Substitute for sugar

Sugar, or sucrose, is a chemical compound which belongs to the carbohydrates group. A source of calories, sugar is also a sweetner.

As a source of calories, sugar's role is not so significant because we get the carbohydrates we need from other daily foods such as rice, bread, noodles and cassava.

Actually, the sweet taste can be replaced by artificial sweeteners such as cyclamate and saccharin. Cyclamate is more stable than saccharin, which disintegrates at high temperatures and tastes bitter.

Although there are many diabetes patients controlling their intake of sugar and others just watching their weight, as a nation, Indonesians are consuming more and more sugar.

Last year we imported 500,000 tons of sugar but this year the imports have dropped to 250,000-300,000 tons. This means that during the past two years we have had to allocate around US$200 million for the commodity.

If part of our needs for sugar can be replaced by artificial sweeteners, we can save a lot in foreign exchange as these substances are produced in this country.

Many Indonesian people are suspicious or even afraid to consume artificial sugar, with many remembering 30 years ago tests that indicated saccharin and cyclamate caused bladder cancer in laboratory mice.

However, since then a number of studies have been conducted that prove that artificial sweeteners do not cause cancer. And in April 1984, the Cancer Assessment Committee of U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a report to that effect.

Artificial sweeteners are much less expensive than sugar.

SUNARTO PRAWIROSUJANTO, Jakarta