---
title: "The Viral Zero-Sugar Drinks: Gimmick or Trend?"
description: "Different beverages use different sugar substitutes; for example, Diet Coke primarily uses aspartame, while some brands of sparkling water mainly use sucralose, erythritol, and others. Partially replacing sugar with sweeteners is a global trend. Theoretically, using sweeteners correctly according to regulations will not harm health. The sugar reduction trend in the US started over a decade earlier than in China, where the sugar-free trend is just beginning. The entire food industry moving toward low sugar, low salt, and low oil will be a major trend."
author: "崔慧莹 黄思卓"
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published: "2020-07-13"
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# The Viral Zero-Sugar Drinks: Gimmick or Trend?

> Different beverages use different sugar substitutes; for example, Diet Coke primarily uses aspartame, while some brands of sparkling water mainly use sucralose, erythritol, and others. Partially replacing sugar with sweeteners is a global trend. Theoretically, using sweeteners correctly according to regulations will not harm health. The sugar reduction trend in the US started over a decade earlier than in China, where the sugar-free trend is just beginning. The entire food industry moving toward low sugar, low salt, and low oil will be a major trend.

**Different beverages use different sugar substitutes; for example, Diet Coke primarily uses aspartame, while some brands of sparkling water mainly use sucralose, erythritol, and others.**
**Partially replacing sugar with sweeteners is a global trend. Theoretically, using sweeteners correctly according to regulations will not harm health.**
**The sugar reduction trend in the US started over a decade earlier than in China, where the sugar-free trend is just beginning. The entire food industry moving toward low sugar, low salt, and low oil will be a major trend.**
The US sugar reduction trend started over a decade earlier than in China; in 2005, Coca-Cola launched Diet Coke in the US. (Photo by Southern Weekend reporter Huang Sizhuo)
Despite the coronavirus disrupting the joy of gatherings for drinks and barbecue, the summer of 2020 still brought a wave of refreshing "zero-sugar" soda flavors to the domestic market.
With continued attention to healthy eating, carbonated sparkling water and sugar-free milk tea, marketed with "0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories," are strongly challenging the status of carbonated drinks as "happy water for couch potatoes."
The huge market potential has attracted beverage industry giants such as Yili, Jianlibao, and Nestlé, as well as milk tea brands like CoCo and Nayuki, to join the domestic "sugar-free" beverage track. Take the viral Genki Forest sparkling water as an example: from January to May 2020, it achieved impressive sales of 660 million yuan, approaching its total 2019 sales of 700 million yuan.
If humans are destined to find it hard to resist the joy of sweetness promoting dopamine secretion, why not choose a healthier sweetener without worrying about diabetes or weight gain?
The reality is that artificial sweeteners widely used in various zero-sugar drinks, including aspartame, acesulfame potassium, and sucralose, are not perfect sugar substitutes—their taste is not as good as sucrose, and safety concerns have never ceased. A 2014 mouse study on artificial sweeteners published in Nature suggested that artificial sweeteners "may affect gut bacteria," "may increase diabetes risk," and "may have carcinogenic risks," causing psychological resistance among consumers.
Young, fashionable consumers enjoy the pleasure of "little sweet water" while also wondering: Are sugar-free drinks labeled with "0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories" truly safe and healthy?
**-01- The "Zero-Sugar Internet Celebrity"**
Speaking of the bottles she often buys with labels saying "zero sugar, zero fat, zero calories," Chen Qi couldn't help but form a circle with her thumb and index finger, laughing, "Seeing it makes me feel very healthy, even though my rationality reminds me 'that's impossible.'"
Born in 1997, Chen Qi is part of the "generation raised on cola," but she started a sugar-controlled diet earlier than her peers. "I used to love milk tea and soda. After drinking milk tea at 5 p.m., I could stay awake until 5 a.m., and my face would break out with acne that took ten days to half a month to fade." Troubled but unable to resist the temptation of sweetness, she decided to switch to sugar-free or low-sugar milk tea and only choose zero-sugar soda—to reduce skin glycation and weight gain.
