What Do You Know About Reb-M Fermented Cane Sugar?

springlering62

Saw Reb-M fermented cane sugar as an ingredient in something I’m using and looked it up.

It seems to be very new to the market, introduced 2024?

Most of the articles I saw appeared to be copy and paste- exact same wording on multiple cooking and brewing websites, which doesn’t, errrr, leave a good taste in my mouth.

Paraphrasing here: “Fermented sugar has been around for ages, and is an important ingredient in rum, other drinks, and some foods.”

I’m unclear if this is actually fermented from “cane” sugar, or stevia, as one source indicated, though this specific label specially says “Reb-M Fermented Cane Sugar”.

To me, it has a strong taste of sugar substitute until combined with other ingredients, when it completely loses the substitute taste.

It’s supposed to be lower cal, and lower sugar.

Some of you guys are pro cooks, or have biology chemistry backgrounds. Have you checked into Reb-M?

All I can find are either the same article via different sources, or chemical stuff that’s beyond my understanding. Surprisingly, no reliable, familiar websites seem to have addressed it. (In fairness, I did change my search engine a couple days ago after getting some shocking search suggestions from Google and YouTube. I guess we make one too many scatalogical jokes in this house and they’re listening.)

I went off sugar substitutes five months ago, or at least thought I had til I reread the ingredients on this product. (I did, for the first time since then, add a few grams to some homemade chocolate ice cream we had last night in an effort to make it sweeter. Didn’t work. Sigh. Back to the drawing board on the low cal, no substitutes chocolate. The fruit-based have been great.)

Anyway, you guys are amazing and “up on it”, so throw some thoughts at me.

neanderthin

What makes this a little different from other natural sweeteners is in the recent developments is bioconversion technology that can produce more Reb-M (Rebaudioside M) which is a glycoside found naturally in small quantities in the stevia plant or fermented can sugar, but more in the cane sugar. There's also other glycosides like Reb-A, Reb B, Reb-D. Basically through bioconversion of cane sugar they were able to extract more Reb-M which is less bitter and apparently has an overall cleaner taste than the other examples and basically it's just another sweetener which has met GRAS status and voila, more choice.

Anyway, this is pretty basic research and only spent a few minutes finding but not exactly sure what any long term effects these might have on our health but suspect unlike some artificial sweeteners like aspartame, and saccharin that aren't something our microbiome looks forward to these more natural sweeteners I suspect have less negative effects. Whether refined table sugar or HFSC is better than natural sweeteners like Reb-M or stevia is still up for discussion.

What we do know is that added sugar is not great for our microbiome and the body doesn't differentiate either, so factors like increased red blood cell glycation and undesirable opportunistic bacteria from too much consumed overall sugars and the inflammatory response that makes which of course is dependent on the individuals health status and is something to ponder. Basically I'm still gob smacked that your dietitian told you to get off "sweeteners" and consume real sugar, but again that's just my opinion.

MarjMJMM

Hi

What he said ^^

It is a sugar-related molecule found in the Stevia plant. It is 200 - 350 times sweeter than sucrose, and as far as I could work out, the gut enzymes we have don't metabolise it, aside from one set of chemical scissor step for excretion, so it isn't one available to our internal gribblies. It looks to be chopped up a bit, processed normally in the liver, then excreted via faeces or urine.

IMO it is probably being used for its high sweetness factor for no calories, and as you can make vats of it industrially using microbes with cane sugar (cheap) as the food source.

If you're brave here's a link (edit: it doesn't seem to want to embed but I guess you can copy it)

https://ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1750-3841.17401

There's one paragraph in the discussion in the paper I am really glad I didn't have to type out 😂 (section 6)

neanderthin

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48645522#Comment_48645522

Yeah good link and chapter 5 describes the mechanisms that are involved in producing the less bitter and cleaner taste which is what I've surmised to be a major consideration and like you say is extremely economical to produce now.

springlering62

thanks for the info.

I hadn’t paid any attention to the Naked chocolate Peanut butter label, until I did, and I saw it on there.

I whip exactly 7 grams (plus 2x boiling water) daily, to “frost” my chocolate breakfast pancakes, so I doubt I’m getting more than a smattering, but I was curious.

I’m really surprised at the very very limited amount of info out there, but it does seem to be a very new product.

@neanderthin my dietician basically told me 6,7, 8 or more servings a day of artificial sweeteners was OTT, and that as active as I am, I could certainly use the extra calories, even if they came from sugars, because they wouldn’t amount to much.

In actuality, I’ve been able to avoid both artificial and added sugars by simply substituting apple sauce in baked goods, or using more fruits in ice creams, and choosing single fruit-sorbets instead of ice creams more often. Or, I use a tart, low sugar balsamic vinegar in lieu of sugar in the ice cream. Yogurt, frozen fruit and a few grams (ml) of balsamic actually makes a very good ice cream.

I still have my three meringues every night after dinner, which are the bulk of my added sugars, and that’s unlikely to change in the near future. I enjoy the crunch and melting on my tongue too much. I was always a texture fancier, and calories are king with me, so I don’t worry about the sugar too much, since meringues are super low cal.

Eventually I’ll get around to making my own, lower sugar versions, but right now my dealer (husband) humors me by hitting Sprouts occasionally, clearing their shelves, and bringing a half case or more home to mama.