What You Should Know About Natural Sweeteners and Artificial Sweeteners
Finding a sugar substitute that is healthy without negative side effects is a challenge. There are many choices and with the clever marketing and conflicting arguments it is difficult to determine what direction is best for you. Fortunately there is a lot of information available to help in making the right choice. Here are a few quick thoughts and facts you can use in your search.
There is a very important decision you should make at the very beginning of your search for a sugar substitute. You'll be faced with the choice of whether you are going to go with a man made artificial or an all natural sweetener. We human beings have been able to engineer some pretty miraculous things and it is no surprise we can make a chemical that will sweeten our food and avoid some side effect for which it was invented to avoid. Mother nature has also provided several options for us to choose from. My suggestion is to stick with mother nature on this one but remember there are side effects to both.
There is a large supply of artificial sweeteners available on the market these days. Most of them are based on two popular artificial sweeteners, Sucralose and Aspartame. These sweeteners are designed to be calorie free or at least trick your body into treating it like something with no caloric value. The reports are conflicting at times but there seems to be mounting evidence, especially with Aspartame, that major side effects include migraines, stomach upset, seizures in some people and others. You might also consider the fact that cooking with these sweeteners will provide different results. Aspartame will break down in the heat and cannot be cooked with at all. Sucralose will stand the heat but because of the filler required it will leave your foods dry and undesirable in texture. There is a lot of money in finding the right sugar substitute and with big money comes big marketing campaigns designed to convince you against the truth. Be careful to consider the long term effects.
Natural sweeteners you may have heard of are Xylitol, Stevia, Mannitol, Sorbitol and Erythritol. Just as with anything we put in our body there is going to be a result. After looking over the specifics not sited in this article there are only three that stand out as a real decent substitute for sugar; Stevia, Xylitol and Erythritol. One nice benefit to Xylitol and Erythritol is they do not promote tooth decay. Unfortunately, Xylitol doesn't digest too well and Stevia seems to get mixed results with different people, Erythritol will leave your stomach feeling no pain. These are all lower than sugar in carbohydrates and calories, but Erythritol stands alone as calorie free.
Erythritol is found in many fruits and vegetables and is about 70% sweet as sugar. As mentioned earlier it has zero calories and digests in the small intestine leaving your body through your urine not causing gas pains like many other natural products. Erythritol is also a great choice for diabetics because it will not cause a rise in your blood sugar levels. You can find Erythritol online or in a store and use it alone as a sweetener with great benefit. There are also a few companies now that are finding super sweet natural ingredients and blending that with Erythritol to bring the sweetness up to that of sugar. Because if its physical properties it is also great for cooking and can in fact be measured cup for cup like sugar.
Finding out if Erythritol as a natural sweetener is right for you will require you to do more reading beyond this article and trying the products yourself. Determining if artificial sweeteners are really bad will also require much more reading and critical thought to decipher the truth from all that is out there. Hopefully the thought process used through this article will be of some aid in getting you started down the path to a solid alternative to sugar.
Jamis Hartley, as a supporter of healthy foods and promoter of healthy eating has discovered Doctor Grandma's Natural Sweeteners to be the highest ranking in flavor and function as a better choice over that of sugar. Jamis also shares Doctor Grandma's love for Healthy Breakfast Foods.