Ingredient Deep Dive: Monkfruit
Ingredient deep dive: monkfruit
Tally Kids provides sweetness on the tongue from fruit, particularly Monk Fruit, a small sub-tropical melon.
What Is Monk Fruit?
Monk Fruit is a small sub-tropical melon primarily cultivated in the remote mountains of Southern China.
Monk Fruit is sweeter than sugar to the tongue, but it is not a sugar, and does not promote an insulin response in the body.
Monk fruit is not a sugar or an artificial sweetener. Monk Fruit is a natural sweetener. It is also called lo han guo or Swingle fruit and is in the Cucurbitaceae, or gourd family (this family also contains watermelon, pumpkins, squash and cucumbers). It is a small round fruit that is native to China. Traditionally it was used in herbal teas and Chinese medicine.
Monk fruit extract is 150-500 times sweeter than sugar (depending on the concentration of mogrosides) so you don’t need very much of it in a food.
Monk fruit sweetness comes from triterpenoids called mogrosides; this natural compound does not increase blood sugar or insulin on its own. Natural triterpenoids are phytochemicals. They are known to have anticancer, anti-inflammatory properties and other health benefits.
Other information:
Animal studies have shown that mogrosides and/or mongol have antioxidant properties, anticancer properties (in mice studies Lui et al. 2016), target tumors for destruction (mice study), anti-obesity properties (Harada et al. 2018), anti-diabetic (mouse study Suzuki et al. 2007, Qi et al. 2008, Ban et al. 2020) and are anti-inflammatory (mice studies Shi et al. 2014).
These studies with monk fruit are preliminary and I am looking forward to more research. The good thing is they have all been positive and the FDA regards monk fruit as GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe). Monk fruit is safe to eat and may be beneficial for health.
Important:
Our monk fruit is pure and does not contain erythritol.
Tally Kids uses <.00001% of Monk Fruit per 8oz.
Monk Fruit Digestion
The compounds that give monk fruit extract its sweetness are called mogrosides, which consist of a backbone structure called mogrol with glucose units (glycosides) attached to it. The main mogroside in monk fruit sweeteners is mogroside V.
Most of what is known about how mogrosides are metabolized comes from studies done in animals. Animals are thought to metabolize mogrosides the same or similarly to humans. Mogrosides are not absorbed in the upper gastrointestinal tract, thus they do not provide calories. When mogrosides reach the colon, gut microbes cleave off the glucose molecules and use them as an energy source. The mogrol and some metabolites are then primarily excreted from the gastrointestinal tract, and minor amounts are absorbed into the bloodstream and excreted in the urine.
Digestion
Digestion of monk fruit extract is similar to that of monk fruit itself.
The mogrosides in the monk fruit are mostly degraded by digestive enzymes and intestinal microflora. Any leftover is excreted in the feces as mogrol (aglycone) and its mono- and diglucosides. A few trace amounts were found in the blood as sulfates and/or glucuronide conjugates (these are excreted in urine or bile).
In other word, monk fruit extract is digested normally in the body by enzymes and gut bacteria – just like a cucumber or watermelon would be digested.
Monk Fruit Production
Monk fruit sweeteners are produced by removing the seeds and skin of the fruit, crushing the fruit, and then filtering and extracting its sweet portions into liquid and powdered forms.
Monk Fruit Nutritional Facts and Ingredient Information
• Around 300 times sweeter than sugar.
• Contains important antioxidants
• Zero glycemic index
• Zero calories
• Monk Fruit is a natural product
• Does not cause dental cavities
• Safe for consumption by diabetics
Monk Fruit 101
By Food Insight
Is monk fruit safe to consume? Yes.
Extracts from monk fruit are Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS), a regulatory review process category used by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).Â
GRAS requires expert consensus that a food ingredient is safe for its intended use.Â
In 2010, the FDA responded with no objections to the first GRAS notice submitted on extracts from monk fruit — whose scientific name is Siraitia grosvenorii. For more on the GRAS process, see the “What is GRAS?” sidebar.
The safety of monk fruit extract has been confirmed by health agencies in countries around the world, including: China, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) and Health Canada, which permit it in tabletop sweetener packets only.Â
In its approval of the use of monk fruit extracts as a sweetener, FSANZ cites a history of safe use in China, Canada, Japan and the U.S., and no evidence of adverse effects in human studies from consuming up to 60 milligrams (mg) of monk fruit extract per kilogram (kg) of body weight per day.Â
In animal studies, feeding extremely high levels of monk fruit extract (e.g., 2,500—7,000 mg of monk fruit extract per kg of body weight per day), adverse effects have not been clearly demonstrated.
From Dr. Susan Marie Fluegel: For more info about Monk Fruit read this article about Monk Fruit here.
We are always staying up to date on the latest research regarding plant-based sweeteners, such as Monk Fruit, and we will continue to do so! We are excited about the positive research around Monk Fruit and that is why we use it in Tally Kids. To find these natural sweeteners, found in nature in their fruit form, is an exciting development in food nutrition and allows us to dial back the tremendous sugar intake in children's diets.
As mentioned in the video above, another exciting sweetener is Allulose, and we continue to work our formula to see if Allulose can be an improvement in taste and nutrition for Tally Kids. We will keep you posted as Allulose research progresses, as well as Monk Fruit!
Note that Monk Fruit consists of less than .0001% of the Tally Kids formula, and is used to create sweetness on the tongue, not as a major sweetener.Â
For further questions about Monk Fruit please e-mail info@drinktally.com
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