I don’t even try to pretend that my morning coffee is healthy: I like it with cream (not milk!) and sugar. As I was watching myself dump in my two spoonfuls yesterday, I did feel a little stab of guilt. It’s not like I add sugar to all of my food, but between my coffee and the sugar that exists in many products (cereal, salad dressing, even tomato sauce), I’m probably eating too much of it.
I’ve considered switching to a sweetener, but most of them taste horrible and frankly, they kind of scare me. I’d rather put something natural into my body then a batch of chemicals disguised to taste like something natural. My saving grace might be the new sweetener that came on the market recently: Stevia. Stevia is a natural plant and the products that it’s used in, like Truvia and Sun Crystals, supposedly have none of that weird chemical after-taste. I was excited to try it until I read this
article about it on Double X last night, now I’m not so sure.
The writer talked about how the FDA banned Stevia in 1991 after a study on rats showed adverse effects on fertility. It wasn’t recognized as “generally safe” until ten years later, coincidentally, right after Pepsi, Coke, and some other big time companies began lobbying to use it in their products. Apparently, many companies want to use Stevia in their juices, ice creams, and other products so that they can market them as low-cal and sugar-free. Stevia could start showing up in a lot of things we eat, whether we’re choosing to use it or not.
The article also mentioned that the Stevia plant has been used in South America for hundreds of years with no apparent adverse effects, which is comforting. However, it’s been used in a very different form than the way we plan on manufacturing and marketing it now. I’m not sure where I stand, but for the moment, I will stick with sugar.
Do you use artificial sweeteners? Which is your favorite? Do you think they are more or less healthy than sugar?
Comments (34)
I wrote my final research essay of college about artificial sweeteners. From what I got out of it, aspartame, saccharin, and sucralose are very dangerous healthwise for a bunch of reasons. Through my research I learned that aspartame is apparently not allowed to be put in any edibles in a few other countries, because of their health effects(affects?). America, being as fat as it is, thrives on the diet industry, and diet products such as diet soda and sugar free sweets to get a lot of money. Our judicial system runs on the "if you have the most money, you will be proven innocent" kind of judgement, so of course when stevia was introduced, the big head honchos of aspartame products (like Monsanto, I believe) made it a point to skew several studies, making stevia look unhealthy. Because of course, they didn't want to lose their customers.
In my opinion, it is safe.
I have a bunch of books about artificial sweeteners and how the members of the FDA and Monsanto are tied together.
I could rewrite my whole paper, but no thanks, I'm done w/ college. I tried to sum it up the best I could!
From what I've heard Stevia is the only decent sweetener. It's an herb, not a chemical, so it doesn't cause headaches that other sweeteners can.
But it's a lot sweeter than sugar, so you can't use it as a volume substitute for sugar.
I use it every once in a while. It doesn't taste quite as good as regular sugar though.
I had heard that it was banned from the market basically because it was too good and would replace HFCS, which would be bad for corn farmers, etc. But I haven't done much research on it.
Truvia is a modified version of the (true) stevia which you can find at healthfood stores. Stevia is harmless, and far better than Splenda. Splenda is actualy harmful, very harmful, and the only reason why the FDA let it out is because they were all paid off. my mom had proof of this some time ago but its gone now.
Stevia and Xylatol (which is actualy very good for teeth) are the best 2 I've heard of.
I absolutely adore splenda! I've never had any problems with it but I haven't really done any research on whether it can have side effects... but it tastes so amazing! =)
My parents got stevia a lot when I was a kid. I thought, and still do think, that it's one of the most disgusting tasting things I've ever tasted...
A registered dietitian told me that Stevia is the worst of all the artificial sweeteners, but is apparently wrong. I'm a big fan of Diet Coke, so aspartame is my poison of choice. Although I did read at About.com that to get even a slightly damaging amount of it you'd need to drink 32 cans of Diet Coke a day.
At this point, I don't even care. The studies go back and forth so I figure I'll eat and drink what I want in moderation and hope for the best.
I don't know about Stevia, but sugar in and of itself is so processed from the original cane sugar that it's not very natural. My husband and I have cut back sugar in our diets and we like to use Splenda for baking and adding to coffee and tea. I don't know if this is true, but it also seems less addictive than regular sugar. If I eat sugary things, I crave them. If they have Splenda or an artificial sweetener, I don't.
I really like Stevia myself. And all of those other sweetners are nasty absolutely nasty I would stay away from them. The chemicals that they put in these sweetners were not meant for our bodies and in fact they never leave our bodies.
I am taking organic chemistry I this semester and for some reason I couldn't help myself. I wanted to find out the chemical structure of Stevia. lol....
Also called Steviol (C20H30O6)
Although I do not know organic chemistry well enough to explain the structure. I think I can say with confidence that it is "Organic" lol
I see 3 main functional groups
- Carboxylic acid attached to one of two cyclohexane with bicyclo [3.2.1] octane attached one with an Alcohol, Alkene functional group
Is it wrong for me to want to find out how to give steviol an IUPAC name and how it would react with other chamical compounds IE H20?
I am beginning to realize how important organic chemistry is and how reaction mechanisms could show what other chemical compounds are produced when reacting with another compound. Lol I am just trying to make my college classes interesting by applying it to real life lol... It is funny how a few electrons define what is good and what is bad.
