The sweetness of substances and dishes is measured in conventional units - SES. Sucrose is taken as the zero reference point. The list of products that make the palate squeal with joy includes completely unexpected ingredients.

The sweetest vegetables and fruits

There is an opinion in the culinary circle: the sweeter the vegetable, the healthier it is. While this may be debatable, one thing is true: the less watery the fruits and vegetables, the more nutrient-dense they are. The leaders of our sugar TOP are so appetizing that they rarely stay on the shelves.

The sweetest fruit

Dates are considered record holders in the world of natural desserts. The sugar content of small date palm fruits ranges from 50 to 80%. The healing properties and taste of this fruit were known to the ancient Egyptians and the mysterious Assyrians.

The prophets who settled on the pages of the Bible and the Koran saved themselves from hunger by eating dried fruits. Despite the huge SES level, dates are low in calories and even become the basis of special diets. They contain a wide range of amino acids, vitamins B and P. The sweetest fruit promotes easy childbirth, relieves kidney stones, but is completely unsuitable for diabetics and people suffering from obesity.

The sweetest tomatoes

Although the sugar content of tomatoes is relatively low (2.6 grams per 100 grams of total weight), they have a rich, sweet taste and pleasant aroma. In search of the perfect golden apple, Professor Harry Klee from the University of Florida analyzed the chemical composition of different varieties of tomatoes. He identified a dozen compounds that determine the intensity of aroma and another 12 that are responsible for sweetness, discovering the secret to the harmony of taste, color and smell.

The sweetest varieties of tomatoes are the hybrid “Master Garden F1”, the purple “Chernomor” and the fleshy “Orange Giant”. These sugar vegetables are a powerful antioxidant, prevent the formation of blood clots and even increase potency.

The sweetest pumpkins

The undisputed leader in sugar accumulation is pumpkin. It contains up to 32% sugar - about the same as the best varieties of wine grapes. Orange “bellied” is rich in vitamin C, which is responsible for immunity, and B vitamins, necessary for the beauty of hair, nails and skin. Thanks to carnitine, which is rarely found in vegetables, pumpkin promotes the formation of a muscle corset and fights obesity. Although the sweetest varieties grow in Asia, there are worthy specimens in our area. For example, nutmeg, candied, marble and Arbat pumpkins contain more than 12% sugar. “Volzhskaya Gray 92” will be even tastier, because the sugar level in it exceeds 16%.

Sugar garlic

It’s hard to believe, but in terms of sugar levels, aromatic melons and sugar beets are far from garlic. This “smelly friend” contains up to 27% polysaccharides, including glucose, sucrose, inulin and fructose. White cloves would probably be sweeter than honey, if not for the essential oil that gives them a sharp taste and a peculiar smell. Garlic, known to our ancestors, is one of the most powerful natural antibiotics. It treats colds, disinfects wounds and strengthens the heart muscle. The healthiest people live in Korea and Italy: they consume up to 12 cloves of garlic per day. The “sugar” vegetable also has its contraindications. It is undesirable for nursing mothers, ulcer sufferers and people with kidney problems.

The list of molasses-sweet fruits and vegetables could be endless. Sugar apple from Thailand, pineapple, persimmon, tamarind, quiche, black carrots and artichokes have settled here.

What else is included in the TOP sweetest foods?

In order to calculate the effect of sugar on the human body, scientists came up with another concept - the glycemic index. Thanks to it, you can calculate how the body reacts to pure glucose. What food instantly increases blood sugar and is itself sweet?

Corn syrup

Researchers from the University of California have found that sugary foods can lead to weakened nerve connections and deterioration of brain function. After feeding one group of experimental rats corn syrup rich in fructose, they sent them to find a way out of the labyrinth.

The animals, who had already left the Minotaur’s lair more than once, darted madly through the passages, but were unable to escape. But their brothers, who had not tasted the sugary nectar, easily went outside. Corn syrup is several times sweeter than sugar and much more dangerous. It is one of the reasons for the excessive obesity of Americans: per year they absorb up to 17 liters of cheap sweetener.

Honey

According to ancient myths, even the Greek gods respected honey, consuming tons of ambrosia. And ancient Russian recipes indicated it as a panacea for all diseases. Although the beekeeping product is very high in calories, it is much healthier and sweeter than sugar. For example, acacia honey contains more than 40% fructose and 36% glucose. It contains enzymes necessary for the body, B vitamins and ascorbic acid. Honey can speed up the restoration of damaged tissues, improve digestion, normalize sleep, improve immunity and even prevent the occurrence of sclerosis. But, like any sweet, it has its contraindications: it is not suitable for allergy sufferers and diabetics.

Is there really any product that breaks all records for sugar content?

