Question for Nutritional Chemists: Sweet Cloves

mfpcopine

I'm fond of a flavored black tea called Harney & Son's Hot Cinnamon Spice. It is flavored with cinnamon, orange peel, and sweet cloves. It is very sweet, requiring no sugar. The company makes a big deal of the fact that no sugar is added and on calorie sites, including MFP's, it is listed as having zero calories, carbs and sugars.

But is that the same thing as having no glycemic effect? I think the sweetness comes from the cloves and I haven't been able to find out much about them. Someone on a Diabetes site said that sweet cloves or the tea raised his/her blood glucose.

It's hard for me to believe that something that tastes this sweet is not treated by the body as some kind of sugar. I like the tea, and plan to continue drinking it, but don't want to kid myself.

neanderthin

You need calories as well as a sweet taste to effect insulin levels and if in fact the tea has 0 calories then no it won't effect insulin....drink happily.

http://www.ajcn.org/content/82/5/1011.long

Results: Glucose ingestion resulted in a prolonged and significant signal decrease in the upper hypothalamus (P < 0.05). Water, aspartame, and maltodextrin had no such effect. Glucose and maltodextrin ingestions resulted in similar increases in blood glucose and insulin concentrations. However, only glucose triggered an early rise in insulin concentrations. Aspartame did not trigger any insulin response.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that both sweet taste and energy content are required for a hypothalamic response. The combination of sweet taste and energy content could be crucial in triggering adaptive responses to sweetened beverages.

[quote/]

mfpcopine

You need calories as well as a sweet taste to effect insulin levels and if in fact the tea has 0 calories then no it won't effect insulin....drink happily.

http://www.ajcn.org/content/82/5/1011.long

Results: Glucose ingestion resulted in a prolonged and significant signal decrease in the upper hypothalamus (P < 0.05). Water, aspartame, and maltodextrin had no such effect. Glucose and maltodextrin ingestions resulted in similar increases in blood glucose and insulin concentrations. However, only glucose triggered an early rise in insulin concentrations. Aspartame did not trigger any insulin response.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that both sweet taste and energy content are required for a hypothalamic response. The combination of sweet taste and energy content could be crucial in triggering adaptive responses to sweetened beverages.

[quote/]

Thank you so much!

Do you think it's possible that the tea does not have zero calories? I know that companies are given a little latitude in what they put on calorie labels. Or is it possible that a food with calories is deemed to have zero calories when ingested only in a very small amount?

There was a time when coffee was supposed to have zero calories. I've noticed that MFP assigns 2 calories per 8 ounce cup.

neanderthin

I just want to say that your body is normally going to be keeping your blood sugar within a range and your body will be delivering insulin into your bloodstream regardless whether you eat or not, so insulin is going to happen, can't be helped and protein also delivers a pretty good insulin response as well in the absence of carbs. People tend to have a misguided view of insulin.

Anyway, whether a cup of tea or coffee has a few calories instead of 0 isn't something you should be worried about, it's still all about excess calories. I'm not sure why your so worried about it. Remember, the body isn't going to be storing calories as body fat from insulin responses unless there's serveral days of overconsumption from your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) and that would mean any macro not just carbs and if your on a diet and consuming less than your TDEE, it will never happen simply because immediate energy needs and glycogen will never be fully met from dietary calories and the reason we lose weight as well, so all that sugar (carbs) you consume will be trying to fill those needs first and formost, but like I said, without success.