There Are Sweet Alternatives To Sugar

The pitcher plant traps and then eats live insects for its food. To lure the unsuspecting insects, the pitcher plant secretes a sugary substance. Once inside the plant’s vase-shaped body, the insect becomes trapped in the plant’s digestive juices. Insects aren’t the only life forms lured by sugar. The instantaneous pleasure from sugar on the human tongue has trapped many a hand in the cookie jar.

By now, most Americans’ eyes are glazed by the amount of health information about the dangers of excess sugar and its contribution to heart disease, diabetes and obesity.

To decrease calories from sugar, more Americans are choosing natural and artificial sugar alternatives. But we need to assess whether sugar alternatives are more healthful than table sugar.

There are two main types of sugar alternatives. The first contains calories and is called nutritive. Examples include fructose, turbinado sugar, maple syrup, fruit juice concentrate, rice malt syrup, molasses, honey and the sugar alcohols sorbitol and mannitol.

Nonnutritive alternative sweeteners are calorie-free and sources include aspartame, saccharine, sucralose and acesulfame K. Calorie-free sweeteners are often marketed to people with diabetes and/or obesity.

Aspartame is marketed under different name brands such as Equal and Alike. It’s about 200 times sweeter than regular sugar. You tend to find it in foods labeled diet, sugar-free, or diabetic, such as soda pop, syrups, powdered drink mixes and puddings, to name just a few. Because it breaks down easily when heated, it’s ideally used after cooking or in uncooked foods.

On food packaging, you may have noticed a warning for people with phenylketonuria. They cannot metabolize phenylalanine, one of the proteins contained in aspartame.

The Food and Drug Administration does not support claims regarding health risks associated with consuming aspartame. It did set an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) of 50 milligrams aspartame per kilogram body weight. Therefore a 150-pound adult could safely consume 20 cans of aspartame sweetened soda per day and a 50-pound child could consume 7 cans under these guidelines.

The most recent low-calorie and calorie-free sweetener available at the grocery store is sucralose. Sucralose is marketed in two forms under the brand Splenda. The first form comes in small packets, is calorie-free, and is not intended for baking. The second form is more granular and is intended to cup-for-cup replace sugar when baking. One cup of granular Splenda contains 96 calories, so it’s not entirely calorie-free in this form. A single cup of sugar, however, contains 750 calories.

Splenda’s Web site, www.splenda.com has some baking tips, such as adding one tablespoon molasses to the recipe to give a browned appearance. Baking without sugar or natural sugar alternatives removes the sugars which provide texture, carmelization (browning) and help preserve the food. Splenda recommends storing baked items in the refrigerator to prolong freshness.

Acesulfame K is a calorie-free sweetener that’s 200 times sweeter than sugar. It’s the primary sweetener in the soft drink Pepsi One. Approval of acesulfame-K was delayed by the FDA from 1988 to 1998 due to health concerns. It’s currently marketed under the brand name Sweet One and Sunette. It is stable at higher temperatures and is therefore suitable for baking.

Also suitable for baking is the calorie-free sweetener saccharin. It’s available under the brand names Sweet’N Low and Sugar Twinn. It’s 300 times sweeter than sugar. In 1997 the use of saccharin was under attack due to possible urinary bladder cancer in lab rats. Because studies show no association between bladder cancer and saccharin in humans, it is assumed safe when consumed at normal human levels. The rats consumed an equivalent of 850 cans of saccharin-sweetened diet soda per day.

In between the calorie-free and natural sweeteners are the sugar alcohols mannitol and sorbitol, used in many sugar-free candies and gums. Even though these products can legally be called sugar-free, they are not calorie-free. You need to look at the label verify how many calories you’re eating.

Natural nutritive sweeteners may lack the controversy that artificial sweeteners attract, but they contribute significantly more calories.

One teaspoon of fructose has the same calories as sugar, but because it’s one-third sweeter than sugar, you can use less and save yourself a few calories. And because fructose converts to blood sugar more slowly than sugar, it may be preferable. However, like most forms of carbohydrate, overconsumption will eventually elevate blood sugar levels and consequently raise triglycerides and LDL (bad) cholesterol.

Honey is the hallmark of natural sweeteners and has been a source of sweetness for thousands of years. Some forms, like tupelo, contain more natural sugar. Yet one tablespoon of honey contains 60 calories, compared to 46 calories in a tablespoon of sugar. Natural doesn’t mean “without calories.” Like any calorie-packing natural sweetener, honey will rapidly elevate blood sugar levels if overconsumed.

There are more natural sweeteners, like turbinado, molasses, rice malt syrup and fruit juice concentrate. Manufacturers claim that the nutrients in these sweeteners make them more healthful than regular sugar. But consider that you’d have to eat 40 cups of honey in a day to get your calcium needs met.

Most of the foods that call for additional natural or artificial sweeteners already contain sources of carbohydrate that will elevate blood sugar levels. These foods need to be eaten with awareness. Adding calorie-free sweeteners may reduce the overall calories for a single serving, but having two pieces gets you back where you started.

Focusing on quality rather than quantity might be the answer. Using the sweetener that tastes good, that your body tolerates, and doesn’t cause you to empty the cookie jar will ultimately be your best source.