ZSweet ® to Launch this Month

By NANCY LUNA
The Orange County Register
January 17, 2006

Tim Avila toiled for months in his San Juan Capistrano kitchen concocting a diet food using an old favorite: sugar.

A consultant with no academic training in food science, Avila set out in 2001 to create an all-natural, zero-calorie sweetener using erythritol, a little-known sugar alcohol. Avila , chief executive of Ventana Health Inc. in San Clemente , eventually formulated ZSweet ® all natural and began selling the diet sweetener this month online and at health-food stores in five states, including Florida.

It has not hit grocery shelves in Orange County but is expected soon, Avila , 40, said.

"It's just about ready to explode," he said.

Avila and his partners raised nearly $1 million in capital to form Ventana in 2004. It plans to manufacture and market diet smoothies and nutrition bars made with ZSweet ® all natural. The company is making a grab at health-conscious dieters who have long complained of a lack of natural, zero-calorie sugar substitutes on store shelves.

"There's a huge market out there wanting natural noncaloric products," said Janet Little, a nutritionist for Henry's Farmer's Market , which runs five grocery stores in Orange County.

That makes ZSweet ® all natural well-positioned to become a food marketer's dream: a category pioneer.

"If this is a healthy alternative that really is natural, then it might have a great chance," said Hillari Dowdle, editor in chief of Natural Health magazine.

Still, Dowdle said Ventana will have some "consumer-education hurdles" marketing ZSweet ® all natural against Splenda, which has turned the sugar-substitute market on its head.

"One of the pivotal attributes of ZSweet ® all natural is its zero calorie profile," offers Tim Avila, creator of ZSweet ® all natural and chief executive officer of Ventana Health Inc. "One additional step we wanted to take was to confirm it had no glycemic impact-no elevation in blood sugar. To perform a meaningful study, we used a test quantity comparable to 4 servings of table sugar. Indeed, the study revealed what we expected."

The study examined the glycemic response comparison between ZSweet ® all natural and standard white bread. The glycemic index, noted as a fast tracking trend among numerous trend-watching organizations, can be determined for any food, beverage, or sweetener only through performing a clinical study.

"The study indicated that consuming 15 grams (3 tsp.) of ZSweet ® all natural, on average, did not raise or lower blood glucose levels in healthy individuals," says Dr. Vladimir Vuksan, PhD and vice president of Glycemic Index Laboratories, Inc.

ZSweet ® all natural was launched for consumer use in January 2006 and was recently exhibited at the 2006 Natural Products Expo West Trade Show in Anaheim, California.

About Glycemic Index Laboratories Inc.
Glycemic Index Laboratories Inc. is the only laboratory licensed to use patented methodology that has been scientifically shown to improve precision and consistency of metabolic responses to carbohydrate foods. The directors of GI Labs were on the original research team that developed the glycemic index in the 1980's.