I love sweets. I just do. I’m sadly addicted to all things sweet. Notice that I didn’t say ‘sugary.’ Although, I hold a special place in my heart for sugar. A secret, shameful, place. Sigh.
Every so often I’ll try to supplement my sugar with something that’s supposed to be considered less ‘bad’ for my body, like Stevia. Stevia (a.k.a. sweet leaf, sweetleaf or sugarleaf) is native to tropical regions and is a part of the sunflower family. The reason some hawk Stevia is that it is not caloric and is supposed to be anywhere between 30-300 times sweeter than sugar. Sweeter than sugar? This I have to try. right?
So I bought a bag of Stevia to keep atop my refrigerator as a sort of replacement for sugar. But it was not to be. There is a difference between the sweetness of Stevia and the sweetness of sugar. And it turns out I cannot go cold Stevia. I must be content to cut my sugar with Stevia so I cannot taste the Stevia taste and will not miss the Sugar taste.
So the short and the long of this is that I don’t like artificial sweeteners. As a rule, I don’t put them in my kitchen because there seems to be no one sweetener that can be deemed conclusively ‘safe’ for me, especially as a pregnant woman. But often the choice to avoid artificial sweeteners is taken away from me, like when I go out to eat. So I think I’d better know which of them not to overdo.
The FDA has approved only five artificial sweeteners:
Acesulfame potassium
Sweet One, Sunett. A calorie-free artificial sweetener. Accidentally discovered in 1967, 200x sweeter than sugar, as sweet as aspartame, not quite as sweet as sucralose. Acesulfame K has been shown to have an impact on hypoglycemia in rats. But the rats didn’t show signs of cancer yet.
Listen up pregnant women! Acesulfame K may affect prenatal development through the amniotic fluid and breast milk. I’m unsure why this is bad except it’s said to affect the mouse’s baby’s perception of ‘sweet.’ Does that worry you?
Aspartame
NutraSweet of Equal. It has been blamed for causing any number of ailments from fatigue to tumors, even though the FDA can find no proof that it is dangerous for consumption. However, if you have a genetic condition called phenylkenoturia (PKU) look out. PKU is a disorder of amino acid metabolism and those with PKU need to keep the levels of phenylalanine in the blood low to prevent mental retardation and neurological, behavioral and dermatological problems. Phenylalanine is one of the two amino acids in aspartame. Look. Out.
D–Tagatose
Sugaree. Found naturally in cacao, fruit and dairy products and is not quite as sweet as sugar but has less than half the calories. The FDA calls it safe for consumption and is also a tooth friendly ingredient.
Saccharin
Sweet ‘N Low. Created out of necessity in 1879, supplemented sugar shortages in both world wars. Apparently it caused bladder cancer in rats, but the public insisted it be kept on the shelves. In the 1970s there were no other sugar substitutes, so it stayed. Albeit with a warning label. However, people are not rats, and male rats are predisposed to bladder cancer, so the warning was taken off the box.
Sucralose
Splenda, Nevella, SucraPlus. A non-caloric sweetener discovered 1976. About 600x sweeter than sugar, twice as sweet as saccharin and 3x as sweet as aspartame. The FDA approves sucralose as safe for consumption.
A Duke University study found that doses of Splenda containing sucralose reduces the amount of ‘good’ bacteria in the intestines of rats by half, increases the pH level in the intestines, increases body weight and damages DNA in mice. Though apparently this has not been proven in humans.
Conclusion
So if you can trust the FDA, you can feel mostly safe ingesting these. Though my general rule of thumb is moderation in everything, including moderation.
People, like me, often use as much of the substitute for sugar as the sugar itself, which is, in essence, an overdose of artificial sweetener. High doses increase the chances of the negative effects mentioned above.
So if we just remembered to moderate it, we’d be better off!