Sugar substitute in the context of "Sweet"

Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones, and sugar alcohols. Some are sweet at very low concentrations, allowing their use as non-caloric sugar substitutes. Such non-sugar sweeteners include saccharin, aspartame, sucralose and stevia. Other compounds, such as miraculin, may alter perception of sweetness itself.

Sweetness is one of the five basic taste qualities and it mostly involves foods with sugars. It is known to be enjoyable and it is an important factor for food choices beyond cultures. Furthermore, sugars like sucrose, there are many other organic and inorganic compounds that bring out a sweet taste. This involves aldehydes, ketones, amino acids, and other artificial sweeteners. Sweetness recognition in our bodies takes part in an important role in energy control and evolutionary behavior.

A sweetener is a substance added to food or drink to impart the flavor of sweetness, either because it contains a type of sugar, or because it contains a sweet-tasting sugar substitute. Various natural non-sugar sweeteners (NSS) and artificial sweeteners are used to produce food and drink.

A soft drink (see § Terminology for other names) is a class of drink containing no alcohol, usually (but not necessarily) carbonated, and typically including added sweetener. Flavors can be natural, artificial or a mixture of the two. The sweetener may be a sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice, a sugar substitute (in the case of diet sodas), or some combination of these. Soft drinks may also contain caffeine, colorings, preservatives and other ingredients. Coffee, tea, milk, cocoa, and unaltered fruit and vegetable juices are not considered soft drinks.

Soft drinks are called "soft" in contrast with "hard" alcoholic drinks and their counterparts: non-alcoholic drinks. Small amounts of alcohol may be present in a soft drink, but the alcohol content must be less than 0.5% of the total volume of the drink (ABV) in many countries and localities if the drink is to not be considered alcoholic. Examples of soft drinks include lemon-lime drinks, orange soda, cola, grape soda, cream soda, ginger ale and root beer.

Granola is a food consisting of a mix of rolled oats, nuts, seeds, honey (or other sweeteners such as brown sugar), and sometimes puffed rice that is usually baked with oil until crisp, toasted and golden brown, sometimes forming clumps. The mixture is stirred while baking to avoid burning and to maintain a loose breakfast cereal consistency. Dried fruit, such as raisins and dates, and confections such as chocolate are often added.

Granola is often eaten in combination with yogurt, honey, fresh fruit (such as bananas, strawberries or blueberries), milk, or even with other forms of cereal. It also serves as a topping for various pastries, desserts or ice cream. Granola is similar to muesli, except the latter is traditionally neither sweetened nor baked.