Artificial sweeteners might have zero calories, but that doesn't mean they have zero impact on the body.Even though some high-intensity artificial sweeteners contain little or no sugar, recent evidence suggests they can still influence natural sugar responses.For those with diabetes or blood glucose issues, that could be a problem.Researchers at the biotechnology company, Amai Proteins Ltd., have now designed, developed, and tested a hyper-sweet alternative – 3,500 times as sweet as sucrose by weight.The key, however, is that it doesn't change glucose or insulin responses.In a double-blind, randomized clinical trial, funded by the company and run by its researchers, the novel sweetening product showed no significant impact on either measure.In fact, their study published in Food Chemistry reports that it produced an overall glucose response 31-fold lower than typical sugar and an insulin response 81-fold lower.The trial is the first of its kind to investigate the metabolic effects of a 'sweet protein'.Sweet proteins are found in some rare tropical fruits, and they are at least 1,000 times sweeter than sugar. They probably evolved to attract primates like us, and now, they are attracting scientists and businesses alike.The sugary unit developed by Amai was inspired by a naturally occurring fruit in the tropical rainforests of West and Central Africa, called the serendipity berry (Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii), which contains one of the sweetest known proteins on Earth.The engineered version, refined with the help of AI, is called sweelin.