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Show New low-calorie sweetener named The experts tell us that man's well-developed well-developed sweet tooth has been with us as far back as the prehistoric cave dwellers. Those people drew pictures on their walls of such sweet treats as honey, figs and dates. Egyptian hieroglyphics dating back some 4,000 years tell of candies probably made with honey, flour, almonds, dates and . figs. Since the Middle Ages, man has developed thousands of confections, drinks and foods that owe their ; popularity to being sweet. Somewhere ; along the line, someone felt that cof-; cof-; fee and tea were just too bitter without a touch of sweetening. Modern breakfast cereals took on a new dimension when sprinkled with sugar or honey. However, the cave man's modern day descendant's concern with fitness two out of every three Americans are on a diet has driven him to great lengths to combine sweet '. taste and low calories in his daily diet. Now there's a happy answer to this yearning for sweets powdered soft ; drink mixes in a variety of refreshing flavors that quench the thirst and con- tain only four calories for an eight-ounce eight-ounce serving. Powdered soft drink mixes are one of America's favorite beverages. (We spent more than $700 million on them last year, alone! ) The new drinks are ' sweetened with aspartame, the first sweetener to win approval from the ' Food and Drug Adminstration in 25 years. Known as NutraSweet, it's about 200 times sweeter than sugar, which means only a tiny amount is -; needed to sweeten beverages and food, ' thereby lowering their calorie content. That's great news for sweet cravers who have to watch the waistline. '. Sugar-Free Kool-Aid, which is America's no. 3 soft drink, will be available nationwide, while new Sugar-Free Crystal Light, geared to adult tastes, is being introduced in 40 percent of the country now, but will soon be available nationwide also. NutraSweet is a nutritive sweetener, made from two amino acids, which are protein components found in everyday foods such as milk, meat, eggs and fish. It is metabolized naturally by the body, unlike artificial sweeteners. It's a low-calorie, good tasting answer for the cave man's descendants, descen-dants, whose sweet tooth still demands satisfaction. |