The average American consumes a whopping 152 pounds of “added” sugars a
year. That’s way, way, beyond the 6-9 teaspoons a day of added sugar the United
States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommends as a limit.
If you have diabetes, it’s especially important to keep an eye on sugar
intake. Of course that’s not as easy as it sounds because sugar is found in
everything from salad dressing and ketchup to energy bars and yogurt. For
people with diabetes, consuming added sugars can increase carbohydrate and
calorie intake without providing quality nutrition. To help people reduce their
sugar intake, artificial sweeteners can be used instead.
Here’s what you need to know about sugar and artificial sweeteners:
Artificial sweeteners, or sugar substitutes, are used to sweeten foods and
drinks without adding carbohydrates or calories. That said, many foods and
beverages that are sweetened artificially may still contain calories from
carbohydrates, which also causes blood glucose to rise. Be sure to read labels
carefully so you can keep a close eye on overall carb intake.
Sweeteners are Available?
There are five artificial sweeteners with U.S. Food and Drug Administration
approval. They are found in foods and beverages, and also sold packaged to use
in cooking and baking. The five artificial sweeteners available today are:
- acesulfame potassium (Sunett, Sweet One): it is heat
stable and so can be used in cooking.
- aspartame (Nutrasweet, Equal): people that need to
avoid phenylalanine should not use this sweetener. Most people avoid cooking with this as high
temperatures affects its sweetness.
- saccharin (Sweet N Low, Sweet Twin, Sugar Twin): the
oldest of the sweeteners, this can be used in cooking.
- sucralose (Splenda): Splenda could be used in cooked
Is Stevia An
And there’s a sixth: rebaudioside, or Stevia. But because Stevia comes from
a plant, it is not technically an artificial sweetener, but it is another zero
Artificial sweeteners are hundreds of times sweeter than sugar. Every
artificial sweetener has a slightly different taste. Others leave a bitter
aftertaste in the mouth. You may have to try several until you find one that
Sweeteners Can Help
Small changes can make a big difference. Swapping artificially sweetened
beverages for sugar-sweetened ones can save you dozens of grams of
carbohydrates and hundreds of calories, every day. For example, if you drink
two 12-ounce sodas daily, you’re consuming 80 grams of carbohydrates and 300
calories. If you choose diet soda, or zero-calorie sweetened soda water, you’re
saving a ton of calories. If you swap 2 teaspoons of sugar in your morning
coffee for one packet of artificial sweetener, you save 32 calories and 10
grams of carbohydrates. That said,
studies do not show that using artificial sweeteners can help with weight loss.
Sweetener Side Effects
Although artificial sweeteners have been under the microscope of the public
eye for decades, there is no clear evidence that artificial sweeteners cause
any side effects. Studies in the early 1970s linked saccharin to increased
rates of bladder cancer in laboratory rats, but subsequent studies proved conclusively
that these results applied only to rats, and not to humans.
There was a scare in the mid-1990s when a report was released suggesting
that aspartame might have led to an increase in the number of people with brain
tumors between 1975 and 1992. However, a closer look at the data shows no proof
whatsoever to these claims.
Numerous studies in the past few decades have confirmed that artificial
sweeteners are safe in reasonable quantities, even for pregnant women.