What's inside sugar and sweeteners?
Sucrose, table sugar, sets the sweetness scale at 1. Follow it to aspartame, sucralose and stevioside, each hundreds of times sweeter, and to xylitol and erythritol, two sugar alcohols one carbon apart.
What the marks and numbers mean
- Naturally present
- Already there in the plant, animal or mineral it comes from.
- Added by the maker
- Put in by whoever makes the product; an ingredient on a label is marked this way.
- Measured
- From a laboratory measurement, with its source in Sources and notes.
- Calculated
- Worked out from the structure (molecular weight, by PubChem).
1. The yardstick: sucrose, table sugar
Sucrose
C12H22O11Table sugar: one glucose joined to one fructose. It is the reference point the whole sweetness scale is measured against, at exactly 1 times sweet.
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Sucrose, ordinary table sugar, is the yardstick every other sweetener is measured against.
By definition it sits at 1x on the sweetness scale; a sweetener rated "200x" simply tastes as sweet at one two-hundredth the amount.
The bond joining sucrose's two halves is split by the enzyme sucrase in the small intestine.
Sources and notes
- The drawingscomputedPubChem structures, drawn by RDKit
- The line on Sucrosefrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- Sucrose: naturally presentfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedTable sugar is sucrose, refined from sugar cane or sugar beet.
- Sucrose: 1 × sugarfrom sourceHSDB via PubChemSweetness against table sugar, which is 1.
- More on Sucrosefrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The Sucrose vs Fructose comparisonfrom sourceMoleculeFinder comparison notes
- Sucrose: molecular weightcomputedPubChem
2. Two hundred times sweeter: aspartame
Aspartame
C14H18N2O5The sweetener in blue packets, diet sodas and sugar-free gum, about 200 times sweeter than sugar. It is a dipeptide, so it carries a phenylalanine warning label.
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Aspartame is roughly two hundred times sweeter than sugar, so a diet soda needs only a trace of it to match the sweetness of the ~40 grams of sugar in a regular can, with almost none of the calories.
Aspartame is not a carbohydrate at all but a dipeptide, phenylalanine joined to aspartic acid, which the body does break down, and that is why products carry a phenylalanine warning for people with phenylketonuria.
Sources and notes
- The drawingscomputedPubChem structures, drawn by RDKit
- The line on Aspartamefrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- Aspartame: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedThe sweetener the maker adds.
- Aspartame: 200 × sugarfrom sourceFDASweetness against table sugar, which is 1.
- More on Aspartamefrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The Sucralose vs Aspartame comparisonfrom sourceMoleculeFinder comparison notes
- Aspartame: molecular weightcomputedPubChem
3. Sugar with three chlorines: sucralose
Sucralose
C12H19Cl3O8The sweetener in yellow packets, sold as Splenda. It is table sugar with three chlorine atoms swapped in, which makes it 600 times sweeter and indigestible.
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Sucralose is roughly six hundred times sweeter than sugar, built by swapping three of sucrose's hydroxyl groups for chlorine.
Sucralose actually starts as sucrose with three hydroxyl groups swapped for chlorine, which is why its formula carries Cl3 and why the body cannot digest it: the enzymes no longer recognise the shape.
Sucralose is chlorinated sucrose that the body cannot digest and that survives baking, while aspartame is a dipeptide the body breaks down and heat destroys.
Sources and notes
- The drawingscomputedPubChem structures, drawn by RDKit
- The line on Sucralosefrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- Sucralose: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedThe sweetener the maker adds.
- Sucralose: 600 × sugarfrom sourceFDASweetness against table sugar, which is 1.
- More on Sucralosefrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The Sucralose vs Aspartame comparisonfrom sourceMoleculeFinder comparison notes
- Sucralose: molecular weightcomputedPubChem
4. From a leaf: stevioside
Stevioside
C38H60O18The most abundant sweet compound in stevia leaves, around 300 times sweeter than sugar but with a liquorice bitterness that rebaudioside A lacks.
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Stevioside is the sweet molecule extracted from the leaves of the stevia plant, about three hundred times sweeter than sugar.
