The Scotty's Everyday Team
Why We Love Allulose
There’s a wide world of sweeteners out there, and it can be hard to know which one to use if you’re trying to stay healthy and manage your weight. We know that table sugar and sugar alcohols can have negative effects, but many artificial sweeteners come with their own downsides and health risks. At Scotty’s, we’re all about allulose as a healthy sugar alternative to sweeten the mix. Here’s everything you need to know about this sweet ingredient and why we choose to use it.
What Is Allulose?
Also known as D-psicose in the scientific community, allulose is a rare, naturally occurring sugar present in certain foods, like figs, raisins, maple syrup, wheat, and molasses. It’s an FDA-approved sweetener that’s relatively new on the market.
Because it’s chemically similar to fructose, or fruit sugar, scientists actually use fructose to create the allulose you find for sale commercially. Like fructose and glucose, it’s a monosaccharide, or single sugar, but it comes with some special qualities
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Top Things We Love About Allulose
We love using allulose in Scotty’s baking mixes because it offers both a familiar flavor that’s close to sugar, it bakes like sugar, and provides a host of other benefits if you’re being health conscious. Here are some of the reasons we use allulose instead of other sweeteners:
1. Tastes like sugar: First things first! We’re foodies here, so if we use something in our baking mixes, it’s got to taste good. Allulose is about 70% as sweet as table sugar and similar in taste and texture, but without some of the glaring side effects that come with sugar. Studies show that the two taste profiles are similar and in taste tests, people also found them comparable.
2. Bakes and caramelizes like sugar: Unlike other low calorie sweeteners or sugar alcohols used to reduce overall sugar intake, allulose bakes, caramelizes, and dissolves like sugar. This makes it the perfect choice when we’re aiming for the nostalgic taste and texture of full-sugar baked goods.
3. A low-calorie sweetener: Allulose contains only 1/10 of the calories per gram of table sugar (or .4 cal/gram compared to the 4 cal/gram of sucrose). And even better, allulose doesn’t get absorbed by your body. As a result, it doesn’t contribute to your caloric intake.
4. Won’t spike your blood sugar: Blood sugar spikes can cause cravings, energy crashes, and worse. Elevated blood sugar levels over time can lead to some serious health issues. The good news is, because allulose isn’t metabolized by your body, it won’t elevate your blood sugar or insulin levels.
Whether you have diabetes or are looking to keep blood sugar balanced, allulose is a worthy sugar substitute to consider. Early animal studies suggest it could even be helpful in lowering your blood sugar.
5. May support fat loss: If you’re interested in managing your weight, some studies suggest that allulose could help burn fat, including visceral fat, or belly fat that’s associated with cardiovascular disease and other health concerns.
6. Doesn’t hurt your teeth: When you consume regular sugar, it interacts with the bacteria in your plaque to produce acid that can eat away at your enamel and create cavities. But unlike table sugar, which can lead to tooth decay and other dental issues, allulose isn’t metabolized in our mouths, making it a smile-worthy alternative to sucrose.
Takeaways
Allulose is one of the best ingredients we’ve found when it comes to creating diabetic friendly, keto-friendly, low net carb recipes that taste like the familiar baked goods you know and love. You’ll find it in our keto biscuit mix, as well as sweet treat favorites like our fudgy chocolate brownie mix, our fluffy pancakes and waffles, and our cake and cupcake mix.
If you’re sensitive to the taste of stevia or wary of most sugar replacements, try allulose, which comes close in taste and texture to sugar. The sweetest part is, it tastes delicious without spiking your blood sugar levels, contributing to your caloric intake, or compromising your smile.
Sources:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31968393/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30400167/ https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/10/2/160 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0899900717301181 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28209058/
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