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I don't know about you, but sugar has become a complicated subject for me. I used to understand that sugar is that sweet white stuff that makes food and drinks taste sweet and is bad for your health. But sugar has acquired an extended family with names like artificial sweeteners, novel sweeteners, sugar alcohols, and non-nutritive sweeteners.
What is that about, and are they also bad for people? Let's find out.
Table sugar is also called sucrose and it’s made up of two simple sugars: glucose and fructose.
In addition to sucrose, glucose, and fructose, the other natural sugars are lactose and galactose. Natural sugars are found in fruits, vegetables, grains, and milk.
Sugar substitutes can be a saving grace for people who love sweet food but don't want to gain weight which can be associated with a sweet tooth. Most sugar substitutes are either as sweet or even sweeter than sugar. But these virtually have no calories.
There are three kinds of sugar substitutes.
As the name indicates, artificial sweeteners don't appear in the natural environment, they are created in laboratories. Also called non-nutritive sweeteners, these sugar substitutes are many times sweeter than table sugar and have no nutritional value.
The following artificial sweeteners, except sucralose, are synthesized through various chemical processes and don't have a natural base.
The term 'sugar alcohol' is misleading – it's a carbohydrate with a chemical structure close to sugar, but it contains neither sugar nor alcohol.
Sugar alcohols are present in some foods, but most are synthesized in labs. They are also known as polyols. The most well-known sugar alcohols are xylitol, erythritol, and sorbitol. Others include isomalt, lactitol, and maltitol.
As the name indicates, novel sweeteners are a new category of sugar substitutes. They have a natural base, but scientists process them to increase their sweetness while reducing their caloric impacts. Examples include:
Well, yes and no. While taking these artificial sweeteners can help people to use less sugar, in practice, it's not that simple. Our relationship with sugar is complex.
On the one hand, replacing sugar with sweeteners like aspartame, stevia, and sucralose, can satisfy a person's need for sugar, helping them to eat less high-sugar foods.
Non-nutritive sweeteners areextremely sweet, much sweeter than sugar. Aspartame is 200 times sweeter and advantame is 20,000 times sweeter than sugar.
Once people get used to this intense taste, they may become so used to it that other sources of sugar like fruit pale in comparison.
See Also: The Shocking Truth about Processed Sugar!
Despite being marketed as aids for weight loss, research shows artificial sweeteners may be associated with weight gain. The San Antonio Heart Study found that participants who consume artificially sweetened beverages hadhigher BMIs over time.
The researchers point out that "artificial sweeteners, precisely because they are sweet, encourage sugar craving and sugar dependence".
You get conditioned to a level of sweetness you habitually enjoy through food and drink. You may find yourself having to consume more (like 2 diet sodas instead of 1) to get the sweetness you crave.
This study, and others, are observational studies though, so they don’t prove cause - they don’t prove that artificial sweeteners cause weight gain.
See Also: Dietitian-Backed Tips That Can Help You Lose Weight Fast!
Research results about the effect of artificial sweeteners on health areinconclusive. Evidence from several studies doesn't clearly confirm that nonnutritive sweeteners benefit weight management. Observational studies suggest that ingesting nonnutritive sweeteners routinely may be associated with health problems, such as weight gain and heart disease.
Research has highlighted the following potential health concerns associated with sugar substitute use.
Many observational studies have found using artificial sweeteners to be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular problems, but scientists don't understand the nature of these associations.
In a2022 study involving 103,388 people, French scientists gathered detailed food records over several 24-hour periods along with details of lifestyle, health habits, and medical history. The follow-up lasted an average of nine years. During this time, participants received a health questionnaire twice a year.
See Also: Heart Disease - Everything You Need to Know!
The researchers concluded that those who consumed artificial sweeteners were linked to a 9% higher risk of cardiovascular problems, such as heart attacks, and an 18% greater risk of stroke.
Aspartame has been studied extensively for many years with some studies finding possible links between aspartame and cancer. Most recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified aspartame as "possibly carcinogenic to humans". The classification was the result of a large study in 2023 that included more than 100,000 people followed over eight years.
This classification means there’s evidence to support the idea that aspartame may be cancer-causing in certain situations, not that it is a definite cause of cancer.
See Also: Cancer Diet: Foods To Eat and Avoid!
Gut bacteria play a significant role in health. An imbalance in gut bacteria can lead to all sorts of health issues, including digestive problems, poor sleep, and a weakened immune system.
A review of studies on non-nutritive sweeteners found that consuming non-nutritive sweeteners can disrupt the balance of gut bacteria and lead to glucose intolerance in healthy people, potentially causingtype 2 diabetes.
Artificial sweeteners are on the market to help consumers lose weight or not gain weight, yet the research doesn't back up that claim. The scientists who conducted the San Antonio Heart Study concluded that using artificial sweeteners mayfuel rather than fight weight gain. Other research came to the same conclusion. However, most of the evidence for artificial sugars and weight gain was in the participants who consumed 21 or more artificially sweetened beverages a week.
