Scientists Make Low-Calorie Sugar That Tastes Like Real Thing

Imagine baking cookies that taste just like the real thing but have fewer calories and might actually be good for your teeth.

Scientists at Tufts University just made that possible. They've developed a way to produce tagatose, a naturally rare sugar that delivers sweetness without sugar's usual problems like cavities, weight gain, and diabetes risk.

The researchers turned common bacteria into tiny sugar factories. By adding special enzymes to E. coli bacteria, they taught these microbes to convert regular glucose into tagatose with up to 95% efficiency.

That's a huge leap from current manufacturing methods, which only achieve 40 to 77% efficiency at much higher costs. Professor Nik Nair, who led the research, explains that previous attempts were simply too expensive and inefficient for widespread use.

Tagatose naturally exists in dairy products like yogurt and cheese, and in trace amounts in apples and oranges. But it makes up less than 0.2% of sugars in those foods, making extraction impractical.

The magic lies in an enzyme from slime mold that reverses a normal biological process. Instead of breaking down sugars as bacteria usually do, these engineered bacteria build tagatose from abundant, cheap glucose.

Here's what makes tagatose special: it's 92% as sweet as regular sugar and bakes exactly like it, browning beautifully in the oven. High intensity sweeteners can't match that texture and bulk that sugar brings to recipes.

The health benefits go beyond just fewer calories. Unlike regular sugar that feeds cavity causing bacteria, tagatose actually reduces the growth of those harmful microbes while supporting healthy bacteria in your mouth and gut.

For people with diabetes, tagatose offers real hope. Your body only partially absorbs it in the small intestine, with gut bacteria fermenting the rest in your colon. Clinical studies show it barely affects blood glucose or insulin levels compared to regular sugar.

Why This Inspires

This discovery represents more than just another sugar substitute. It shows how understanding nature's processes can solve real health challenges affecting millions of people worldwide.

The U.S. FDA has already designated tagatose as "generally recognized as safe." With this new production method making it economically feasible, tagatose could soon appear in everyday foods from cereals to cookies.

The research team, whose findings appear in Cell Reports Physical Science, believes this technique could unlock production of other rare sugars too. Sometimes the sweetest victories come from the smallest workers.