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What Is Allulose and Is It a Healthy Sweetener?

Allulose is an interesting one! The macros are there and are impressive how claims say it doesn’t raise blood sugar levels and is incredibly low in calories, but it’s wise to know that it is highly refined and processed. It is chemically made from corn.

Allulose itself is in fact a natural sugar - because it’s found in figs, raisins, maple syrup and jackfruit. BUT the way its used in the food industry and commercial scale is to through an enzymatic conversion of corn. So the allulose we are seeing in products on the shelves comes through corn - no one is extracting it from jackfruit and figs.

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Featured

  Allulose Is a New Kind of Sugar That Doesn’t Count as Sugar

You’re about to see this one-of-a-kind sweetener everywhere.

 Allulose, the New Low-Calorie Sweetener, Is NOT an Artificial Sugar

Is Allulose an Artificial Sweetener? No. allulose is classified as a “rare sugar,” because it’s naturally found in small amounts in a few foods—including figs, raisins, molasses, and maple syrup. Like glucose and fructose—the two components that make up sucrose, or table sugar,—it’s a "monosaccharide," or simple sugar.

 FDA Allows Allulose to be Excluded from Total and Added Sugars

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued new draft guidance last week for allulose, stating it intends to allow manufacturers to exclude the low-calorie sweetener from total and added sugars on Nutrition Facts labels, marking the first time a sweetener will be exempt from the total or added sugars list.

 The Allure of Allulose

First identified in 1940, allulose was found to have about 70% the sweetness of sucrose, and interestingly, unlike other sugars, was not metabolized and passed out of the body unchanged. It is easy to see why non-caloric sugar substitutes are appealing, but so far, every sugar substitute introduced into the marketplace has resulted in controversy of one sort or another. It remains to be seen if allulose will prove to be an exception.

 The Truth about Allulose

There is SO much confusion around this “new” sugar, and its raising big flags for my nutrition concerned peeps.

 What is Allulose? Is it Truly a “Keto Sugar”?

To me, it sounds similar to the marketing tagline used to hasten the acceptance of the sugar substitute sucralose into the marketplace. Mmmm. Not so coincidental in fact! Tate & Lyle is the same refined sugar giant that brought us Splenda®, the best-known brand name of sucralose.

Articles of Interest

A natural sweetener with a tenth of sugar’s calories. Allulose, developed in Hoffman Estates, could be ‘breakthrough ingredient

People looking to cut back on sugar may soon start seeing more of a novel ingredient: allulose, a substitute that tastes and performs much like the real thing but with a tenth of the calories and none of the cavity-causing, insulin-spiking drawbacks. Allulose, considered a “rare sugar,” in April got the blessing of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to not be counted as sugar in nutrition labels because it does not produce the same physical effects.

All You Need to Know About Allulose

It tastes pretty sweet and looks a lot like sugar, but is it good for you? This episode features audio from Does the Sweetener Allulose Have Side Effects? and Is Allulose a Healthy Sweetener?.

Everything You Need to Know About Allulose—The New Sugar Alternative

Meet allulose, the newest reduced-calorie sweetener that's taking the health food world by storm. Sold by Tate and Lyle, the company that created the sugar cube and Splenda, this sweet new discovery has the same taste and texture as sugar—without the weird aftertaste that haunts so many man-made sugar alternatives.

In The Search For The Perfect Sugar Substitute, Another Candidate Emerges

But Fahey says that there's also good reason to be careful with low-calorie sugar substitutes like allulose. The same quality that makes them attractive can also make them quite unpleasant. Our bodies don't digest them, he says. "They travel right through the small intestine and get into the large bowel."

Is Allulose a Healthy Sweetener?

Foods that naturally contain allulose in higher amounts are things like Worcestershire sauce, raisins, dried figs, brown sugar, maple syrup, and ketchup. The food industry makes a concentrated allulose sweetener by first processing corn and breaking it into starch and fructose. Enzymes convert fructose into allulose. So, commercially-produced allulose really comes from fructose.

Research Advances of d-allulose: An Overview of Physiological Functions, Enzymatic Biotransformation Technologies, and Production Processes

d-allulose has a significant application value as a sugar substitute, not only as a food ingredient and dietary supplement, but also with various physiological functions, such as improving insulin resistance, anti-obesity, and regulating glucolipid metabolism.

What Is Allulose & Is It Healthy? Here's What a Dietitian Has to Say

Allulose is being added to sweeten many of our foods, and research shows it may be a good choice for better blood sugar management.