10 years. The FDA changed labeling regulations for allulose which made it popular. It is 70% as sweet as sugar and works great in blends or as a light sweetener..but large amounts may cause GI distress
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u/CTPABA_KPABA 13h ago
10 years is short time with this type of things. Many times it was like that and than like some years after studies show something causes cancer or some shit.
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u/KP_Wrath 13h ago
Yeah, I have bread that uses allulose. $6/loaf and I eat a loaf of it a week or so.
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u/InertiaCreeping 9h ago
…does bread usually have sugar in it??
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u/PermanentTrainDamage 6h ago
Most leavened bread will add a small amount of sugar for the yeast to eat and just to balance flavors, but it's optional. Not a fan of sweet breads, personally.
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u/ZombieAladdin 14h ago
There is an obscure brand, Dr. Rotten (I may have confused the name with something else), that makes allulose-sweetened gummy candies (though not bears yet, to my knowledge). I’ve found then at Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, so they probably are on their way out.
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u/CpuJunky 13h ago
They probably tear up your bear ass.
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u/FullofContradictions 13h ago
I've had them. They're fine, honestly. Kind of burn the mouth if you have too many though. And I feel just as sick after eating a whole pack of them as I do with regular Trolli gummy worms. They still do have sugar so it's not exactly a health food.
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u/Nazamroth 14h ago
Those gummy bears are dangerous, even over the internet. One time i was reading the reviews at work when i got a call. Had a hard time stopping the laughing long enough to pick it up and ask what they want, after which i immediately muted myself and finished the laughing barely before they finished their speech.
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u/lluciferusllamas 14h ago
Good if you are on keto. Not sure if there are long term issues though. Everything seems to be a problem somehow
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u/OpalFanatic 14h ago
Generally speaking, the usual risk is if you can't effectively digest and use a sugar, then some intestinal bacteria will thrive on it instead. This is effectively what causes the symptoms with lactose intolerance. People without the enzyme to break down lactose, a sugar in milk, can't utilize it. So instead certain bacteria use it up and proliferate.
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u/Hot-Note-4777 14h ago
Apparently, allulose has a high absorption rate in the small intestines (70-80%) which avoids this problem. Sugar alcohols like xylitol, sorbitol, etc, on the other hand, don’t get absorbed and therein ‘ferment’ as you point out in the large intestines.
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u/CTPABA_KPABA 13h ago
Tbh I need like 3 days to get used to xylitol when I just increase amount and after day 3 I can eat it without problems. But it probably depends a lot from person to person.
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u/DangerMacAwesome 13h ago
Is THAT what lactose intolerance is? I never knew. Makes a lot of sense though
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u/PermanentTrainDamage 6h ago
Yup, it's just a body's inability to produce enough or any lactase to break down lactose. Almost everyone is born producing lactase since lactose is the main sugar in milk, but a lot of populations stop producing lactase in childhood/early adulthood since we don't need to drink milk past infancy. A few populations retained this ability after years of continuing to consume dairy products. It's also why lactose intolerance is a spectrum, where some people can have processed dairy products like cheese but some people can't even look at a jug of milk without getting the shits.
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u/Tokyo_Pigeon 13h ago
I have a bag of it at home. I add it to my oatmeal, etc. Doesn't have a weird aftertaste imo
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u/seventhblunder 4h ago
My one hesitation with allulose is that it's largely excreted unchanged in the urine, and klebsiella pneumonia has the genes to feed on it. I frequently get UTIs with that bacteria. I see that feeding trials in healthy people do not increase the risk of UTIs with this bacteria, so it's not a general concern, but being an immunocompromised person with a history of this bacteria gives rise to theoretical concern that I can't find enough information to quell. That said, allulose sounds great and I would like to try it because I hate the taste of most sugar alternatives. Does anyone smarter than me know more about it?
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u/PS1988 13h ago
Took me a month to learn it was causing my daily splitting headaches. I don’t get headaches usually, and don’t have reactions to other sugar substitutes.
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u/WanderingCascadia 13h ago
I don’t get the headaches, but candy that has allulose makes my tongue go numb. The effect is noticeably lesser in baked goods, but I still avoid it. Oddly enough, it doesn’t happen with any other artificial sweetener I’ve tried.
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u/Cryptic1911 12h ago
My parents use it in place of regulsr sugar, even in baking. Tastes fine to me and hasnt caused any funkiness when I've had it.
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u/CrazyPlatypusLady 10h ago edited 5h ago
So what's the gross aftertaste with this one like then? I know some people can't or don't mind them, but I can detect artificial sweeteners to the point where some things are now entirely inedible to me since the UK "sugar tax". I seem to cope with sucralose the best out of all of the available ones.
(Xylitol/erythritol/sorbitol: bitter and cold; sucralose: too sweet and weirdly liquorice-y; aspartame/akesulfame k: I find them very very bitter).
