By Richmond Natural Medicine

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June 14, 2018

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Written by Lindsay Kluge

Which sweetener option is right for you?

Every so often, I like to do some research on major food groups/trends and see what’s new in the literature. Recently (in the past 5-10 years), our society has had quite an infatuation with sweeteners and what the new best product on the market is. It seems like every year something “better” and “healthier” comes out that people flock towards for their touted benefits. What interests me the most is how our taste for sweet things has become so numb. Foods that were once perfect and delicious all on their own are now, to many people, just “not sweet enough”. Could this be due to the introduction of artificial sweeteners into our diets? Could it be due to the extreme excess in which foods and beverages are bombarded with added sugars and our lack of eating naturally sweet things like fruit and maple syrup? Maybe a combination of both.

Key Points To Consider When Deciding Which Sweetner Is Right For You:

• When eating foods with natural sugars (like fruit with fructose), you are also getting the vitamins, minerals and fibers to go along with that, potentially enhancing the nutritive value of the entire food.
• “Added sugars” are isolated sugars with only the sweet taste and calories (often referred to as “empty calories”) and none of the surrounding nutrients. These are also referred to as “non-nutritive sweeteners”.
• Eating sweeteners in excess (even the natural ones) has been associated with increased weight gain, tooth decay and diabetes, to name a few. There is surprisingly little definitive research available to determine the health benefits or health detriments of any sweetener, either “natural” or artificial. Both the limited research studies and also the brief time period through which the increase of sugar consumption has developed contributes to the lack of solid answers. The fact is, health data is not available, and what data is available is considered controversial.My bottom line to the consumer – our bodies are designed to eat foods, not additives. Sweeteners in any form (especially in excess) does not contribute to health in any way, and when you do eat sweeteners, eat them in as close to their natural form as possible with foods like honey, maple syrup and dates. My preferred sweetener, if I use them at all is maple syrup and honey.

Common (and not so common) Sweeteners

Minimally processed Honey (fructose, glucose and water)
• Often higher in calories and fructose content
• Very little to no processing at all, natural food form sweetener

Maple Syrup
• Naturally derived from sugar maples, red maples or black maple trees in its pure form.
• Similar calorie content as table sugar along with small amounts of naturally occurring amino acids.

Date Sugar
• Derived from dates in it’s natural form
• Cooking with whole dates is also a great way to get a sweet flavor into foods

Molasses
• Relatively high in vitamins and minerals such as calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron (with blackstrap molasses having the highest mineral content)
• A byproduct of the refining process of sugar beets, sugar cane or grapes. Processed sugars are boiled several times and the syrupy liquid left over is molasses without the sugar crystals.

Table Sugar (Sucrose)
• Usually derived from sugar cane or beet juice
• Made up of glucose and fructose
• Sometimes highly processed unless “raw” or “unrefined”

Brown Sugar (Sucrose)
• Made of refined white sugar with 3%-10% of molasses
• Has a slightly higher content of minerals due to the molasses content

Stevia
• Naturally derived from the stevia leaf and processed into sugar crystals
• Very low calorie sweetener that is significantly sweeter than table sugar.
• May have an unpleasant aftertaste to many people

Highly Processed/Sugar alcohols Agave
• Extremely high in fructose (even more so than high fructose corn syrup) which may potentially raise triglyceride levels
• Ranks very low on the glycemic index due to it’s high fructose content

Corn Syrup (glucose, maltose & dextrose sugars)
• Found in extreme excess in the standard American diet (SAD)
• Often genetically modified unless it is certified organic
• Directly linked to weight gain and obesity

Erythritol
• Sugar alcohol approximately 60%-70% as sweet as table sugar
• Found in small amounts in fruits and fermented foods
• Absorbed in the body slowly and does not raise blood sugar levels. However not all of it is absorbed by the body, sometimes leading to gas, bloating and diarrhea. However, of the sugar alcohols, erythritol seems to be the easiest to digest.

Xylitol (Sugar alcohol)
• Often found in oral care products as it has been shown to have a beneficial effect on oral bacteria.
• There is an upper safe limit to it’s use which is often much lower than one might expect
• Has been known to cause gastrointestinal upset when exceeding the upper safe limit.

Artificial Sweeteners
Much sweeter than regular sugars. Use less and fewer calories

Aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal)
• Potentially addictive substance linked to several diseases with curiously little definitive research that is not funded by big food corps.
• Breaks down into free formaldehyde molecules in the body

Sucralose (Splenda)
• Almost all “definitive” positive studies performed on Splenda were animal trials, not human trials.
• There is no long term research available about the health concerns of Sucralose in humans. The health concerns associated with the ingestion of Sucralose have never been adequately tested.

Bottom Line – our bodies are designed to eat foods, not additives. Sweeteners in any form (especially in excess) do not contribute to health in any way, and when you do eat sweeteners, eat them in as close to their natural form as possible with foods like honey, maple syrup and dates. My preferred sweetener, if I use them at all is maple syrup and honey.

Related Articles and Studies

Increase in sweetener consumption in the US

Reactions to Food Additives: Mixed results

High Fructose Corn Syrup and Obesity

Controversies around Xylitol