"The new generation of consumers led by the post-90s and post-00s is very health-conscious, especially women, who are very persistent about weight loss. Our market research on the social platform Xiaohongshu found that **women are a contradictory group—they fear sugar but love sweetness. Developing a zero-sugar, zero-fat, zero-calorie drink was what the market needed at the time.** " Genki Forest (Beijing) Food Technology Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Genki Forest) said in a reply to Southern Weekend reporters.
Founded in April 2016 with a registered capital of only 1 million yuan, the company focuses on developing sugar-free beverages, carving out a path in the red ocean of the beverage market and rising as a dark horse in the domestic beverage industry. After multiple rounds of financing, its overall valuation reached 4 billion yuan by early 2020.
The variety show "Our Band," exclusively sponsored by Genki Forest for the first time, featured musicians such as Nicholas Tse, Li Ronghao, Jam Hsiao, and Wang Junkai; actress Zhang Yuqi from the hit show "Sisters Who Make Waves" also became the ambassador for sparkling water. Genki Forest sparkling water is also commonly seen in Li Jiaqi's live-streaming room, office building elevator corridors, and on social media like Xiaohongshu.
Lower prices than "premium" Perrier and San Pellegrino, sweeter than ordinary soda water, and healthier than traditional carbonated drinks and milk tea—these are all reasons consumers choose sugar-free sparkling water. Before this "Japanese-style" product became popular, the "first internet celebrity" in the sparkling water market was Nestlé Perrier with its green glass bottle.
"'Sparkling water' solves the pain point of the younger generation who love the refreshing taste of carbonated drinks but worry about the health and figure impacts of high sugar and calories. In the past few years, thanks to the e-commerce economy, Nestlé Perrier has maintained double-digit sales growth in the Chinese market, with growth rates increasing year by year," Liao Liyuan from Nestlé China's Corporate Affairs Department told Southern Weekend reporters.
As the domestic sparkling water market heats up, Nestlé has also introduced more sparkling water products to the domestic market, including in April 2020, launching Perrier & Juice, a low-calorie, low-sugar sparkling juice drink with 16.4% mixed fruit juice; in June, it launched Nestlé Pure Life sparkling water with 0 sugar, 0 calories, and 0 fat, available in two flavors: Polar Lime and Blueberry Blackcurrant.
Regarding the continuous emergence of similar competing products in the market, Liao Liyuan responded: "Perrier is naturally sparkling mineral water, while other sparkling waters on the market are sometimes artificially carbonated soda water."
**-02- Why Is Sugar-Free Sparkling Water So Sweet?**
Sweet foods cause the body to secrete dopamine, bringing happiness—a code engraved in human genes since ancient times, as irresistible as drinking water, eating, and being lazy. What makes consumers like Chen Qi, who are keen on "sugar reduction," wonder is: How can a bottle of sparkling water labeled sugar-free be so sweet?
"So-called sugar substitutes generally refer to food additives that provide sweetness with low or zero calories. Therefore, consuming sugar substitutes provides sweetness without causing weight gain or blood sugar changes. They are a series of food additives approved as safe in various countries. Among them, natural sweeteners and sugar alcohols are especially favored by consumers," Genki Forest said in a reply to Southern Weekend reporters.
**Different beverages use different sugar substitutes; for example, Diet Coke primarily uses aspartame, while some brands of sparkling water mainly use sucralose, erythritol, and others.**
Erythritol is a sugar substitute extracted from natural plants such as wheat and corn. It has relatively low calories and has no effect even for people with high blood sugar, and it can be consumed during weight loss. Yun Wuxin, a food engineering PhD and senior food industry R&D professional, introduced that erythritol is only 60% to 70% as sweet as sucrose, and a single intake should not exceed 30g, otherwise diarrhea may occur.
What makes the taste sweeter is sucralose—a high-intensity sweetener that is 600 times sweeter than sucrose and very low cost. Adding an extremely small amount can meet sweetness requirements. Anhui Jinhe Industrial, one of the world's largest sucralose producers, had an annual production capacity of 3,000 tons in 2019, with net profit of 809 million yuan for the year.
