Many supplements and energy drinks on the market today use terms like “Zero Added Sugar”, or “Zero Added Calories” on their label. Most customers take this to mean the product is on the “healthy side”. But how does this work? Is the beverage naturally sweet, or is there something else to it?
More often than not, a beverage that markets “Zero Added Sugar” is sweetened with an artificial sweetener such as sucralose or aspartame. These ingredients are created in a lab and are significantly sweeter than you might think.
One of the reasons we set out to create Sunrise was to formulate a beverage that works without these artificial ingredients. Multiple studies have since shown that sucralose may not be as safe as it’s cracked up to be. At the very least, the zero calorie sweetener has been implicated in the impairment of insulin sensitivity.
A recent study published in 2020 [link to study] states, “Activation of sweet taste receptors expressed in the intestine by LCSs produces upregulation of sodium/glucose co-transporter SGLT- 1 (Margolskee et al., 2007), which plays a role in glucose absorp-tion and is implicated in the ability of dietary supplementation of LCSs in piglets to increase weight gain (Shirazi-Beechey et al., 2014).”
To summarize, this literature is literally telling us that LCSs (low calorie sweeteners) are implicated in increased weight gain in piglets. I don’t think there needs to be any other argument made to stay away from additives such as sucralose.
Why worry about the potential side effects of lab made additives? We have chosen to use real sugars in Sunrise.
Zero Artificial sweeteners for a more natural you.
As always, we believe providing customers with relevant information is paramount to building a more aware community. We will strive to provide these materials and corresponding sources!