I I’m sitting in a kitchen shared by biobased startups in San Francisco, looking forward to a chocolate chip cookie. Since I was diagnosed with prediabetes a few years ago, I usually stay away from sweet treats. But I have a secret weapon: a bag Monch Moncha proprietary plant fiber drink mix designed to expand in my stomach like a kitchen sponge and absorb sugar in food, making it unavailable for early absorption.
The idea is that, locked in the ‘sponge’, a significant amount of sugar simply passes through. One gram of the product can absorb six grams of sugar, according to laboratory tests by the startup behind it, BioLumen. Sucrose (table sugar), glucose, fructose and to a lesser extent simple starch can all be isolated. Since there are just over four grams in the bag, I think that – if it works – this should nicely cancel out the sugar in my treat and also give my gut a fiber boost. “How do you eat food without paying the health price? We think we have found a way,” says Paolo Costa, co-founder and CEO of the company, as I mix the powder in the sachet with water and drink it.
Welcome to the emerging technology of sugar elimination, which deals with eliminating sugar not before, but after it is enjoyed. Rates of diabetes and obesity are soaring, but sugar substitutes, an important way to reduce sugar consumption, are falling short. They can change the taste and texture of food, some have potential safety to assure and, for better or worse, they don’t seem to stimulate the brain’s reward center like sugar does. Sugar elimination technology offers the tempting prospect of keeping the sugar while making it a healthier, less guilty pleasure. The entire food industry could benefit from this kind of technology, says John Topinka, head of research strategy at multinational food company Kraft Heinz.
BioLumen, which launched in 2019, launched Monch Monch in the US in November as a supplement (a space product) generally considered under-regulated). Each granule – essentially its own microsponge – is plant cellulose (insoluble fiber), the nooks and crannies of which are impregnated with the company’s proprietary hydrogels (soluble fiber) primed to absorb sugar. Retailing at $150 (£120) per month for two sachets per day, it’s not yet for the masses. But BioLumen’s longer-term plan is to sell it as an ingredient to food manufacturers to incorporate into their products. One has already been received “Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS) designation in the US and the company is currently working on how to make it cheaper.
The Chief Medical Officer and other co-founder of BioLumen is Robert Lustig, a professor emeritus of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, who has done much to raise awareness about the health risks of eating too much sugar. He shows me unpublished data from a small three-week human trial showing that the product produces a lower blood sugar spike and insulin response, although he also says a larger, longer trial will be needed to confirm that – along with stool testing to determine the proportion of sugar that actually falls out (some of the sugar-laden sponge will inevitably be chewed up as it moves through my intestines). That’s the bag shall eliminate the sugar in my cookie, BioLumen cannot yet say definitively. “That would be the hope and we tried to design it that way, but we need to test it,” says Lustig.
a sugar sponge is not the only approach. Others take a different route: converting sugar into fiber in the intestines. It is a feat beyond the ability of our natural digestive enzymes, but can be achieved by incorporating small amounts of other carefully selected enzymes into food. (Enzymes are proteins that catalyze the building or breaking down of molecules.)
Researchers from Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering in collaboration with Kraft Heinz have done developed a method which uses an enzyme naturally occurring in plants that converts sugar into fiber (which plants need for their stems) and encapsulates it in a special edible patented coating.
The coating, itself made of fibers, prevents the enzyme from being active in the food product while it is on the shelves. The enzyme remains covered by the stomach, but in the less acidic conditions of the intestine the coating expands, freeing the enzyme to work on the sugar in the food. The enzyme, a type of inulosucrase, splits the sugar into its simpler components – glucose and fructose – and links the fructose together to make inulin, a soluble fiber that is not digestible or absorbed by the body, but which benefits the gut microbiome comes.
The enzyme does not substantially interact with the glucose, which is largely still available to be absorbed by the body. But, says Samuel Inverso, Wyss’ director of business development, the beauty of the coating is that it could also potentially encapsulate an enzyme that converts glucose into fiber.
The Wyss is currently licensing the technology to a startup that plans to test it further and go through the regulatory process for food ingredients, with the hope that it can be integrated by manufacturers in the US by 2026.
The British startup also joins the Wyss in pursuing an enzymatic route Yep, which was rebranded from Inulox this month. It has its own product that it calls Convero, an improved version of another natural inulosucrase, other than the Wyss. Zya discovered that the substance was particularly good at converting sugar into fiber in the intestines (the substance is produced using a genome-edited microorganism). When dried it remains inactive in food on the shelf, so no coating is required.
Simulated gut models suggest that about 30% of sugar is converted into fiber, says Josh Sauer, co-founder and CEO of Zya. Again, it is the fructose that the enzyme really targets for conversion to inulin. It’s a transformation that, if it applies to people, would be enough to have a meaningful impact and allow the food industry to stake a new claim, says Sauer. The first results of a preliminary trial with the natural enzyme in pigs (they experienced no harm) look promising. More pig studies are planned with the improved version, in addition to human studies.
Like the Wyss enzyme, only a small amount is required, making it easy to incorporate into existing food products without major reformulations. It will come at a cost premium, but it won’t be much, Sauer says. Zya also hopes to receive approval from US regulators in time for commercialization in 2026. The company will also pursue approval in Europe and Britain.
Sauer emphasizes that the company is not trying to make health claims; rather, it attempts to substantiate a functional claim that the product will turn sugar, which we know we need to reduce in our diets, into fiber, which we know we need to increase. “You can enjoy sugar knowing it will be digested in a better way,” he says.
While these new initiatives may help reduce the impact of sugar once it enters the body, further studies are needed, says Graham MacGregor, chairman of the charity. Action against sugar and a professor at the Wolfson Institute of Population Health at Queen Mary University of London. “That includes carefully evaluated clinical trials examining both the safety and potential benefits of such products,” he says.
But will this kind of technology help solve our sugar problem or ultimately become a license to eat poorly?
Tim Spector, a professor at King’s College London who studies the gut microbiome and co-founded personal nutrition company Zoe, fears the latter. “If these sugar-removal products work, they will likely encourage people to continue eating largely useless foods,” he says. He adds that – from high fat levels to emulsifiers – there are plenty of other ways besides sugar in which our food can be harmful that this technology is not addressing. “Focusing on eating whole foods and reducing our intake of ultra-processed products should be everyone’s priority,” he says.
The proponents of sugar elimination technology respond with pragmatism. The reality is that it’s hard to give up sugar, and sweet treats aren’t going away anytime soon. “We need all the tools we can get,” Lustig says.