Yet, many studies also found using sugar substitutes can help individuals lose weight.
Ameta-analysis found that in observational studies, there was no link between artificial sugar use and weight or increased body fat. However, the randomized controlled studies found a modest weight loss with the use of these sweeteners.
Note: The possible negative effects of non-nutritive sweeteners on health have not been proven conclusively by scientific evidence. The health risks mentioned here are mostly associated with excessive use of artificial sweeteners.
Related Link: Dietitian-backed Weight Loss Meal Plan!
Provided they are used in moderation, the following artificial sugars can be beneficial substitutes for sugar. These artificial sweeteners are all good substitutes for sugar, but there isn't one that stands out.
Monk Fruit grows in southern China, where it has been used as a medicinal aid for intestinal problems. Monk fruit sugar is made from an extract of the monk fruit. It is between 100 and 250 times sweeter than sugar and contains no calories.
Monk fruit sugar can be used safely by individuals with diabetes as it doesn’t impact blood sugar levels significantly.
The stevia rebodiana is a shrub that grows in South America. The sweetener is made from an extraction of the leaves of the Stevia plant. Stevia is 200 - 400 times sweeter than table sugar and contains no calories.
Stevia is widely available, sold as a powder or a liquid, and is used in many products. Common brand names are SweetLeaf, Truvia, and Pure Via.
Sucralose is made from sucrose (table sugar) and goes through a multi-step chemical process that alters its structure so it's sweeter than sugar but has no calories. Sucralose was approved for use in foods and beverages in 1998,
Sucralose has been studied intensively to ensure its safety.
Saccharin is a non-nutritive or artificial sweetener that is chemically synthesized in laboratories. It is the oldest sugar substitute, which probably speaks to its safety for humans. Humans can't digest saccharin.
Saccharin is 300–400 times sweeter than table sugar and contains no calories or carbs. It does have an unpleasant aftertaste, though. Manufacturers combine it with other sweeteners to address this problem. Saccharin is widely used in sodas, candies, jams, jellies, and cookies.
For me, there is a simple answer to this question: they are not worth it because they don't help people to lose weight. Do you remember Tab – the diet version of Coke that came out in 1963 – that's how long we have been drinking low-calorie beverages.
These days, Coca-Cola Company, and other soda companies have a range of diet, no-calorie, light, and zero versions of their most popular drinks, yet populations are growing heavier worldwide.
In addition, there is no conclusive scientific evidence that these beverages help people to lose weight. To be fair, there is also no conclusive evidence that diet sodas cause weight gain.
I suspect if you don't follow a sensible diet, drinking diet sodas won't stop you from gaining weight. However, one needs to keep in mind that many people don’t drink diet sodas to lose weight - they drink it because they like it.
But whatever the reason, a good idea is to stick to only moderate amounts of diet soda.
There is no artificial sweetener that has been labeled as something that must be avoided at all costs.
Aspartame is the most studied artificial sweetener due to the many complaints to the FDA, stating that it causes headaches, depression, cancer, convulsions, blurred vision, and other complaints, but it has not been taken off the market.
Just like your palate became used to sweet foods, you can train it to get used to food that doesn't taste so sweet. In onestudy, people who avoided all sugar, including sugar substitutes for two weeks discovered that:
Most of them decided to use less sugar going forward.
For many people going cold turkey, cutting out all sugars for two weeks will be too challenging to consider. If you are one of them, don't despair. Start with what you can handle, and build from there.
Decide on one food item to drop from your diet and stick to your decision until you no longer miss it. At the same time, start incorporating one, filling, healthy food item in your diet to replace it.
If you take small steps that you know you can commit to, you have a better chance of succeeding and not falling back on old habits.
Since there is no conclusive evidence that drinking artificially sweetened beverages can help you lose weight, you may as well forgo them and replace them with one of the following:
Both beverages still give you the sweetness and fizz of sodas but without unnecessary additives.
One of the disadvantages of sugar substitutes is their inability to reduce sugar cravings. High-fiber foods, such as fruit, vegetables, beans, and nuts, on the other hand, do help withsugar cravings.
Following a diet rich in whole foods and investing inhigh-quality fiber powder can help you avoid sugar cravings.
See Also: The Crucial Need for Fiber in Our Diets and How Fiber Powders Can Help
Scientific evidence about the pros and cons of low-calorie, non-nutritive sweeteners is frustratingly inconclusive. Scientists can't agree whether they pose a risk and should be avoided. There also don't seem to be unequivocal benefits to taking them.
The problem is, that artificial sweeteners seem to fuel the need for sugar. Because they are sweet, and we love sweet things, these additives make us want more. Ask yourself: are you consuming a lot of sweet food and beverages that contain sugar substitutes? Are you constantly craving something sweet? Do you have a healthy body weight?
Honest answers to these questions might point you in the right direction.
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