What is Monk Fruit?

It feels like there's always a "new" sugar alternative on the market. First came artificial sweeteners—controversial from the start and often avoided more than sugar itself. Then came plant-based syrups and extracts, which sometimes caused more tummy troubles than benefits.

Enter monk fruit extract—the natural sweetener we use in Hiya's children's multivitamin. It delivers sweetness without the side effects, cavities, or extra calories that often come with other options.

Here's what parents need to know about this simple, natural way to add sweetness.

What is Monk Fruit?

The luo han guo plant, or monk fruit, grows freely throughout China. When it grows, it's the same size and color as a lime. Harvested monk fruit turns a brown color, and a look inside shows that it's nothing like a citrus fruit. The inside of a monk fruit is packed with flesh and seeds, almost peeling apart like a clove of garlic.

The skin and the seeds are removed from the monk fruit, leaving only its sweet flesh. The juice is extracted from the fruit, leaving us with the valuable part of the monk fruit. The sweetness of monk fruit comes from the natural compounds called mogrosides that the fruit produces when it fully ripens.

This healthy sweetness can be used in food, drinks, and supplements to make them taste better without adding any sugar or calories.

How Does Monk Fruit Compare to Other Sweeteners?

Monk fruit sweeteners provide all the benefits with none of the drawbacks that come from sugar or its artificial counterparts.

Sugar

The white table sugar used to sweeten foods, drinks, and baked goods has absolutely no nutritional value. There are no vitamins or minerals in refined sugar. They've all been removed when the sugar cane was processed, leaving behind a byproduct called molasses. The molasses is the runoff that holds all of the trace minerals. Since molasses is not as cloyingly sweet and its texture makes it difficult to work with in most applications, it fell out of favor decades ago.

Instead, sugar adds sweetness at 4 calories per gram, adding a source of empty calories to our diet, and adding to empty carbs that don't do much but satisfy cravings for that sweet taste.

Sugar also happens to be one of bacteria's favorite foods. When sugar enters our mouth or our gut, the bad bacteria that have managed to find their way in are delighted to find this source of food. Oral bacteria excrete the sugar into enamel eroding acid. Bad bacteria in our gut use sugar to upset our bacterial balance, or even cause yeast infections.

Artificial Sweeteners

There have been concerns of illness or disease being spread by artificial sweeteners like aspartame in the past. While there aren't any confirmed cases of artificial sweeteners directly attributing to disease, the speculation alone was enough to scare many consumers.

The biggest and most established problem with artificial sweeteners is that our body doesn't really know what to do with them. It cannot digest them and opts to just force them through instead. This can cause tummy trouble like diarrhea or excessive gas in many people.

Stevia

Stevia sweeteners aren't a bad sugar substitute. They simply may not be the best option. While this non-nutritive sweetener is derived from plants and won't raise your blood sugar levels, it still comes with some drawbacks.

Stevia's natural flavor is similar to licorice. People who don't like licorice may not like stevia, especially with the apparent aftertaste stevia comes with.

The Benefits of Monk Fruit

Since the body is able to efficiently process monk fruit, it won't cause any of the side effects that other alternative sweeteners cause. There are no reports of excessive gas, bloating, or laxative effects from the use of monk fruit sweeteners.

It's one of few alternative sweeteners that doesn't come with any of those uncomfortable drawbacks.

The mogrosides that make monk fruit sweet are even antioxidants. Antioxidants work to protect your cells against damage from things called free radicals, which may contribute to some diseases and heart disease.

Why We Use Monk Fruit in Our Children's Multivitamin

The entire purpose of taking a multivitamin is to enhance your health. Every multivitamin you take is a conscious effort to feel better and fuel your body. Using sugar or an artificial sweetener with negative side effects directly contradicts the purpose.

Why bother taking a vitamin that's going to upset your stomach or feed the bacteria in your body? Kids deserve better. For Hiya, monk fruit is the obvious choice to naturally sweeten our products. It's the only natural sweetener with no side effects, and it gives our multivitamin a little boost of helpful antioxidants. Not to mention, it makes for a taste that kids love without the mass amounts of sugar found in gummy vitamins products across the market.

The Takeaway

Monk fruit may not be the most famous natural sweetener, but it's quickly earning attention for good reason. It delivers the sweetness kids love—without the added sugar, cavities, or crash. Try using monk fruit in your kitchen and see how easily it can become a family favorite.