The former China Food and Drug Administration specifically mentioned in its 2016 food safety risk analysis that sweeteners are substances that give food sweetness and are a type of food additive, divided into natural sweeteners and artificial sweeteners. As an important food additive, sweeteners have been widely used in more than 100 countries and regions, including the US, EU, and China, with some varieties having a history of use spanning over a hundred years.
According to China's current "Standards for Uses of Food Additives" (GB2760-2014), neotame, ammonium glycyrrhizinate, monopotassium and tripotassium glycyrrhizinate, D-mannitol, sodium cyclamate, maltitol and maltitol syrup, lactitol, sucralose, aspartame, etc., can be used as sweeteners in foods such as bread, pastries, biscuits, beverages, and condiments.
Worldwide, the development of sugar-free or low-sugar foods and beverages is relatively fast, and **partially replacing sugar with sweeteners is a global trend.**
The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), the highest international authority on food additive safety evaluation, has proposed an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for each sweetener. JECFA believes that normal intake of sweeteners according to ADI values poses no safety issues.
Theoretically, as long as sweeteners are used correctly according to relevant regulations and standards, they will not cause harm to human health. The problem is that in recent years, supervision and random inspections by local market regulatory authorities have found excessive use of sweeteners in snacks such as jelly and preserved plums. Some manufacturers are unfamiliar with relevant standards and have low technical management levels, and it cannot be ruled out that some deliberately violate the law to save production costs.
Yun Wuxin told Southern Weekend reporters that studies have shown that mice fed excessive aspartame have an increased risk of bladder cancer, but humans are not mice, and the added sugar in beverages is also very small; sugar substitutes have similar diabetes risk to regular sucrose, but they do not raise blood sugar and are friendlier to diabetics, "so **beverages with added sugar substitutes, though not as good as plain water, are much healthier than traditional sugary drinks.** "
**-03- Sweeteners "Reduce Sugar Without Reducing Sweetness," But Don't Expect Weight Loss**
"No single sweetener can match the taste of sucrose, but through mixed use, it can completely mimic the taste of sucrose. In some blind tests, consumers can hardly tell the difference," wrote Zhong Kai, deputy director of the China Food Information and Nutrition Exchange Center, in a popular science article.
But traditional sucrose, shaped by long-term natural selection and cultivation, remains the sweetness humans are most accustomed to. Some consumers sensitive to taste may feel discomfort when eating foods or drinks with high amounts of sugar substitutes. "Many people feel that Diet Coke or Coke Zero is not as tasty as sugary cola, for this reason," Yun Wuxin said.
"I feel uncomfortable after drinking sugar-substitute beverages," said Liu Chenghan, a consumer in Beijing. He said his taste buds are very sensitive to the presence of sugar substitutes: "A cloying sweetness lingers in my mouth, and neither rinsing nor chewing gum can cover it; it only disappears after a night's sleep."
Although the crisp and refreshing sensation of carbonated bubbles "exploding" on the tongue can somewhat mask the off-taste of sugar substitutes, it is still difficult to mimic the taste of sucrose with any other sweetener. Yun Wuxin told Southern Weekend reporters that he once blended five natural sweeteners to create a sugar very close to sucrose's taste, which could avoid consumers' "discrimination" against artificial sweeteners, but the cost was higher than sucrose, making it difficult to apply in industrial food and beverage production.
As for the relationship between sugar substitutes and weight loss, Zhong Kai explained that using sweeteners to partially or completely replace sugar helps control energy intake, "especially sweeteners like sucralose and acesulfame potassium, which do not participate in metabolism and therefore do not bring metabolic burden. For people with high blood sugar and diabetes, sweeteners are also a 'savior'—they have very little effect on blood sugar and can satisfy their craving for sweetness."
In short, sweeteners provide a diverse choice of "reducing sugar without reducing sweetness" for those who need to cut sugar. But as Zhong Kai said, if you expect sweeteners to help you lose weight without consciously changing an already unhealthy diet and lifestyle, thinking "drinking sugar-free drinks won't make me fat," and instead let yourself go and overeat, you'll gain weight faster. "Controlling weight can only follow the most basic 'energy conservation.'"
