Do L-sugars (enantiomers of natural sugars) have a sweet taste?

Question

I'm wondering about how L-sugars taste. They are obviously not digestible by humans, but what do they taste like? If they are sweet, too, why isn't sucrose with the unnatural chirality used as a zero-calorie table sugar substitute?

They're too expensive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-Glucose — Mithoron, Dec 18 '15 at 19:58
Good article referenced in Wikipedia article http://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2004/ch_4.html — MaxW, Dec 18 '15 at 20:20

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 18 '15 at 21:48

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Take a look at tagatose. It is a 6-carbon sugar (a ketohexose like fructose) but is inefficiently metabolized and has about 30% the caloric content of sucrose. It is on the FDA GRAS (generally recognized as safe) list. Unlike common artificial sweeteners, you can cook with it like sugar. It has been industrially produced as a sugar alternative, but it is not clear if it commercially available to consumers at this time.

answered Dec 18 '15 at 21:48

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There's an old Wired article from 2003 – Geoff Hutchison Dec 18 '15 at 22:43
Unfortunately, I don't think this answers the question at all. The tagatose you've mentioned is actually D-tagatose. – Zhe Dec 24 '16 at 00:28

Do L-sugars (enantiomers of natural sugars) have a sweet taste?

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