EASIS with no added sugar. So what

All EASIS products contain no added sugar – and that's without exception. But since many EASIS products are sweet products, versions of foods which usually do contain sugar, many people ask: So what do they contain? We will try to answer that here:

To provide sweetness, EASIS use sweeteners that are (of course) approved by the EU and the Danish Food Administration. Sweeteners are mainly divided into strong (intensive) and weak (sugar alcohols).

The intensive sweeteners!

The intense sweeteners are mostly artificially produced and do not resemble sugar in their chemical structure. The intensive/strong nature of the sweeteners means that a very small amount, and therefore an insignificant number of calories, are needed in each product when compared to sugar. For example, the sweetening power of 1 gram of the sweetener sucralose is equivalent to the sweetening power of 600 grams of sugar.

Since intense sweeteners don't add bulk to a product like sugar does, we replace the bulk of the sugar with fibre, protein and/or water. You can learn more about it in this Youtube video: Youtube-videoen here

Sugar alcohols/polyols!

The 'weak' group of sweeteners often used in foods are called sugar alcohols or polyols. Chemically, they are very similar to normal sugars, and they have roughly the same sweetening effect. Sugar alcohols are energising and affect blood sugar levels – but to a lesser extent than sugar.

For the most part, the point of choosing products with sugar substitutes is precisely to avoid the high sugar intake and the accompanying spike in blood sugar. It is therefore important to know that when sweeteners are made from sugar alcohols, they are still energy-rich and still have a sugar-like effect on the body and blood sugar levels.

All sugar alcohols (except erythritol) contribute 2.4 kcal/10 kJ per 1 gram, where sugar contributes 4 kcal/17kJ per 1 gram. The different sugar alcohols affect blood sugar levels differently. The sugar alcohol erythritol provides 0 kJ per gram.

The table below shows a summary of sugar alcohols and their impact on blood glucose, with the top one – maltitol – having the greatest impact.

Malitol 36
Xylitol 13
Isomalt 9
Sorbitol 9
Lactitol 6
Erythritol 0

Sugar alcohols can also cause diarrhoea or other gastrointestinal problems if you eat more than 20 or 25g a day.

EASIS therefore do not use sugar alcohols in significant quantities. We always stay below 10 E%. With one exception – erythritol.

Erythritol!

Erythritol is a sugar alcohol that is different from other sugar alcohols. Erythritol is about 70% as sweet as sugar, and differs from other sugar alcohols by containing 0 kcal and not affecting blood sugar.

Erythritol is a very small molecule which is absorbed in the small intestine and is excreted unchanged in urine, so it does not cause indigestion like other sugar alcohols.

EASIS Perfect Multisweet and Perfect Icing contain, according to their nutrition information, 100% carbohydrates – but still 0 kcal. This may seem confusing, but that's because erythritol is legally required to be declared as a carbohydrate – even if it doesn't contribute energy.

Carbohydrate counting!

If you’re counting carbohydrates, products containing erythritol can be subtracted from the total carbohydrate content.

Several EASIS products, such as the chocolate, the Free Soft bar and the kammerjunker biscuits, contain erythritol. These products therefore also contain fewer carbohydrates than their nutrition labels state. That's why we always state the percentage of erythritol in a product, so you can subtract it from the carbohydrates.

For example, if you look at the nutritional facts of a Free Soft bar with caramel, it contains 19g of carbohydrate per 100g, of which 3.5% is erythritol. This means that the bar actually contains 19-3.5 = 15.5g carbohydrate per 100g.