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COVER STORY

Zero Food Fever and Controversy

Kicker: COVER STORY Zero Food Fever and Controversy by Ji-Min Baek, Reporter pjm5875@naver.com Do you often consume zero foods? Recently, many zero foods have been released under the names of zero sugar or zero calories, starting with zero coke. It is expected that a significant number of consumers, including readers, consume zero foods as much as it has spread to other fields such as dessert exceeding existing zero soda. As a result, a new term, Zerosumer, has emerged, referring to consumers who prefer zero sugar or zero calories due to their interest in healthy eating habits. To target those who are mainly interested in healthy eating habits, companies are steadily gaining popularity by launching zero foods. In addition to this, as a way to ease the burden of high-calorie foods, new consumption habits are emerging, such as eating delicious foods as they are, but replacing sodas with zero sodas. Zero foods is loved by many people for various reasons, but some people express concerns about artificial sweeteners, so this article will cover Zero foods overall. What is Zero Food As excessive sugar intake and high-calorie foods adversely affect health, zero foods have begun to gain popularity as a good alternative to meet both health and satisfaction from existing flavors. Not all of these products called zero foods are the same, and products can be largely divided into zero sugar and zero calories. Zero sugar uses artificial sweeteners to replace sugar, and zero calories are products that do not have calories. As it has become popular and promotes zero marketing under the name of zero, consumers are confused about which is zero. As for what is the standard of zero, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has prepared detailed standards through labeling standards. Generally, zero foods refer to products that are either zero in sugar or calories. Specifically, a product can be labeled as zero sugar if it contains less than 0.5g of sugar per 100ml or per 100g of the food. A product can be labeled as zero calories if it contains less than 4kcal per 100ml of the food. However, in advertisements using zero marketing, specific ingredients and calories are displayed in small fonts, so it is difficult to grasp unless consumers directly look at the ingredient table or look for it with interest. Zero Foods Becoming Diverse Zero food, which has been popular in the range of drinks for a while, has recently become all the rage in the coffee and snack market. For instance, Zero Lotte Well Food’s first sugar-free dessert brand, introduced a variety of products such as zero chocolate chip cookies, zero cacao cakes, and zero fruit jelly, and has received positive responses from consumers since its release. Additionally, some coffee franchises are adopting alternative sugars, like stevia, and in some cafes, customers can order to add stevia to their coffee drinks. https://www.lottewellfood.com/prcenter/news/1661?page=1&searchType2=Y&searchText=%EC%A0%9C%EB%A1%9C Controversy over Artificial Sweeteners Artificial sweeteners are commonly used in zero products, including aspartame, saccharin and so on. Among them, aspartame, which has been classified as a carcinogen, is an artificial sweetener that tastes 200 times sweeter than sugar. There are studies on the risk controversy of aspartame, and there are conflicts between studies showing that aspartame intake is okay and studies showing that it is dangerous. To learn more about this controversy, I conducted an interview with Professor Kang Sang-wook of Sangmyung University’s Department of Chemical Energy Engineering. I asked the professor what foods contain aspartame that the public does not know well about other foods other than soda, the results of conflicting studies on aspartame, and his opinion on them. In addition, I asked the risk of complex toxicity that was mentioned in the professor's YouTube video on artificial sweeteners, and his thoughts on this part and the public opinion that concerns the risk of aspartame. In response to some of these questions, the professor said as follows: First of all, aspartame is famous for its use in drinks such as zero coke, but it is also used in Kimchi made in China and Makgeolli. Second, the main point of the conflicting findings on aspartame was that the incidence of cancer was high in the group that consumed it after dividing it into groups that consumed it for a long time and those that did not. These results are hard to see as a direct result that artificial sweeteners themselves cause cancer. In addition, the permitted artificial sweeteners have been tested on animals, and if it is to be dangerous to humans, it must be consumed in large quantities such as drinking dozens of cans of soda a day. Therefore, that's why the U.S. FDA also maintains its position that it is okay to consume it while complying with the usage standards. Additionally, as such, the U.S. FDA emphasizes that it is safe to comply with usage standards, all of which are based on animal testing results. However, this has seen the toxicity of artificial sweeteners themselves, and in fact, we do not eat only artificial sweeteners themselves when eating food. We eat a variety of foods, and each food has a lot of chemicals. It is not known what chemical reactions occur when each of these chemicals and artificial sweeteners are present together, and not all of the complex toxicity when they are present together has been studied. It is therefore true that there is a potential danger. Nevertheless, the amount of artificial sweeteners added is very small, so even if the risk is revealed in the future, there is no need to worry enough to say that you will never consume them. However, when you get used to it, the human brain continues to look for the corresponding sweet taste due to the compensation system. Eventually, eating habits can change to wanting stimulating food, and as a result, it is more likely to lead to an increase in meat intake and sugar intake.The research results that have the aforementioned risks also seem to be due to this change in diet. The ongoing craze for Zero Foods is expected to become more diverse and popular. This is controversial and there are many concerns about artificial sweeteners, but there is not enough data to emphasize the risk in itself. Therefore, it will be desirable to avoid excessive intake of artificial sweeteners, try not to be tamed by sweetness, and consume Zero foods moderately. Sources: http://news.heraldcorp.com/view.php?ud=20230712000395 http://news.heraldcorp.com/view.php?ud=20230707000690 https://www.mk.co.kr/news/business/10769946 https://www.nongshim.com/promotion/global_news/trend_view?groupCode=007&groupId=18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-Tml1V9pPE

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