Food-Info.net> Questions and Answers > Food ingredients > Sugar and sweeteners

What is sweetness?

Sweet means "pleasing" to the taste; sweetness is the pleasure or enjoyment that comes from food that tastes sweet. The desire for the pleasure of sweetness has a strong influence on what people choose to eat and drink. Since early times, people have sought out foods with sweet taste; for example, drawings on the walls of Egyptian tombs show bee-keepers collecting honey, and sugar cane was grown in India some 2000 years ago. Today, sucrose, or table sugar, is the taste standard by which all other sweeteners are measured. An "ideal" sweetener tastes like sucrose, is colourless, odourless, readily soluble, stable and economical. Some sweeteners, like sugar, contain calories. And some are low-calorie or calorie-free.

Source: www.isabru.org