Monk fruit sweeteners also called Lo Han Guo, come from a small, round fruit that grows in Southeast Asia. To get the sugar from monk fruit, you must take out the seeds and skin, crush the fruit, and collect the juice. This juice is sweet but has no calories, so it is often used in food and drinks to cut calories without losing flavor. But monk fruit isn’t grown to be eaten. Instead, it’s processed to get a chemical called mogrosides, 250 times sweeter than sucrose (table sugar) but has no calories.
Monk fruit sweetener is made by washing the fruit, removing the skins, crushing the pulp, adding water to make a slurry, spinning to get the liquid out, heating it, and filtering it to make a concentrated liquid. After being treated with activated carbon and other chemicals to get rid of bad tastes, it is dried into a crystal form and put into a package.
What is Monk Fruit?
Some of the most popular natural alternatives to white sugar are monk fruit and stevia. They add sweetness to foods and drinks without adding many or any calories. Both are made from plants, so they have the same nutrients, properties, and health benefits. However, stevia has some minor side effects compared to monk fruit sweeteners, which are safe. When choosing an artificial sweetener, you may also want to consider how much each one cost and how it tastes.
The monk fruit is a small, subtropical melon that grows in the southern part of China. It got its name from the Buddhist monks who grew it for the first time in the mountains of China about 800 years ago. This fruit is called Siraitia grosvenorii by scientists. Some people also call it swingle or Luo Han Guo. This fruit extract is used to make sweeteners that aren’t real.
Like other sugar-free sweeteners, monk fruit sweeteners are very sweet. Experts think they could be 100 to 250 times sweeter than regular sugar. This means you would need very little of these to get the same level of sweetness as tabletop sugar.
What do Monk Fruit Sweeteners Contain?
Fruit can be sweet in different ways, depending on how ripe it is. Monk fruit sweeteners don’t have any calories, carbs, or sugars. But they have some chemicals that work, and mogrosides are the most important ones. These molecules don’t have any nutritional value but make monk fruit taste sweet.
Because monk fruit extract is so sweet, it is often mixed with other sugars like dextrose to make it taste less strong. Also, erythritol is likely in your sweetener if it looks and tastes like table sugar. This is a type of sugar alcohol that has zero calories per gram.
Monk fruit is 100–250 times sweeter than sugar, so a little bit goes a long way. This sweetener is just as sweet as sugar but can be used in much smaller amounts. Monk fruit extracts and concentrates have no calories and are the main sweetener in brands like Monk Fruit In The Raw, Lakanto, SPLENDA Naturals Monk Fruit Sweetener, SweetLeaf, Wholesome, and Whole Earth. But some foods and drinks that have monk fruit sweeteners may also have other ingredients that have calories.
What does Monk Fruit Sweetener Taste like?
Monk fruit sweetener is sweet but doesn’t make you feel bad like sugar. It could have a slight taste or none at all. Most of the time, it will depend on the person. Some people say they don’t leave a taste in their mouths, while others say they do. But many people who have tried monk fruit sweetener say it has less of an aftertaste than other natural sweeteners they have tried.
Monk fruit, like many other sugar substitutes, can leave a strange or bitter taste in your mouth. Some people find it hard to digest, and it has a bit of a taste. But the aftertaste isn’t as strong as with products like stevia. Keep in mind that many monk fruit sweeteners include erythritol, which is another sugar alcohol-based sweetener. In the end, monk fruit sweeteners are sweet but don’t taste the same as sugar.
Why is Monk Fruit Sweetener so Expensive?
Monk fruits are hard to grow, go bad quickly, and are expensive to ship overseas. Farmers in Southern China and Southeast Asian countries, like Northern Thailand, grow them in mountainous areas. Also, these plants are grown without the use of any chemicals. So, farmers used natural ways to keep bugs and other pests away from the plants. Nets and bottle traps have been used for hundreds of years.
When the fruits are ready, usually in September or October, they can be picked. After being taken to a factory, they are checked for size, shape, and ripeness. Then they will be washed, crushed, and put in water to soak. It will be filtered and extracted to get the mogrosides from the fruits.
Green monk fruit hanging on a tree. Mindful Monk Depending on the brand and manufacturer of monk fruit sweetener you buy, 50 to 80 monk fruits are needed to make a 20g packet. Check the labels and list of ingredients before you eat them. If you want to improve your health but aren’t ready to give up sweets and fudges, monk fruit sweetener is your best option. But remember that not all products are the same, and monk fruit sweetener is no different.
Health Garden Monk Fruit Sweetener
What are the Benefits of Monk Fruit Sweeteners?
Monk fruit has been used in Asia for hundreds of years as a substitute for sugar and herbal medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine journals say that this fruit’s extract has several health-promoting properties, such as:
- Antitussive (anti-cough) effects
- Liver-protecting effects
- Anti-asthmatic effects
- Immune-regulatory effects
- Anti-cancer effects
Some animal tests have shown that the mogrosides in monk fruit are very good at fighting free radicals. Antioxidants protect your cells from damage caused by free radicals and lower your risk of many long-term diseases. But more research with people is needed to find out if the sweeteners made from this fruit have the same effects. Research on animals and test tubes show that monk fruit extract stops the growth of cancer cells. Still, it’s not clear how it works. The mogrosides were found to stop the growth of leukemia cells. Another study showed that it stopped skin tumors in mice very well.
Extracts from monk fruit have also shown promise as a way to treat diabetes. Animal studies have shown that mogrosides can help lower the amount of sugar in the blood. But more research is needed to determine their effect on people. Since monk fruit sweeteners don’t have any calories, they may also help you keep your weight steady or lose weight. There is some evidence that the mogrosides in monk fruit contain antioxidants that are good for you. Antioxidants are often found in plant foods. They fight free radicals, which can cause cancer and heart disease.
Are there Any Side Effects of Monk Fruit Sweeteners?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says monk fruit extracts and erythritol are generally safe. Experts say that these are safe for children, women who are pregnant, and women who are breastfeeding. Also, studies on animals and people have shown that monk fruit sweeteners don’t have any side effects. However, there are some drawbacks of this fruit, which may stop you from replacing sugar with monk fruit sweeteners.
Additional Effects
Monk fruit sweeteners may be hard to find on the market because the fruit is hard to grow and costs a lot to ship. There is also a good chance they will cost more than other sugar substitutes. You might not like the taste of the sweetener because it is different from that of regular table sugar. The aftertaste is also something that many people don’t like. When companies mix monk fruit extracts with other sugars, the final product is less natural. This could change the way the sweeteners are made and make them unsafe for some people.
Conclusion
Low- and no-calorie sweeteners can be a part of our diets like any other food. Also, monk fruit is one of many safe options that can be used as part of larger plans to lose weight or keep it off. The most important thing is to build a healthy eating style and support it with other healthy habits that are sustainable and fit your health and lifestyle needs.
Monk fruit sweetener can be used in baking, desserts, and drinks like coffee and tea, just like regular sugar. Many kinds of monk fruit sweeteners are made so that one teaspoon has the same sweetness as one teaspoon of sugar. But to be sure, read the label. Liquid forms can also flavor water, carbonated water, coffee, and tea by adding a few drops.
Some cooks use monk fruit sweetener instead of half the sugar in their recipes to cut down on the amount of sugar they use. By cutting the sugar in half, the calories from sugar are cut in half, but the traditional sweetness that sugar gives is still there.
