Candy: How Sweet It Is!

by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

The Arabs' word for it was qandi, from qand, a lump of cane sugar. It came down to us, virtually intact, through successive European languages: Old Italian (zucchero candi), Old French (sucre candi), Middle English (sugre candi). In the 1800s, Americans called it "sugar candy." Now, it's just candy.

Sometimes, it is indeed virtually entirely sugar, with a few minor glamorizers tossed in for color and zip. That's true of sourballs, for example. A representative label listing of ingredients, which the Food and Drug Administration requires on all packaged foods, reads: sugar, corn syrup, citric acid, artificial flavor, Red No. 40, Yellow No. 5, Yellow No. 6, Blue No. 1. (The last four are simply specific FDA-sanctioned food colorings~synthetic additives to which a few people are allergic but which otherwise pose no threat to health.)

The word "candy" doesn't cover only pure-sugar concoctions, but also includes an array of tasty confections combining sugar or similar substances with other compatible ingredients such as fruits, nuts or chocolate. And the most popular of these, as most Americans will confirm, is chocolate. When we think of a "candy bar," what generally comes to mind includes chocolate — usually, milk chocolate — although it often contains nuts, along with a variety of sugars, fats and flavorings.

Candy has not had very good press. In his "Reflections on Ice-Breaking," poet Ogden Nash remarked dismissively that, "Candy / Is dandy / But liquor / Is quicker." (He didn't reflect on the health risks of either.) In the realm of serious discourse, the sweet stuff has been used as a symbol of weakness. For example, speaking to the Canadian parliament during World War II, Winston Churchill described the stalwart British by saying, "We have not journeyed all this way across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar candy."

Although some may be loath to concede the fact, candy is a food. Its basic elements are included in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's "Food Pyramid" (see illustration)~in that small triangle at the top labeled "Fats, Oils, & Sweets~Use Sparingly." Short on vitamins, minerals, protein, fiber, and other desirable nutrients, candy is instead a prime source of fat and sugar. And calories. As Michelle Smith, Ph.D., of FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), observes: "Calorie content is a recognized nutritional value, and in some parts of the world, that may be a significant advantage. Many people in this country are~well, not at a deficit for calories."

Some candies — those containing milk or nuts, for example — do offer some beneficial food values, in addition to the calories. All foods contain calories, of course. A calorie is neither "good" nor "bad" in itself but simply a heat unit. "Calories, of course, are needed by the body as a source of energy," points out Virginia Wilkening, a colleague of Smith and a registered dietitian. "They are needed by some people more than others — teenage boys, for instance. Others should limit their calorie and sugar intake, in order to consume foods that are sources of a wide variety of nutrients."

You have a sort of nutritional "budget," Wilkening explains: "In order to maintain the right weight, and take in the energy you need for your daily activities, you need a certain quantity of calories; that quantity varies from one individual to another. Within that 'budget,' you need a variety of other nutrients — vitamins, minerals, protein, and so on. If you're going to use up some of your allotment on a candy bar, watch what else you're eating the rest of the day; skip desserts, consume plenty of fruits and vegetables. We don't recommend shunning any food. The message is, eat a variety of foods, in moderation."

How about low-calorie, or noncaloric, substitutes for the sugar and fat in candy? Of course, sweetness is the essence of candy, and the traditional source is sugar. And the fats in chocolate are what lend it the texture prized by candy lovers.

The idea of introducing substitutes for these ingredients is relatively recent, says George Pauli, director of the CFSAN office of premarket approval's division of product policy: "The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act's provision prohibiting nonnutritive substances in candy was, for a long time, interpreted to bar such additives as nonnutritive sweeteners; actually, the intent was to screen out inedible components of the products. Congress later clarified this point: Substances added for 'technical effect' are permitted. FDA policy takes this term to include colorings, as well as artificial sweeteners, and a number of the latter have been approved for use in candy. In a chocolate bar, however, simply using a sugar substitute would not cut the calories significantly, since the caloric content of chocolate is very much dependent on its fat content."

What about that fat? Devising acceptable substitutes isn't easy, Pauli observes:

"The problem with chocolate is both fat and total calories. There are two kinds of substances that might be considered fat substitutes. One would be a fat mimetic, a nonfat — it might be based on fiber, or starch, or protein~with the properties of the fat in question. With chocolate, you would want the desired texture, as well as another crucial feature: Chocolate melts at mouth temperature, but not at room temperature. It has been hard to devise substances with these properties.

"A second kind of substitute for the fat occurring naturally in chocolate would be fat that's less readily absorbed by the body~perhaps only 5 calories per gram, as opposed to 9, for instance. Manufacturers have been addressing this issue very intensively, trying to reduce absorbable fat content without losing taste and texture. So far, such products haven't penetrated themarket significantly."

That problem, then, is essentially a marketing challenge. FDA looks at candy's health and safety aspects and its labeling as a food; the agency also establishes certain definitions and standards for chocolate (see accompanying article).

About the Author

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FDA is A United States government body that oversees medical devices, including contact lenses, intraocular lenses, excimer lasers and eyedrops. In the US, these products must be approved by the FDA before they can be marketed.