The Health Benefits of Monk Fruit, Plus How Does It Compare to Sugar Sweetener?

If you have never before enjoyed the sweet fruit that is said to be zero calories yet up to 300 times sweeter than sugar, you are in for quite a culinary journey. Is monk fruit accessible at your local supermarket? And, for that matter, what does monk fruit taste like? (Surely, the fruit tastes nothing like an actual human monk.)

You may be familiar with the sweetener that countless influencers tout on social media, but have you actually tried the fruit itself?

Below, we discuss the health benefits and the taste of monk fruit, rather than how monk fruit has been presented to the public in its most popular form in recent years, as a powdered sweetener.

Continue reading to learn all about the health benefits and sweet taste of monk fruit.

According to a medically reviewed article in Health, the first benefit of monk fruit is that it contains zero calories while serving as a natural sweetener. This is certainly a feature that may be appealing to patients who must manage diabetes symptoms, as well as those who are under doctor-supervised diets with calorie restrictions.

Monk fruit sweetener, which seems to be the most common form of monk fruit that consumers may be familiar with in recent years, is made from extracting the juice of crushed monk fruit.

The sugar compounds in monk fruit, which health experts refer to as mogrosides, are known for featuring "antioxidant, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, and anti-diabetic properties," per the Health resource.

Additionally, monk fruit's mogrosides support the maintenance of good gut health. "An in vitro (test tube) study found that gut bacteria can break down mogroside V into secondary mogrosides with antioxidant properties. They were shown to promote the growth of helpful gut bacteria and lower disease-causing bacteria," according to Health.

That's not all. According to a report in SELF, published research shows that monk fruit is chock full of benefits.

"Scientists discovered that monk fruit offers a wide range of bioactive compounds like antioxidants, plant metabolites, and amino acids," Korin Miller writes in SELF, also noting that "researchers discovered that monk fruit has plenty of terpenoids, or compounds with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties; flavonoids, which can reduce oxidative stress in the body; and amino acids.

It is no surprise that monk fruit features a very sweet taste that may be unfamiliar to consumers. It should be noted that sweet is not synonymous with sugary, in this sense.

As one TikTok user notes, the flavor of the actual monk fruit was "really sweet and bitter," though it was also described as "surprisingly really refreshing" at the same time.

As for how monk fruit sweetener tastes, as The Spruce Eats notes, "Many sugar alternatives can have a strange or bitter aftertaste, and monk fruit is no exception. However, the aftertaste is less harsh than some other products, like stevia...The bottom line is monk fruit sweeteners are sweet, but they do not taste exactly like sugar."