The dictionary definition of additives is not particularly helpful when placed in the context of this article. Additives are any ingredients that are added to recipes to help improve the flavour, appearance, texture, or shelf life of your food.
Sugar, salt, and vinegar are all examples of natural additives. Smoke and the curing process is also an example of an additive. Smoked salmon tastes different to regular salmon, and it has a longer shelf life as the smoke cures the salmon and alters it.
Nobody would argue that sugar, salt, vinegar, or cooking techniques should be avoided in cooking as, for the most part, they are essential.
When we talk about additives in the context of meal replacement shakes and other supplements, we are talking about additives that are manufactured in a lab. A good example of this would be sucralose, which is derived from sugar and is used as an artificial sweetener.
The recipe was fine beforehand, but this artificial ingredient has been added to change the taste without affecting the calorie count.
Many people like artificial sweeteners, and though they can have side effects, they are safe to consume. However, there are a growing number of people who would prefer a no additive meal replacement shake, which is one of the reasons why we created Rootana.
The only additives that Rootana uses are vitamins and minerals, which are fortifying agents used to increase the nutritional value. Most people would not consider vitamins and minerals to be additives, though, as they are crucial for health and wellness.
Artificial Sweeteners
There are many different types of artificial sweeteners. You have completely lab-made artificial sweeteners, then there are sugar alcohols, and you also have ingredients such as stevia. These are technically natural, but they have been altered (some would say improved) in the lab and are considered artificial by many people because of this.
Sucralose
Sucralose is created by the chlorination of sucrose. Once synthesized, sucralose becomes around 320-1000 times sweeter than sucrose, meaning that only 1/320th or 1/1000th needs to be used to create the same sweetness.
Sucralose is not broken down in the body, meaning it provides zero calories, particularly when used in the minuscule amounts required to sweeten a shake.
Stevia
Stevia is a sweetener that comes from the Stevia Rebaudiana plant in South America, specifically its leaves. This is pretty close to natural, but it still requires a lab to extract the Steviol glycosides using a hot water extraction process.
Still, it is more natural than sucralose, aspartame, and even sugar alcohols. Many people find that stevia has a bitter aftertaste, which can be unpleasant depending on your personal tastes. It has also been found to cause nausea, constipation, and bloating for some people, which we have talked about in other articles.
Aspartame
Aspartame got a horrible reputation in the early 90s due to a vicious (and since disproven) email campaign that claimed that it caused cancer. To this day, many people still claim that aspartame is dangerous.
This is not true. It is perfectly safe, though it does have certain side effects that some people may wish to avoid. Some people are intolerant to aspartame, and others are fully allergic. A common side effect is hives and itchiness, but some even suffer from respiratory reactions.
But these numbers of people are very small, much smaller than people who are allergic to peanuts, for example.
Aspartame is not often used in meal replacement shakes as it loses its sweetness when exposed to heat. Many meal replacement shakes are promoted as being good for adding to baking recipes, so artificial sweeteners such as sucralose, and stevia are more common.
Sugar Alcohols
Sugar alcohols are not as popular as sucralose or stevia. This is because, unlike those two, sugar alcohols are not zero calories. They are, in fact, low-calorie sweeteners. They aren’t even as sweet as regular sugar. They just happen to contain far fewer calories.
Xylitol and Sorbitol are the most well-known sugar alcohols and are used extensively in the food industry. Both are known to cause nausea, upset stomachs, bloating, and constipation (after diarrhoea).
Artificial Colourings
Rootana avoids artificial colourings as there is a lot of debate about their safety. Though many people can handle them fine, others have experienced allergic reactions, and there is some evidence that certain artificial colourings may increase your risk of cancer.
Artificial Flavours
As with artificial colourings, Rootana avoids the use of artificial flavours as this goes against our philosophy. Artificial flavours are usually added to meal replacement shakes to help improve the taste, but we believe that our Rootana shakes taste delicious anyway, all with the use of natural ingredients such as oats and coconut sugar.
