New sugar substitute?

[trigger]

I have just came upon a web for SweetPerfection. It claims to be an all natural sugar subtitute that has 0 net carbs and 122 g of fiber per cup. It sounds too good to be true. :suspicious: I was wondering if anyone knows anything about the product. They also sell chocolate bars and the post some very interesting recipes.

[scott123]

If it sounds too good to be true... :)

1. Sweetperfection is NOT low carb. Oligofructose can be low carb, but only if it isn't sweet. If it's a sweet form of oligofructose (this is) then it's high carb. Not only is this high carb, but a lot of the carbs are fructose.

2. For about $2 a pound, polydextrose and splenda will create the same texture/quality of sweetness in baked goods. At $21.95/lb. , Sweetperfection is ten times the price.

3. This product will NOT perform exactly like sugar. Polymerized sugars such as oligofructose, inulin and polyd all have attributes that cause them to perform differently than sugar, sometimes drastically differently, depending on the application.

For instance:

Sugar will crystallize
Oligofructose will not
It will not work for fudge, for buttercream frosting or for fondant

Sugar is mildly hygroscopic (water attracting)
Oligofructose is extremely hygroscopic
Forget making meringues

And, most importantly:

Sugar can be creamed with butter/added directly to liquids
Oligofructose has major assimilation issues
If you try creaming it with butter it will form hard clumps that may never dissolve in your baked good.

So, summing it. Sweetperfection is:

High carb
Heinously expensive/overpriced
Fraudulently marketed

This is yet another fraudulent company attempting to make a quick buck at the expense of people's health. These people and the makers of Whey Low. Line them all up against a wall- that's what I say ;)

[banshee]

Scott, where did you get your information from that says the "sweet form" of oligofructose is high carb? I haven't seen anything that suggests that it acts as anything other than a fiber in the body. So yes, it is a carbohydrate, but since the body doesn't digest it, you can subtract the carbs from your counts. Research has also shown that these fibers causes an increase in the "good bacteria" in the colon. From everything I've read, and I've done quite a bit of research on this since I found out about it, oligofructose is one of the "good guys" in a low-carb diet.

Here's an article I found:

Inulin and Oligofructose: What Are They? (http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/129/7/1402S)

Of course, I haven't bought any of the raw sweetener, because you're right that it's incredibly expensive compared to other sweeteners on the market, most likely a supply & demand issue. So I can't speak to the cooking properties compared to other sweeteners. I just can't bring myself to spend that kind of money when I've had pretty good success using Splenda to sweeten my home-baked stuff. And Eat Well, Be Well makes a Splenda-sweetened chocolate bar that's a lot more reasonably priced than the Sweet Perfection bars!

[scott123]

Mary, since you've done a lot of research, I'm sure you're aware of this, but just in case you're not... oligofructose is linked sugar submolecules. Indigestibility comes into play because these building blocks are linked in such a way that the body has trouble breaking them down. The more sugar submolecules that are linked together, the less digestion occurs.

Another term for 'sugar submolecule linkage' is 'degree of polymerization' (DP). From what I undestand, when it comes to polymerized sugar (oligofructose, inulin and polyd), the DP is directly proportional to sweetness, solubility, browning and digestibility.

As DP goes up:

Sweetness
Ability to brown
Digestibility

goes down

And, vice versa.

As DP goes down

Sweetness
Ability to brown
Digestibility

goes up

Using this logic,

As sweetness goes up, so does digestibility/carb impact.

Sweet oligofructose is lower DP (less linked/more easily broken down) oligofructose. I mean, it makes sense right? The smaller the oligofructose molecule, the more similar it becomes molecularly to sugar. It's logical that the less linkage/less bonding, the more sugarlike the oligofructose will be- sweeter and more digestible.

Inulin and oligofructose are frequently talked about in the same non-glycemic/indigestible/100% fiber terms. What's frequently not mentioned is the DP of the oligofructose. Less-sweet higher-DP oligofructose (30% as sweet as sugar) can be portrayed in a similar light as non-sweet high-DP inulin (10% as sweet as sugar). That's not that much of a jump. When you get into very-sweet very-low-DP oligofructose, though (this product has to be at least 70% as sweet as sugar), you're talking a whole different ball of wax.

[neuronaut]

So, where can you buy oligofructose? The only web site I've seen it on was over $20 per pound.