takes a lot more than just sugar to make
gum sweet so can I make my own gum
sweetener from scratch without sugar hit
the stuff inside your stuff ingredients
the ingredients in this popular gum are
and the ones responsible for flavor are
now let’s decode this list we’ve got
sugar a different kind of sugar a syrup
whose main ingredient is that different
kind of sugar the thing that makes gum
moist also happens to taste a little bit
sweet not one but two different
artificial sweeteners oh and some
natural and artificial flavorings
now all those sweeteners and sugars make
up two grams of this 2.7 gram stick of
gum that is 74% but before we go on a
crazy rant about how much sugar there is
in gum remember that it’s 2 grams you’re
going to be fine but it does raise two
interesting questions one if most of
this stick of gum
is sugar then what the hell is in
sugar-free gum and second why do I need
six different types of sweetener in one
piece of gum the answers are related and
fascinating so let’s take a look at some
of the ingredients in this popular
sugar-free gum here’s the clue list and
these are the ingredients responsible
for flavor so over here we have sorbitol
mannitol xylitol aspartame and
acesulfame potassium now of this list
you’re probably most familiar with
aspartame because it’s what’s in here as
a self and potassium is a different
artificial sweetener so you might be
wondering why not just take all the
sugars in a stick of gum and replace
them entirely with one artificial
sweetener it is after all what they do
for this well the artificial sweeteners
are about 200 times as sweet as sugar
and that means that instead of the two
grams ish of sugar you use in a regular
stick of gum
you only need about 0.01 grams of an
artificial sweetener for the same level
of sweetness and your stick of gum needs
to say about the same size but there are
other ingredients you can add to make up
for that lost mass and these ingredients
are sorbitol mannitol and xylitol now
these molecules are all generally called
polyols as in poly alcohol
or sugar alcohols and firstly they are
sweet xylitol is about as sweet as sugar
sorbitol is like 80% of sweet and
mannitol is about half as sweet as sugar
and because they are not two hundred
times this sweet of sugar that means
that you can use more or less the same
amount of a poly all in a sugar free
stick of gum as you would sugar in a
regular stick of gum
now chemically the polyols are all
extremely similar to each other and
reasonably similar to glucose with the
key difference being here now let’s talk
about your mouth for just a second
bacteria in your mouth can transform
regular sugars like sucrose and glucose
into acids now these acids are what
cause cavities but the lack of a double
bond in polyols means that bacteria
cannot metabolize polyols into acids and
that means no cavities which is why the
FDA allows manufacturers to print does
not promote tooth decay on the label of
these sugar-free gums now the coolest
thing about polyols is that when they
dissolve they absorb energy so when
you’re chewing on a piece of sugar-free
gum and the polyol start dissolving in
your saliva they’re actually absorbing
energy in the form of heat from their
surroundings which in this case is your
mouth so they feel cold in your mouth
which is awesome if your gum is designed
to promote a nice clean feeling so if
the polyols are so cool why do we even
bother with aspartame or acesulfame
potassium well remember that most
polyols are not as sweet as sugar so if
you replace all the sugar in a regular
stick of gum
with only polyols you’ll get gum that’s
not as sweet that brings up a related
question why do I need three different
polyols and two different artificial
sweeteners in one stick of gum the
answer is basically taste I mean just
because something tastes sweet doesn’t
necessarily mean it tastes like sugar so
manufacturers use different combinations
of polyols and high intensity sweeteners
to achieve exactly the taste profile
they’re looking for in this case spiel
Aminta now that basically means trying a
bunch of random stuff and seeing what
tastes good and that is exactly what I’m
about to do
so I’ve got glycerol xylitol and stevia
now all three of these come from plants
xylitol is about as sweet as sugar is
and stevia is about 160 to 250 times as
sweet so this stuff I’m going to use
instead of aspartame or as his self and
potassium now I was also going to use
sorbitol but right before we shot this
scene
my producer noticed some fine print on
this bottle it says for rectal use only
yes sorbitol is also sold and used as a
laxative and as a laxative you can
either take it orally or through the
other end and since this bottle is
designed to be used in your but I’m not
going to put it in my gum sweetener so
I’ll just put that over there I also
have some peppermint oil and some
pre-made gum base this comes from chicle
and we did a whole episode on it so I’ll
post the link below so let’s just let’s
get started
okay let’s taste oh god that is oh my
god that’s very minty may have slightly
overdone it on that but I will up the
sweetness and hopefully the gum base
will deal with the mint but other than
that it’s pretty close to real gum
okay moment of truth
there’s like a barbecue smokehouse kind
of flavor to it like steak sauce it is
sweet and it doesn’t taste artificially
sweetened which is good but overall
mm-hmm nope no overall I don’t like it
so if you have thoughts on where I went
wrong or ideas on how to improve or if
there’s an episode you want to see me do
let me know in the comments or you know
hit me up on Twitter