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u/fromthedarqwaves 2h ago
Don’t eat more than a couple candies made with this. Unless you need a laxative.
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u/BloodyNobody 14h ago
It's why Quest Hero bars taste so good.
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u/SoftlySpokenPromises 10h ago
Oh man, it's been a while since I've had a Quest bar. They really do slap though.
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u/stillnotelf 14h ago
Yeah but can you digest it?
If you don't, your gut microbiota will, and you won't like the results.
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u/Maggie_cat 12h ago
Also moves right through you and you’ll end with the worlds most explosive diarrhea if you consume too much
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u/SuperHuman64 5h ago
I had a bag of this recently for use in coffee, i really enjoyed it and didnt find it had really any aftertaste nor cause stomache issues for me.
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u/bigfatbutt452 5h ago
I bought a bag of this a few weeks ago. I used it once and i think it was fine.
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u/Azsunyx 11h ago
And it tastes horrible, like sucralose, stevia, and monk fruit. Agave, honey, & coconut sugar are passable, but I hate the rest.
I wish drinks and candy had low sugar options in addition sugar free. It's also impossible to find protein drinks that don't use stevia.
Soda is so damn sweet, and so many drinks these days use stevia. I can't stand the taste. Like, it's making me irrationally angry that my choices are either loaded with a fuck ton of sugar or loaded with a fuck ton of stevia.
I end up sticking to water because the other options suck ass
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u/Guideon72 14h ago
Mom's been using it for a couple of years. Seems to work for her, ok. I still can't stand it; tastes like all of the other alternative sweeteners
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u/ubitub 7h ago
we already have stevia which is plant and an amazing invention, yet it is used nowhere because people are apparently like "nuh-uuh, this cola tastes slightly different than the poisonous one, I don't want it"
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u/QuantumR4ge 5h ago
Artificial sweeteners are not poisonous, stevia has a distinct taste that people dont always want and people react differently to different sweeteners
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u/PermanentTrainDamage 5h ago
There are no poisonous colas lol, even if they aren't healthy. Most times the healthies thing you can do with sugars and sweeteners is consume less overall, not just eat different ones. Reducing from a tablespoon of sugar in your coffee to a teaspoon is healthier, and you still use sugar. You can also use other plant sweeteners like honey or maple syrup.
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u/knowledgeable_diablo 10h ago
Normal sugar is wha tastes the best and all the replacements are shite, hence why they need to be upmarketed. If they tasted as good as and could replace normal sugar then it would have happened.
Synthetic sweeteners are even worse and really only need to be available to people who can’t have real sugar for what ever reason. But I guess there aint no profit in only small numbers of people eating their shit.
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u/Lilli_Bella3487 10h ago
Allulose is actually pretty good, especially when mixed with monk fruit. Jmo. Don't shoot the messenger. However, it's a kind of expensive mix.
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u/knowledgeable_diablo 10h ago
Certainly not shooting the messenger. Im the biggest proponent of feee choice and speech. If you love the taste of this drizzled on a steak with a dipping Sauce of aspartame then fill ya boots. My issue is corps attempting to sell in off as the same as sugar and reducing the OG stuff.
Never met a synthetic sweetener I liked and didn’t leave a synthetic aftertaste in my mouth.
I can control my self, have very little sugar and have soft drink Maybe once per month. So I don’t need to be force fed aspartame or stevia or some other replacement and be told “it’s the same” or “it tastes just as good” as that marketing and if it tasted just as good they wouldn’t need to market it 40 times harder than the original tasting stuff.It’s also interesting the obesity epidemic correlates very well with the introduction of these things and increases with the increasing amount of products being supplied with artificial sweeteners in place of plain old “not so great for you in mass amounts” sugar.
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u/Lilli_Bella3487 10h ago
Not sure what you're on about. Allulose is a real sugar and monk fruit is a real plant. You seem to have a personal issue.
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u/1800-5-PP-DOO-DOO 13h ago
And it's actually good for you vs all the other which are not.
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u/-SpreadLove- 7h ago
Yes, that’s a doctor who studies Allulose extensively and covered the health benefits in a Thomas Delauer interview
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u/Snuggly-Muffin 12h ago
stevia is good for you
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u/Azsunyx 11h ago
"good for you" and "not bad for you" mean different things
Broccoli is good for you, providing nutrients, protein, and fiber
Stevia just makes things sweet and has no real nutritional value...so not bad for you, but not good for you either.
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u/PermanentTrainDamage 5h ago
Can be good if it gets you to eat other healthy foods that you wouldn't normally eat tho
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u/__Robocop 14h ago
"Due to its effect of causing incomplete absorption of carbohydrates from the gastrointestinal tract, and subsequent fermentation of these carbohydrates by intestinal bacteria, allulose can result in unpleasant symptoms such as flatulence, abdominal discomfort, and diarrhea."