Imagine being able to tuck into your favorite sweet treats and drinks while feeling assured that you weren’t piling on the pounds in the process. Now imagine that these goods were being sweetened a totally natural ingredient instead of dangerous artificial ones such as aspartame.

A new product that will hit the global market under the name ‘Cweet‘ is:

• 1,000 times sweeter than cane sugar on a weight basis
• is zero-calorie
• has no after-taste
• is heat-stable

🙂 🙂 I like the sound of that!

It is derived from a native African plant and has been consumed there by people for thousands of years. However, earlier attempts to commercialize it failed because “because no practical manufacturing process was ever developed that would allow the product to reach the marketplace” says Loren Miles, CEO of Natur Research Ingredients.

That obstacle has now been removed as Dr Fariba Assadi-Porter, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has found a manufacturing method suited to mass production.

Natur Research Ingredients expects to announce a manufacturing partner in the next few months but the bad news is that it could take at least another year for Cweet to become commercially available. This is because Natur Research Ingredients must obtain approval of a self-affirmed GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status that the company is currently preparing to submit to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

I know that the low-carb community will be as excited about this announcement as I am. I currently use both Splenda and Stevia as sweeteners. Both, however, have their disadvantages in my opinion. Stevia, even the most expensive kind you can buy, still has an aftertaste that is not suitable for cooking with. Splenda is great but I just have an inclination towards that which is totally natural and also the granulated version is not non-caloric.

I have high hopes for Cweet but I’ll patiently keep using what I’m using in the meantime. If you have any further info on Cweet please let me know.

Mark McManus