Nestlé, the maker of some of your fave mini candy bars—Crunch, Butterfinger and 100 Grand, for example— has allegedly found a way to literally change the structure of sugar in a way that makes it a little healthier. This new sugar is structured in such a way that less of it needs to be in a candy bar for the treat to taste sweet enough.
A Nestlé scientist, Dr. Stefan Catsicas, described regular sugar to The New York Times as a shoe box both made of and filled with sugar. The new sugar is like the shoebox, but hollow on the inside. So you get that sweet sensation, but way less sugar actually goes to your stomach. The company hasn’t received patents for the technology yet—hence why they aren’t giving out more detailed infromation about this magical new sugar.
According to Nestlé, more information about their new sugar will be released next year, with the products featuring the new sugar appearing on shelves in 2018. It is also possible that Nestlé would sell their new sugar formulation to other candy manufacturers.
Best of all? Catsicas told the Times that this new sugar could reduce sugar in Nestlé products by up to 40 percent. That’s pretty huge when sugar is such a problem for people’s health. Unfortunately, the restructured sugar won’t be able to sweeten soda, which is the biggest source of added sugar in the American diet.
This new technology, and others that help us experience taste without overdoing it on bad ingredients, could be a total game-changer for those of us with a sweet tooth. Bring it on!