Nestle Creates Low-Sugar Chocolate To Curb Diabetes: But It Still Tastes Good

Nestle says it discovered a way to reduce the sugar content of its chocolates by as much as 40 percent without compromising the taste.

The Swiss company announced that it has discovered a way to significantly reduce the amount of sugar that goes into its Butterfinger, Kit Kat, BarOne, Aero, Crunch and other candy bars, with the apparent sweetness of chocolate unchanged. This means that the new low-sugar chocolates are equally sweet but with reduced sugar content in the hopes to curb the growing rates of diabetes worldwide.

"This truly groundbreaking research is inspired by nature and has the potential to reduce the total sugar by up to 40% in our confectionery," Stefan Catsicas, Nestle Chief Technology Officer, said in a press release by Nestle. "Our scientists have discovered a completely new way to use a traditional, natural ingredient," he added.

The new research will fasten the company's efforts to meet its commitment to reduce sugar in its products. Aside from that, the company also committed to improving the nutritional profile of its products by reducing sugar, salt and saturated fat. As the same time, Nestle wants to increase the healthier nutrients in its products like whole grains, vitamins and minerals.

To reduce the sugar content of the chocolates, Nestle scientists will only use natural ingredients as they found a way to structure sugar differently. As a result, despite reducing sugar in the chocolates, the tongue would perceive the same level of sweetness as the products before.

Nestle is currently patenting the process and will officially announce the products after it receives the official trademark status. The company plans to produce the low-sugar chocolates in the market by 2018.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of people suffering from diabetes has increased from 108 million in 1980 to about 422 million in 2014. In 2012 alone, an estimated 1.5 million deaths were directly caused by diabetes and about 2.2 million deaths were because of high blood glucose. Some complications attributed to diabetes are kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke, blindness and lower limb amputations.