Table sugar is the most used sweetener.
The notion of sweetener is formed with the verb sweeten and the suffix -nte . To understand what the term refers to, therefore, it is useful to analyze these components.
Sweetening is usually used with respect to the action of sweetening something using products such as sugar or saccharin . It can also refer to alleviating something negative or beautifying something in a false way. As for the affix -nte , it allows us to form active participles (deverbal adjectives), referring to the execution of the action that the base expresses.
What is a sweetener
Sweetener can be used as an adjective to describe what sweetens . As a noun, it refers to the substance that serves to sweeten .
In short, a sweetener is used to make a food, drink or remedy sweeter . Sweeteners are generally used when the aim is to mask or reverse an unpleasant or bitter or acidic taste .
The case of sugar
Table sugar or common sugar is the best known sweetener. It is a carbohydrate obtained from cane or beet that, in its pure state, is white.
Despite its widespread use throughout the world, sugar is harmful to health if consumed in excess. When a person ingests high amounts of this sweetener, the risk of suffering from cavities , diabetes or obesity , for example, increases.
One of the most used natural sweeteners is honey.
Honey, another natural sweetener
Among natural sweeteners, honey is also very popular. This is the name given to a viscous substance produced by bees to feed their young and to fill their honeycombs.
Honey production takes place in the insect 's stomach. There the nectar they sip from the flowers is transformed into honey, which is characterized by its sweet flavor and yellowish hue.
It is interesting to note that a product composed of the residues left after the last crystallization of sugar is called black honey , cane honey , final honey or molasses . Once physical procedures can no longer be used to obtain more sugar, molasses remains, which is also used as a sweetener.
The rise of stevia
In recent years, the use of stevia has grown, a plant that has a sweetener in its leaves that can replace sugar. Stevia is sold in different presentations: the leaves can be used directly or processed in solid or liquid format.
The Guaraní were pioneers in the use of this species as a sweetener. The Swiss Moisés Santiago Bertoni , when carrying out botanical studies in Paraguayan territory, managed to identify the plant at a taxonomic level and named it Stevia as a tribute to the Spanish botanist Pedro Jaime Esteve .
Artificial sweeteners
An artificial sweetener is a synthetic product that is used to replace sugar, although it can be derived from sugar itself or from another natural substance. They usually have an extremely sweet flavor and provide few calories , which is why they are chosen by those who do not want to gain weight.
Saccharin , sucralose , and aspartame are well-known synthetic sweeteners. Although they are sometimes considered potentially harmful to health, scientists agree that, used in normal quantities, they do not cause serious problems.