The sweetest substance in the world

In 2010, the NutraSweet company invented a new food additive - neotame, 13,000 times more sweet than sugar. But we are for naturalness, so stevia becomes the leader in our ranking of the sweetest products. This perennial plant, used by American Indians thousands of years ago, is 300 times sweeter than sugar. In 1903, the Swiss Bertoni, having examined a green bush received as a gift, found out that stevia leaves can be used as a natural, calorie-free sweetener.

But this miracle of nature also hides other beneficial properties: it is used in cooking, treats psoriasis, angina pectoris, improves memory and removes toxins.

Sweets are not only delicious, but also incredibly expensive. .
Subscribe to our channel in Yandex.Zen

Sweet taste

Lugduname is the sweetest substance.

Sweet taste- an expression both in relation to substances that cause a sensory process, a sensation due to the action of a sweet substance on taste receptors, and the type of chemoreception itself. It is one of the five “main ones”. The sensation of sweetness is carried out by special receptors for the sweet substance. Sweetness is usually associated with a pleasant sensation, and people most often experience sweetness when eating foods rich in simple carbohydrates, such as sugar or glucose. The sweetest substance that is currently edible and harmless is Methylphenyl ester -L-α-aspargyl-aminomalic acid, which is 40,000 times sweeter than sucrose. This substance has been patented by Japanese scientists and may be used to produce chocolate. According to research, 3 drops of this substance are enough to make an entire tank car with a capacity of 60 tons sweet, like ordinary tea with two spoons of sugar per 200 ml mug.

Sweet receptors

Sweets are detected by taste bud receptors

see also

Literature

• Cohn, Georg (1914). Die Organischen Geschmackstoffe. Berlin: F. Siemenroth.
• Kier L (1972). "". Journal of Pharmaceutical Science 61 : 1394.
• Kitagawa M, Kusakabe Y, Miura H, Ninomiya Y, Hino A (2001). "Molecular genetic identification of a candidate receptor gene for sweet taste." Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 283 : 236–242.
• Li XD, Staszewski L, Xu H, Durick K, Zoller M, Adler E (2002). "Human receptors for sweet and umami taste." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 99 : 4692–4696.
• Max M, Shanker YG, Huang LQ, Rong M, Liu Z, Campagne F, Weinstein H, Damak S, Margolskee RF (2001). "Tas1r3, encoding a new candidate taste receptor, is allelic to the sweet responsiveness locus Sac." Nature Genetics 28 : 58–63.
• Montmayeur JP, Liberles SD, Matsunami H, Buck LB (2001). "A candidate taste receptor gene near a sweet taste locus." Nature Neuroscience 4 : 492–498.
• Nelson G, Hoon MA, Chandrashekar J, Zhang YF, Ryba NJP, Zuker CS (2001). "Mammalian sweet taste receptors." Cell 106 : 381–390.
• Nofre C, Tinti JM (1996). “Sweetness reception in man: the multipoint attachment theory.” Food Chemistry 56 : 263–274.
• Sainz E, Korley JN, Battey JF, Sullivan SL (2001). "Identification of a novel member of the T1R family of putative taste receptors". Journal of Neurochemistry 77 : 896–903.
• Shallenberger RS ​​(1963). "Hydrogen bonding and the varying sweetness of the sugars." Journal of Food Science 28 : 584–589.
• Tinti, Jean-Marie & Nofre, Claude (1991). Why does a sweetener taste sweet? A new model. In D.E. Walters, F.T Orthoefer & G.E. DuBois (Eds.), Sweeteners: Discovery, Molecular Design, and Chemoreception, ACS Symposium Series 450, pp. 209–213. Washington, DC: American Chemical Society.

If you ask any person “which substance is the sweetest,” you will probably get the answer - sugar. Surely this is almost the correct answer. It is accepted that table sugar, or in other words, sucrose (99.9% sugar) is the sweetest substance in the world. Sucrose is the standard by which the sweet taste of foods is compared. To determine the sweetness of a product, there are special commissions of experts; they taste it, give ratings, which are then averaged. It is clear that the expert must have the highest sensitivity to the presence of sucrose. Sucrose consists of two monosaccharides - glucose and fructose. Sucrose is found in varying quantities in all fruits and berries, but its highest content is in sugar beets and sugar cane, from which sugar is mainly extracted. Moreover, the sucrose content increases significantly in ripened fruits.
Sucrose molecule

Fructose, glucose, lactose and others...

Surprisingly, bees sense sucrose a thousand times worse than humans. They do not consider the honey they produce (and it consists of 80% sucrose) to be sweet at all. But the nectar they feed on contains about 70% fructose, which is about 1.7 times sweeter than sucrose. Glucose is 1.3 times less sweet than sucrose. When it enters the intestines, sugar (sucrose) immediately breaks down into its components: glucose and sucrose.
Lactose is one of the most abundant natural sugars in the world. As the name suggests, it is found in milk (about 5%). Lactose is 3 times less sweet than sucrose. Sorbitol (2 times less sweet than sucrose) and xylitol (4 times sweeter) are also used in nutrition. But these sugars contain no calories!