gum sweet so can I make my own gum
sweetener from scratch without sugar hit
the stuff inside your stuff ingredients
the ingredients in this popular gum are
and the ones responsible for flavor are
now let’s decode this list we’ve got
sugar a different kind of sugar a syrup
whose main ingredient is that different
kind of sugar the thing that makes gum
moist also happens to taste a little bit
sweet not one but two different
artificial sweeteners oh and some
natural and artificial flavorings
now all those sweeteners and sugars make
up two grams of this 2.7 gram stick of
gum that is 74% but before we go on a
crazy rant about how much sugar there is
in gum remember that it’s 2 grams you’re
going to be fine but it does raise two
interesting questions one if most of
this stick of gum
is sugar then what the hell is in
sugar-free gum and second why do I need
six different types of sweetener in one
piece of gum the answers are related and
fascinating so let’s take a look at some
of the ingredients in this popular
sugar-free gum here’s the clue list and
these are the ingredients responsible
for flavor so over here we have sorbitol
mannitol xylitol aspartame and
acesulfame potassium now of this list
you’re probably most familiar with
aspartame because it’s what’s in here as
a self and potassium is a different
artificial sweetener so you might be
wondering why not just take all the
sugars in a stick of gum and replace
them entirely with one artificial
sweetener it is after all what they do
for this well the artificial sweeteners
are about 200 times as sweet as sugar
and that means that instead of the two
grams ish of sugar you use in a regular
stick of gum
you only need about 0.01 grams of an
artificial sweetener for the same level
of sweetness and your stick of gum needs
to say about the same size but there are
other ingredients you can add to make up
for that lost mass and these ingredients
are sorbitol mannitol and xylitol now
these molecules are all generally called
polyols as in poly alcohol
or sugar alcohols and firstly they are
sweet xylitol is about as sweet as sugar
sorbitol is like 80% of sweet and
mannitol is about half as sweet as sugar
and because they are not two hundred
times this sweet of sugar that means
that you can use more or less the same
amount of a poly all in a sugar free
stick of gum as you would sugar in a
regular stick of gum
now chemically the polyols are all
extremely similar to each other and
reasonably similar to glucose with the
key difference being here now let’s talk
about your mouth for just a second
bacteria in your mouth can transform
regular sugars like sucrose and glucose
into acids now these acids are what
cause cavities but the lack of a double
bond in polyols means that bacteria
cannot metabolize polyols into acids and
that means no cavities which is why the
FDA allows manufacturers to print does
not promote tooth decay on the label of
these sugar-free gums now the coolest
thing about polyols is that when they
dissolve they absorb energy so when
you’re chewing on a piece of sugar-free
gum and the polyol start dissolving in
your saliva they’re actually absorbing
energy in the form of heat from their
surroundings which in this case is your
mouth so they feel cold in your mouth
which is awesome if your gum is designed
to promote a nice clean feeling so if
the polyols are so cool why do we even
bother with aspartame or acesulfame
potassium well remember that most
polyols are not as sweet as sugar so if
you replace all the sugar in a regular
stick of gum
with only polyols you’ll get gum that’s
not as sweet that brings up a related
question why do I need three different
polyols and two different artificial
sweeteners in one stick of gum the
answer is basically taste I mean just
because something tastes sweet doesn’t
necessarily mean it tastes like sugar so
manufacturers use different combinations
of polyols and high intensity sweeteners
to achieve exactly the taste profile
they’re looking for in this case spiel
Aminta now that basically means trying a
bunch of random stuff and seeing what
tastes good and that is exactly what I’m
about to do
so I’ve got glycerol xylitol and stevia
now all three of these come from plants
xylitol is about as sweet as sugar is
and stevia is about 160 to 250 times as
sweet so this stuff I’m going to use
instead of aspartame or as his self and
potassium now I was also going to use
sorbitol but right before we shot this
scene
my producer noticed some fine print on
this bottle it says for rectal use only
yes sorbitol is also sold and used as a
laxative and as a laxative you can
either take it orally or through the
other end and since this bottle is
designed to be used in your but I’m not
going to put it in my gum sweetener so
I’ll just put that over there I also
have some peppermint oil and some
pre-made gum base this comes from chicle
and we did a whole episode on it so I’ll
post the link below so let’s just let’s
get started
okay let’s taste oh god that is oh my
god that’s very minty may have slightly
overdone it on that but I will up the
sweetness and hopefully the gum base
will deal with the mint but other than
that it’s pretty close to real gum
okay moment of truth
there’s like a barbecue smokehouse kind
of flavor to it like steak sauce it is
sweet and it doesn’t taste artificially
sweetened which is good but overall
mm-hmm nope no overall I don’t like it
so if you have thoughts on where I went
wrong or ideas on how to improve or if
there’s an episode you want to see me do
let me know in the comments or you know
hit me up on Twitter
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