[redballoon]

Heh, have any of you heard of Luo Han Guo. It's a fruit and a natural sweetener is made from it. I just saw it in my supermarket, came home and looked it up. Sounds too good to be true! Have any of you tried it?

Here's one page I found on it:

http://www.bodyecology.com/08/04/10/...ling_fruit.php

[redballoon]

Well, I went out and bought it and am now drinking it in my tea. It's good, very sweet. Nice to have it and not feel guilty about it. I am trying to stick to an anti-candida diet. Though I try to steer clear of them, I don't like to take artificial sweeteners and the candida diet doesn't allow them anyhow. I'll be in Hong Kong next week. Since this is a Chinese fruit (that I've never seen here in Japan) maybe I can pick up some things cheap. Cheers!

[katkitten]

sounds interesting! i dont know why im always so squeemish abouttrying new sweeteners. it took me forever to try stevia. i'll have to check it out sometime.

[nelie]

I read this on Wikipedia:
The process for the manufacture of a useful sweetener from luohan guo was patented in 1995 by Procter & Gamble. The patent states that, while luohan guo is very sweet, it has too many interfering aromas, which render it useless for general application. Thus the company developed a process for the removal of the interfering aromas.

In this process, the fresh fruit is harvested before it is fully mature, and is then matured in storage so that it may be processed precisely when it is mature. The shell and seeds are then removed, and the pulped fruit is made into a fruit concentrate or puree. This is then used in the further production of food. Solvents are used, amongst other things, to remove the interfering aromas.

[redballoon]

nelie -- Thanks for the input. Interesting point regarding solvents. I don't know if that is a bad thing though. I suppose there are any number of foods that have solvents used on them in the production process. And, I suppose...cough, cough, that since it is for sale in the U.S. and the process is by P&G, that it is thus approved by the FDA. Then again, so are many other things that are said not to be healthy, such as aspartame. I would definitely look into this more. I suppose this sweetener simply hasn't been around long enough. Like stevia, there will surely be huge resistance from the artificial sweetener makers as well.

katkitten -- I'm like you, very leery of any sweeteners. But, natural will always be better in my book than the artificial junk that's out there. I hate that aspartame is creeping into everything over here now. I try to steer clear of it but it's hard.