As part of a product reformulation, a company wants to maintain perceived sweetness using less total caloric sugar. Propose a justified reformulation strategy that leverages monosaccharide sweetness differences while considering metabolic consequences.

• A. Eliminate all sweeteners and rely solely on adding more salt to heighten perceived sweetness through sodium–sugar interactions; this avoids any metabolic concerns related to sugars.
• B. Increase starch content dramatically because starch has identical sweetness to fructose and will provide the same palatability with fewer calories, thus substituting starch for sucrose is recommended.
• C. Replace all sucrose with pure fructose at high concentration because fructose is the sweetest and thus reduces calories without any metabolic trade-offs; this is optimal for both flavor and liver health.
• D. Blend smaller amounts of sucrose (to keep some familiar taste) with nonnutritive sweeteners and possibly modest amounts of fructose-containing syrups to increase perceived sweetness per gram; however, minimize excess pure fructose to avoid promoting hepatic lipogenesis—use mostly high-potency nonnutritive sweeteners and maintain fiber and nutrient density to balance metabolic risk.

Answer: (D)