Structures of various sweetners link....
http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fitness/artificial-sweeteners.html
@AutumnShadowsQ@xanga - Stevia is a natural sweetener.
I think Stevia was banned because sugar companies have lots of money and don't want to lose clients like Coke and Pepsi.
I've never tried it!
@AutumnShadowsQ@xanga - me too. i've just kind of stopped caring. if the amount i've already consumed in my life time are going to have these hugely detremental effects like radicals say, a bit more won't hurt. ;]
stevia, not truvia which is NOT the same, is safe. you can get an unprocessed version of liquid extracts of the plant, that's what my mother uses. xylitol is another natural sweetner (a sugar from birch trees/corn cobs/etc.) that is widely used in Scandinavia and is safe as well as actually good for your teeth (although for some people it makes you poop so use it sparingly at first LOL)
BTW, pepsi & coke actually hired paramilitary groups in south america and killed people over the fact that the south american countries refused to sweeten soda with sugar or corn syrup and would only use stevia (among other things)...so i would take any studies coming from funding from those companies or their subsidiaries with a grain of salt.
i am pretty sure stevia is naturally occuring.
i have a health nut aunt who swears by stevia, and she knows her stuff, so it must be.
@glorious_and_free@xanga - yes, thats it. its the only sweatener thats NOT bad for you. what you hear about it being bad is becuase the news sponsers are coke etc. its an industry, were based on consuming, stick it to the man!
i'm allergic to artificial sweeteners...everything besides xyletol makes my stomach tie in knots. honestly, for the amount of sugar it takes to sweeten coffee/tea, i would suck it up and use real sugar (even if i weren't allergic to artificial). in the ong run, i'm sure the amount of calories ingested in using a couple extra teaspoons per day isn't as harmful as filling your body with man-made and man-altered chemical compounds where the lasting effects aren't yet scientifically known. hell, it could take generations before we see some effects from the chemicals we ingest regularly today.
food-wise, if i could afford to eat all organic, i would. no doubt.@AutumnShadowsQ@xanga - stevia is not artificial - just so you know. It threatens the artificials, because it is natural.
Once I got used to the taste of stevia, I loved it. Ironically, sugar now has an awful aftertaste I cannot stand. If we use cane sugar in my house, we use raw sugar, which is brown. Most 'brown' sugar is really just white sugar sprayed with molasses. It helps to know what you are eating.
I don't buy Truvia, or others like it. I go to the health food store, read ingredients, and ask questions. Even natural food store sell things that are not completely natural.
Splendaaaa.
Other than that, I just use sugar.
Equal doesn't really have an aftertaste to me, but I only use that when I have tea or something at a reception and nothing else is available to sweeten my tea.
it might not be safe but its a lot safer than sorbitol or aspartame. I know someone who got colitis from sorbitol.
I say America should just get over their sugar teeth and live without it. They should tax the hell out if it and ban it for sale to children.
I eat very little raw refined sugar, usually raw sugar or honey on oatmeal or cream of wheat if I eat it. I ate some halloween candy, I'm no radical anti junk food person, but to me the whole idea of having to have an artificial sweetener is infantile and strictly for commercial purposes.
I don't. I really can't stand the taste of any of them.
I agree with you about artificial sweeteners having a terrible aftertaste. I don't have an opinion on whether or not they are more or less safe than sugar.
Consider this though... You believe that the two spoonfuls of sugar that you dump into your coffee to be "natural." It is not. Unless you are scraping that sugar straight off of a cane or a beet, it is processed, tampered with by man. The sugar you purchase from the store, that comes in a bag is no more natural than an artificial sweetener.
Consider, too, that sugar is a chemical. Every single thing on Earth is a chemical or a combination of chemicals. Some do grow "naturally" and some are man made chemicals, but when you break something down, it will have a chemical base.
Everything has the potential to be harmful. It's more how something is used or how often that makes it harmful. For example... Every household in the US probably has a teflon pan. Teflon is known to cause birth defects... Does that stop people from using their pans? No. It isn't even required to put a warning on the pans... Why? Because you have to practically eat the pan for it to really be a problem.
So, sugar or artificial sweetener, it probably doesn't matter. Unless you're counting calories. Go with your taste preference... Or try some unprocessed honey (gross in coffee, in my humble opinion, but a much healthier alternative to either sugar or artificial sweeteners.)
Stevia tastes like crap. I don't even get how they're making money. o_O
And does it really matter in the end? Everything can give us cancer or has been linked to cancer. We're going to die, one way or another.
Not exactly a comforting thought but it's reality.
it is ridiculous that the FDA would say Stevia is unsafe when they allow sweeteners like aspertame (which was really never properly approved for use in liquids) and has many adverse effects, and sucralose which is sugar that has been exposed to chlorine to remove the calories. Stevia is safe and wonderful.
I personally use agave as a sweetener, its natural, plant based, low on the glycemic index so you do not get the crash. It is in a liquid form, much like honey but without the bee sacrifice.
@shunny@xanga - i love orgo haha
pleasantly surprised seeing your comment.2 stars.@NoReasonToGoOn88@xanga - thanks lol. Have you taken ochem II yet?