eng Enviro Research Publishers Current Research in Nutrition and Food Science Journal 2347-467X 2322-0007 2026-04-27 14 2 26101 article Aly Farag El Sheikha 1 Naomi Fernandes 1 School of Nutrition Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Canada Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Minufiya University, Egypt Protein digestibility is crucial because it can help determine its vital functions, and it can vary due to source (plant vs. animal) and the interactions it has with other diet components. Pea protein isolate (PPI) has gained significant popularity in the market due to its positive properties, including being plant-based, cost-effective, and nutritionally superior. Given the widespread popularity of PPI and the limited research on its digestion in conjunction with sweeteners, as a preliminary application, this study aims to investigate the digestibility of pea protein isolate (PPI) when consumed with various sweeteners. In this study, 10 mg/mL of pea protein isolate (PPI) was mixed with 1 mg/mL of varying sweeteners, including stevia, sugar, and sucralose, to investigate their impact on physicochemical characteristics and protein digestibility. This was done to determine which sweetener would contribute most to the successful digestibility of PPI by the methods of degree of hydrolysis using serine equivalents, hydrophobicity using ANS and a fluorescence probe, and particle size by dynamic light scattering. The results showed that the sucralose sample had the highest relative fluorescence unit, while sugar had the lowest compared to the control. In terms of particle size, sugar had the highest value and conversely had the lowest charge. The reason for these results could be that sugar had the lowest hydrophobicity, which can be directly related to its having the largest particle size. The degree of hydrolysis (DH) results show that the sugar has the highest DH%. Further proving the fact that sugar with PPI resulted in more of the peptide bonds being cleaved. The key findings of this study determined that sugar contributed to the best digestibility of the PPI. However, further studies and different applications should be conducted to better understand the efficiency of protein digestibility using natural and artificial sweeteners. https://www.foodandnutritionjournal.org/volume14number2/how-sugars-contribute-to-the-best-digestibility-of-proteins-preliminary-application-and-promising-findings/ Degree of Hydrolysis Pea Protein Isolate Protein Digestibility Stevia Sucralose Sugar