2024 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:29
Saccharin (E954) (saccharin) is an artificial sweetener, a synthetic substitute for sugar. It is the oldest known artificial sweetener, obtained long before the others (aspartame, cyclamate), in the 19th century.
Saccharin belongs to the group of so-called. strong sweeteners, being 300 times sweeter than sugar (sucrose) and approximately 2 times sweeter than aspartame and acesulfame K. A can of saccharin or some of the other artificial sweeteners replaces between 6 and 12 kg of sugar.
Saccharin has 1/2 of the sweetness of sucralose, but there is also one main drawback - after its use a specific metal-bitter taste is felt, which remains in the mouth for some time after consumption. This bitter taste is especially strong in large doses of sweetener.
This is the reason saccharin to be combined often with cyclamate in combination 1:10 to improve the taste. Saccharin is part of almost all tableted sugar substitutes (HUXOL is the most popular in Bulgaria).
As mentioned, saccharin is not absorbed by the body and although there are no calories, there are actually studies that indicate that this product is far from dietary and that its action confuses the body, which instead of losing weight from lack of pure sugar, begins to gain weight.
This principle is easy to explain. With regular use of synthetic sweeteners, weight gain is often observed because saccharin deceives the body. Immediately after ingesting a sweetener tablet, our body begins to prepare to receive carbohydrates.
Instead, it gets zero calories with a sweet taste. When we usually ingest pure sugar, the taste buds signal the entry of sugar, after which the production of insulin begins and the burning of the sugar contained in the blood is activated. With this, the sugar level drops significantly.
At the same time, the stomach, which is also "informed" about the intake of sugar in the body, expects carbohydrates. Receiving a total lack of calories, the body itself begins to produce glucose as compensation. This leads to the production of insulin and the accumulation of fat.
Shortly after the invention of saccharin, it was banned many times over time, but it is still allowed and widely used today. It is considered the most used of all sweeteners, along with being the oldest of them. Whether saccharin is carcinogenic is still unproven and it is widely used by the food industry to sweeten sweets, sodas, medicines, toothpastes, and more.
History of saccharin
The history of saccharin began in 1879, when the Russian emigrant Konstantin Falberg was active in the laboratory of the American professor Remsen. As the romantic version dictates, the sweet taste of saccharin was discovered by chance by Falberg while having lunch. His bread seemed sweet, but no one else in his family tasted it.
A second of brilliant brainstorming and teaching, he realized that it wasn't his bread that was sweet, but his apparently unwashed fingers after working in the lab sweetened his livelihood. The drug on his hands was called sulfaminbenzolic acid at the time, and Falberg worked on it all morning. In the afternoon, the Russian began a feverish work in his laboratory, and so saccharin was synthesized from the compounds of the above-mentioned acid.
After about 20 years saccharin it is already widely used to sweeten food and beverages. Its use was banned in 1902, when the Bismarck government banned the sale of saccharin because its government's interests in the sugar industry were affected. At that time, the annual production of saccharin reached 175,000 kg and the "sweet competitor" became a very serious player.
During World War II the production of saccharin has been revived due to a lack of ordinary sugar. At that time, the bitter taste of saccharin was even stronger and more noticeable than today, when the metallic taste is almost not felt after many improvements in the formula.
In 1967, the production of corn syrup began with the help of a patented enzyme that increased the fructose content of the syrup from 14 to 42%. Thus, corn syrup has become a preferred sweetener in major brands of soft drinks.
Composition of saccharin
The main ingredient of saccharin is benzoic sulfylimine. Saccharin has no nutritional energy and is sweeter than sucrose. The maximum safe amount of saccharin per day is not more than 0.2 g. Bulgarian Ordinance 8 on the requirements for the use of food additives says that saccharin is allowed in concentrations of 3000 mg / kg in food and beverages. Today in the content of some types of saccharin you will find the following content: citric acid, sodium cyclamate, saccharin sodium, baking soda, lactose. As a rule, 1 tablet of saccharin is equal to 1 tsp.
Harm from saccharin
Like aspartame, saccharin can cause side effects, the most innocuous of which is permanent headache. Saccharin is not absorbed by the body, is difficult to dispose of and is actually deposited in the body. Ironically, artificial sweeteners are usually used by people who want to reduce calorie intake and instead gain weight with regular use of saccharin and aspartame.
In 1970, a scandalous study alerted that saccharin caused bladder cancer in rats. This led to his temporary ban, but shortly afterwards he was given the green light again. To this day, all commissions and institutions firmly classify saccharin and aspartame as safe.
In some sources it can be found that a safe amount of saccharin per day is up to 20 tablets (?!) In a person up to 60 kg. Everyone can decide for themselves whether, after the above, such an amount of sweetener is acceptable for him. Our advice is to respect more and more often the sweet foods and drinks you consume and to estimate how many artificial sweeteners you consume. Some scientists are adamant that saccharin contains carcinogens.
Therefore, it is not recommended to consume beverages in which there are saccharin, on an empty stomach without taking carbohydrate food (bread, pasta, etc.) at the same time. There is no definitive study to confirm the harm of saccharin in one form or another, but there is a suspicion that this sweetener can lead to biliary crises. In Canada, saccharin is banned.
