Cookies without sugar: are they healthy?

Without sugar! Are they tasty?

The sweetness of sugar-free biscuits varies: the 0% digestives are slightly less sweet than conventional biscuits, but still nice and crunchy.

Is there no sugar in it at all?

Only the sugars that are naturally in the wheat. That’s very little.

What gives that sweet taste?

The digestives contain sweeteners such as maltitol (E965) and isomalt (E953). And inulin, a dietary fiber that also tastes sweet by nature.

But sweeteners are really bad, right?

Oh, no. Maltitol and isomalt are so-called ‘polyols’, sweeteners from natural raw materials. For example, isomalt is a sister of ordinary sugar; it is also made from sugar beet and cane. Maltitol is obtained from wheat or corn. Inulin is a dietary fiber that is found naturally in many vegetables: you also come across ‘sister’ oligofructose. All these sweeteners have healthy properties.

Which one then?

They don’t damage your tooth enamel like sugar does. They contain fewer calories: in 10 g of sugar there are 40 kcal, in 10 g of maltitol 24 kcal. Such sweeteners have little or no effect on your blood sugar level. In addition, inulin fibers act as ‘prebiotics’, which means that they are good for your intestines, unlike sugar, which can cause intestinal problems. Only downside: Polyols cause flatulence in some people.

And aspartame?

This is a so-called intensive sweetener that is artificially made in a factory, just like cyclamate. Intensive sweeteners are much sweeter than sugar and contain no calories. Despite all the fuss, there’s no evidence that they’re bad for you: only people with the metabolic disease phenylketonuria (PKU) can’t stand aspartame. Aspartame is never in baked goods.

So sugar-free cookies are healthier than regular cookies?

The 0% digestives contain healthy sunflower oil, no saturated palm fat and quite a bit of whole wheat flour. The biscuits contain slightly fewer calories than regular digestives. If you want a biscuit with the coffee, they are not a bad choice.