Interesting long read on the quest to chemically redesign sugar.
In 1880 the average American would have lived and died never having encountered a single manufactured candy. Today the average American ingests more than nineteen teaspoons added sugar every day.
Despite a turn in public opinion against sugar, alternatives don’t work – “none of sugar’s artificial replacements offer anything close to the same range of functionality. Sucrose reduces ice-crystal formation in ice cream; it adds crispness to baked goods, volume to dough, and a mouth-filling viscosity to drinks; it improves emulsion stability in dressings, reduces grittiness in chocolate, and even increases shelf life.”
