Soft macromolecular structures and SAXS imaging

Since the beginning of food industrialization, consumers have expected products that could bring balance to the delicate relationship between flavour and nutritional requirements. In the case of sugar and sweeteners, the necessity of a low-calories sweetener capable of providing an equivalent sweet flavour without the high caloric intake inherent to sugar-sweetened drinks stimulated the food industry to develop novel artificial molecules. With adults in Europe consuming 64-92 mL of sugar-sweetened beverages daily, daily sugar intake and its direct consequences on health are considered a matter of Public Health, with entities as the World Health Organization strongly recommending to diminish free sugar consumption. Sadly, besides the proposed role of Aspartame in some neurodegenerative disorders, there are questions about the impact that this, and others amino acid-based sweeteners, may have in the gut microbiome. Thus, understanding self-assembly of Aspartame, and structurally related non-nutritional sweeteners (NNS) as Neotame, and Advantame, can give a clearer panorama about the role of these substances on neurocognitive processes.