As rates of obesity and diabetes rise across the US and around the world, more and more people are looking for low-calorie and low-sugar versions of their favorite foods to help them control their weight without sacrificing what they enjoy eating.
In the most recent version of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which is developed by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), it is recommended that adults and children limit their intake of sugars, especially added sugars. The Guidelines recommend consuming less than ten percent of daily calories from added sugars. For someone consuming 2,000 calories per day, this means no more than 200 calories from added sugars, or about 12 teaspoons.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is also working to revise the Nutrition Facts Panel on food and beverage labels. One of the proposed recommendations is to label the amount of added sugars in a product. The FDA has also proposed a percent daily value (%DV) for added sugars of ten percent, a value which is mimicked in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
One way to help lower consumption of sugary foods and beverages is by looking out for products made with low-calorie sweeteners. One such sweetener is allulose, a low calorie sugar with about one-tenth the calories of regular sugar. This negligible amount of calories is due to the fact that allulose is not completely metabolized by the body.
While allulose has fewer calories than sugar, it is still classified as a carbohydrate and a sugar. Therefore, the presence of allulose in a product will affect the amount of carbohydrates and sugar listed on product labels. However, it should be noted that though the number of grams of carbohydrates and sugars might look similar to a full-sugar product, the amount of calories will be reduced when allulose is used in place of some or all of the sugar content of the product.
For more information about allulose, please see our Frequently Asked Questions page.