The sweetest substance in the world

As we found out, sucrose is considered the standard of sweetness. But in fact, what is the sweetest substance in the world?
So, if in a sucrose molecule we replace 3 hydroxyl groups with chlorine atoms, then as a result of this reaction we will get a substance 13,000 times sweeter than table sugar! This substance was obtained in 2010 and was named neotame.

Types of sugar

The list of sweet foods - sugar apple from Thailand, pineapple, persimmon, tamarind, quiche, black carrots and artichokes - is endless. But in our review today we will talk about products that we are not used to classifying as sweet.

The sweetest fruit

Dates are traditionally considered the most delicious dessert. The beneficial properties and natural sweetness of this fruit have been known since time immemorial. Although dates contain a fairly high number of SES, they are often used in special diets due to their low calorie content. What adds to their popularity is the content of a wide range of amino acids and vitamins B and P. Dates help get rid of kidney stones and ease childbirth.

The sweetest tomatoes

The sweetest varieties of this vegetable are “Master Garden F1”, purple “Chernomor” and fleshy “Orange Giant”. Tomatoes are a vegetable that is high in antioxidants that prevent blood clots. In addition, they help increase potency.

The sweetest pumpkins

Pumpkin is considered to be the most sugar-containing of all gifts of nature, almost like grape varieties with a high sugar content. The usefulness of pumpkin is determined by its content of vitamin C (immunity) and B vitamins, which help maintain hair, nails and skin in good condition. Carnitine contained in pumpkin affects muscle development and helps in the fight against obesity.

Sugar garlic

Yes, yes, garlic can be sweet too. The content of a large number of polysaccharides puts it on par with and even higher than melon and sugar beets. The smell and taste that we are accustomed to in garlic is given by the presence of essential oil in its composition. This powerful natural antibiotic is very effective in treating colds, treating wounds, and also helps strengthen the heart muscle. It is generally accepted that the healthiest people live in Italy and Korea - they eat more than 10 cloves of garlic per day.

Corn syrup

Scientists from the University of California have found that sweet foods weaken nerve connections and impair brain function. For example, experimental rats fed plenty of corn syrup, who had previously easily navigated the Minotaur’s labyrinth, were unable to get out of there. At the same time, the rats that did not eat corn syrup easily exited the maze. Scientists believe corn syrup is the main culprit in the excessive obesity of US residents.

With a fairly high calorie content, honey is still much healthier than sugar. It affects the accelerated restoration of damaged tissues, improves digestion and improves immunity. It is not for nothing that the mythical Greek gods and ancient Russian healers considered it a panacea.

The sweetest substance in the world

The leader among the sweetest natural products is the perennial plant stevia, which is 300 times sweeter than sugar. Many thousands of years ago, American Indians ate it, and modern scientists have discovered its ability to treat psoriasis, angina and remove toxins.

Click “Like” and receive only the best posts on Facebook ↓

Until recently, the sweetest substance was saccharin. It is produced artificially, and its sweetness exceeded that of ordinary sugar by approximately 300 - 500 times. Interestingly, saccharin inherently has nothing to do with sugar; it is a crystalline hydrate of ordinary sodium salt, which can be found in every kitchen. Another feature of this substance is that it is absolutely not absorbed in the human body. In other words, consuming saccharin is just a deception of the taste buds.

But more recently, plants have been discovered that are even sweeter than saccharin. For example, a bush Stevia. It grows in Paraguay. The sweetness of the leaves of this plant, like saccharin, is 300 times higher than sugar.

In Central America in Mexico there is sugar grass. Scientists have isolated a sweet oil from its flowers and leaves. This liquid, as it turned out, is 1000 times sweeter than sugar. Scientists who conducted research with sugar grass determined that hernandulcin, as the researchers called the sweet butter, does not contribute to obesity and does not harm diabetics at all. Due to its properties, sugar grass oil is used in special foods for diabetics.

Even in hot Africa, scientists have found “sugar” plants. These are Toumatocus Dannellii and Liana Dioscorephyllum Cumminisii. They are 2000 and 3000 times sweeter than sugar, respectively. Red Toumatocus berries have such sweetness thanks to a special substance - talin.

But the sweetest plant is the bush Ketemph. It grows in West Africa in the tropics. This plant contains toumatin- a substance that is the sweetest substance in the world. It is 100,000 times sweeter than sugar! Even if 10 grams of toumatin are diluted in 1 ton of water, the solution will be sweet.

Today, breeders are trying to domesticate sugar plants. Stevia is already blooming in the fields of Japan, South Korea, Laos and Vietnam. In Europe, it is bred in Spain and Russia.