Because it comes from a leaf rather than a lab, it anchors the natural end of the high-intensity sweeteners.
Sucralose is made in a factory from sugar and stevioside is extracted from the stevia leaf, and sucralose is the sweeter of the two.
Stevioside and rebaudioside A are steviol glycosides from the same leaf, one sugar unit apart, and rebaudioside A lacks stevioside's liquorice bitterness.
Sources and notes
- The drawingscomputedPubChem structures, drawn by RDKit
- The line on Steviosidefrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- Stevioside: naturally presentfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedMade in the leaves of the stevia plant.
- Stevioside: 300 × sugarfrom sourceMeSHSweetness against table sugar, which is 1.
- More on Steviosidefrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The Sucralose vs Stevioside comparisonfrom sourceMoleculeFinder comparison notes
- The Stevioside vs Rebaudioside A comparisonfrom sourceMoleculeFinder comparison notes
- Stevioside: molecular weightcomputedPubChem
5. One carbon apart: xylitol and erythritol
The sugar alcohol in sugar-free gum, as sweet as sugar but not fermentable by mouth bacteria, which is why dentists like it. It is toxic to dogs.
A sugar alcohol about 60 percent as sweet as sugar that the body absorbs and excretes largely unchanged, which is why it carries almost no calories.
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Xylitol and erythritol are sugar alcohols one carbon apart; xylitol is about as sweet as sugar and toxic to dogs, while erythritol is less sweet and is not.
Erythritol is absorbed in the small intestine and excreted largely unchanged, so it reaches the gut bacteria in small amounts and causes less digestive upset; xylitol is fermented further along and is the more likely of the two to cause it.
Sources and notes
- The line on Xylitolfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The line on Erythritolfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The drawingscomputedPubChem structures, drawn by RDKit
- Xylitol: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedThe sweetener the maker adds.
- Xylitol: 1 × sugarfrom sourceHSDB via PubChemSweetness against table sugar, which is 1.
- Erythritol: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedThe sweetener the maker adds.
- The Xylitol vs Erythritol comparisonfrom sourceMoleculeFinder comparison notes
Also on the list
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- Acesulfame potassium. Ace-K, a sweetener about 200 times sweeter than sugar. It is usually blended with sucralose or aspartame because each masks the other's aftertaste.
- Saccharin. The oldest artificial sweetener, sold in pink packets since 1879. About 400 times sweeter than sugar, with a metallic aftertaste at higher concentrations.
- Rebaudioside A. A sweet compound of the stevia leaf, about 300 times sweeter than sugar, with less of stevioside's liquorice bitterness. It carries one more glucose than stevioside does.
- Sorbitol. The sugar alcohol in sugar-free gum and diet candy. It is poorly absorbed, which is why the label warns that excess may have a laxative effect.
- Allulose. A rare sugar found in figs and raisins that tastes like sugar and browns like sugar, but passes through the body largely unmetabolized.
- Mogroside V. The sweetness of monk fruit, around 250 times sweeter than sugar. The fruit itself is not particularly sweet until this compound is extracted.
Sources and notes
- The line on Acesulfame potassiumfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The line on Saccharinfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The line on Rebaudioside Afrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The line on Sorbitolfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The line on Allulosefrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The line on Mogroside Vfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curated
- The drawingscomputedPubChem structures, drawn by RDKit
- Acesulfame potassium: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedThe sweetener the maker adds.
- Saccharin: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedThe sweetener the maker adds.
- Rebaudioside A: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedThe sweetener the maker adds.
- Sorbitol: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedThe sweetener the maker adds.
- Allulose: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedThe sweetener in the packet.
- Mogroside V: added by the makerfrom sourceMoleculeFinder curatedExtracted from monk fruit and put in the packet.
Where next?
Lugduname is the sweetest molecule in MoleculeFinder, an estimated 220,000 times sweeter than sugar.
Sucralose is chlorinated sucrose that the body cannot digest and that survives baking, while aspartame is a dipeptide the body breaks down and heat destroys.