**-04- The "Sugar Reduction" Trend Is Irreversible**
Weight loss is a battle between reason and desire. Singer Jay Chou, who loves pearl milk tea, has been urged by netizens to lose weight. In his new song "Mojito" released on June 12, he sang softly: "And my coffee, sugar doesn't need to be too much."
In July 2019, the National Health Commission issued the "Healthy China Action (2019-2030)," which noted that the current per capita daily intake of added sugar (mainly sucrose, i.e., "white sugar," "brown sugar," etc.) in China is about 30 grams, while the World Health Organization recommends no more than 25 grams.
The low-sugar and zero-sugar beverages launched by major brands align with the "sugar reduction" in the "Three Reductions, Three Healths" (reduce salt, oil, sugar; healthy mouth, healthy weight, healthy bones) goal of the Healthy China Action. In fact, "Three Reductions, Three Healths" was already proposed in the "National Nutrition Plan (2017-2030)" issued by the General Office of the State Council in June 2017. The action plan emphasizes "advocating food producers and operators to use natural sweet substances and sweeteners allowed by food safety standards to replace sucrose."
Xu Wenxin, a food and beverage analyst at British market research company Mintel, told Southern Weekend reporters that although some consumers are still price-sensitive and lack awareness of health issues such as how much sucrose is added to drinks and what type of sugar substitutes are used, "we believe the market is moving toward premiumization, and consumers tend to choose healthier, more natural beverages, which is an irreversible trend."
Wang Lili, an associate professor at the School of Management, Zhejiang University, who has studied healthy consumption behavior for many years, believes that the food and beverage industry will inevitably become a main force in the health industry. "Brands try to balance the natural contradiction between health and taste from a technical and process perspective. The innovation of sugar-free beverages and multigrain biscuits essentially stems from consumers' health needs."
The US sugar reduction trend started over a decade earlier than in China; in 2005, Coca-Cola launched Diet Coke in the US. Recalling her time studying in the US in 2009, Wang Lili was impressed by an American teacher who loved cola and moved boxes of Diet Coke into the office.
In October 2019, Wang Lili visited Coca-Cola's headquarters in Atlanta, USA, and learned that the main task of R&D personnel there was to reduce sugar in products while preserving taste. "China's sugar-free trend is just beginning because our chronic disease incidence is also rising, and aging is becoming more prominent. This epidemic has greatly raised our awareness of disease prevention," Wang Lili said.
"Large companies clearly distinguish between blockbuster products and long-tail products for the general public, but new companies that haven't established a foothold in the market must rely on blockbuster products to increase visibility." However, Wang Lili believes that the current low-sugar trend in the beverage industry will be a development trend for the entire industry. More precisely, **the entire food industry moving toward low sugar, low salt, and low oil will be a major trend.**
According to the "2019 New Tea Beverage Consumption White Paper" jointly produced by 36Kr and Nayuki, in the first ten months of 2019, more than half of consumers chose less sugar or no sugar when purchasing Nayuki tea drinks.
Southern Weekend reporters learned from Nayuki that on March 23, the brand launched a "0-calorie sugar (0 calories, 0 fat)" option in the add-on column to cater to consumers pursuing "health" and "wellness," "satisfying taste buds without guilt and without needing extra exercise to burn it off."
Nayuki's PR director Wang Yi also revealed that from June 1 to 28, orders with the "0-calorie sugar" add-on accounted for 8% of all beverage orders. "Healthy tea drinks are definitely one of the future trends of new-style tea drinks, because modern people, especially young people, have increasingly high health requirements."
A staff member from a company specializing in the distribution and wholesale of low-sugar or sugar-free beverages told Southern Weekend reporters that sugar-free cola, Fanta, and oolong tea have always been popular. "Since the beginning of this year, we have also been doing offline distribution and wholesale for all Genki Forest categories. Now Genki Forest's salespeople and agents are spread across all provinces and cities."
The staff member revealed that the wholesale price of each batch of beverages varies with factors such as purchase quantity and delivery address. "We negotiate the price for each batch, and prices are higher in summer."
(Chen Qi and Liu Chenghan are pseudonyms in this article.)
Source: Jianyan (ID: healthytalks), Authors: Cui Huiying, Huang Sizhuo


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