Sugar substitutes...are they bad for you?

[Jhonvomer]

what's the deal with sugar substitutes?


are they REALLY that bad for your body? if so, what can they do to your body? can they cause death, cancer, or diabeties, disease, etc.? (like bad things that happen to your body...)


or is all this just hype?


what makes sugar substitutes so "bad"?


and if sugar substitues are "bad" for you, then are they worse than real sugar?


if there are "bad" sugar substitutes, are there "good" sugar substitutes as well? if so, please specify! thanks!






sorry for asking so many questions.
it may just be better to tell me all you know about sugar substitutes LOL


but please try to answer everything i have asked lol. if u can't then that's okay.


thanks in advance!

[Falcon]

I eagerly await your second post; but advise that we have a little policy against direct advertising

Now, there are good sugar substitutes and bad sugar substitutes. Some contain aspartame while others don't.

For pastry and cooking, I advise to use the real thing.
If you haven't got the real thing, boil an egg or something.

[vaio]

yup bad...the taste is yuck!

[miktay]

I luv my honey...

[edyle]

A lot of stuff is made and sold to you for the manufacturers to make a profit; it's not made to be healthy and nutricious for you.

The threshold condition is whether the long term lawsuit penalties will outweigh the profits.

Stuff that kills you slowly with a wide variety of symtoms that cannot easily be proven to be the result of your product is going to succeed in the marketplace until the children wise up. By then the manufacturers are on to the next scam products.

[kemist]

Cyclamate and Saccharin are commonly used as alternative sweeteners. However, they are known carcinogens, so it is best to avoid products containing those sweeteners.

In my search for a non-caloric, natural sweetener, I've come across Stevia. Apparently it has been used in central america for a long time now as an alternative to cane sugar. The sweetener in that is 'Rebaudioside A'.

So far i haven't seen any reason to fear Reb A. The US FDA made a folly with their study on Reb A and still tries to discourage Americans from using it as a sugar substitute (i guess they fear it could bring down their beet industry:dontknow: )

[edyle]

Cyclamate and Saccharin are commonly used as alternative sweeteners. However, they are known carcinogens, so it is best to avoid products containing those sweeteners.

In my search for a non-caloric, natural sweetener, I've come across Stevia. Apparently it has been used in central america for a long time now as an alternative to cane sugar. The sweetener in that is 'Rebaudioside A'.

So far i haven't seen any reason to fear Reb A. The US FDA made a folly with their study on Reb A and still tries to discourage Americans from using it as a sugar substitute (i guess they fear it could bring down their beet industry:dontknow: )

Thanks for raising that issue of Sweeteners;
It brings to mind for me the following comments relevant to this thread.

SWEETENER vs SUGARS.
The human body NEEDS sugars.
Glucose is used by the body in the production of ENERGY.
The body will produce the glucose from sugar, or from the broader class of CARBOHYDRATES.

A SWEETENER is about TASTE.

So when talking about alternatives to sugar, there is the ESSENTIAL Nutritional aspect as distinct from the supperficial taste issue.

[kemist]

Thanks for raising that issue of Sweeteners;
It brings to mind for me the following comments relevant to this thread.

SWEETENER vs SUGARS.
The human body NEEDS sugars.
Glucose is used by the body in the production of ENERGY.
The body will produce the glucose from sugar, or from the broader class of CARBOHYDRATES.

A SWEETENER is about TASTE.

So when talking about alternatives to sugar, there is the ESSENTIAL Nutritional aspect as distinct from the supperficial taste issue.
Yep its important to make that distinction.

From a weight-control point of view, one can get their required supply of sugar (sucrose, and even glucose, galactose via carbs) naturally from a balanced meal. But it is when one consumes excess sugar, weight control becomes problematic, as it is easily converted to fat (which of course goes straight to the waistline for folks like me over 30:blush:). For cooking, i use normal cane sugar and resorted to using stevia for sweetening my coffee on a daily basis. I have never tried baking or making sweet treats with stevia, because i suspect such results would be disastrous in my hands and it would defeat the purpose of having a tasty textured treat.

[edyle]

Yep its important to make that distinction.

From a weight-control point of view, one can get their required supply of sugar (sucrose, and even glucose, galactose via carbs) naturally from a balanced meal. But it is when one consumes excess sugar, weight control becomes problematic, as it is easily converted to fat (which of course goes straight to the waistline for folks like me over 30:blush:). For cooking, i use normal cane sugar and resorted to using stevia for sweetening my coffee on a daily basis. I have never tried baking or making sweet treats with stevia, because i suspect such results would be disastrous in my hands and it would defeat the purpose of having a tasty textured treat.

Thanks for informing me about stevia.


(NaturalNews) Health conscious people have turned to two natural sweetener alternatives, stevia and agave nectar, thanks to increasing awareness of the dangers of chemical sweeteners. We are fortunate to live in an age where we have so many natural alternatives to potentially dangerous chemical sweeteners.

It took us a while to get to where we are now, with these natural alternatives available in mass markets. Saccharin was the first low calorie artificial sweetener to be introduced to the mass market in the late 1800`s. It is the same sweetener that is still used in some of the artificial powdered sweeteners we commonly see in those little colored packets today.

Saccharin was mistakenly discovered by a chemist when working on a different project in a chemical lab. It was then patented and mass marketed to the world as a sugar-free sweetener that was several times sweeter than real sugar. Saccharin enjoyed its hay day for a while before links to cancer and a bevy of other adverse health effects were revealed.

Today, these potentially dangerous chemical sweeteners remain on the market here in the US. What many people are catching on to though is that they have natural, safe options when it comes to low glycemic impact, low calorie sweeteners.

One of the most popular natural sweetener alternatives today, as previously mentioned, is stevia. Stevia is a naturally occurring, sweet tasting herb that can be crystallized and turned into powder for use and may also be used in liquid form.

Stevia is now sold under several name brands, and depending on the method of manufacture, it may be somewhat bitter or more on the sweet end. The common complaint is that stevia may be too bitter, especially when used in too high of a concentration.

Stevia has no blood sugar impact, and it is virtually calorie free. The leaves of the stevia rebaudiana plant, which is the sweet variety of this plant family, are about 15 times as sweet as sugar.

This fact has made it a fierce competitor of its chemical counterparts. The FDA recently approved two additional stevia sweeteners, so you can expect to see more stevia-sweetened foods and beverages on supermarket shelves soon.

Another increasingly common natural sugar alternative is agave nectar, which is a sweet syrup derived from the blue agave plant. Agave was originally used to make tequila and was found to also make a sweet syrup when heated for several hours.

An important distinction between agave nectar and stevia is that agave does have an impact on the blood sugar. This impact, when compared to real sugar however, is negligible. It therefore has become a healthier sugar substitute for the health conscious.

There has been some debate about whether agave nectar truly is a healthy sugar substitute, but many swear by it`s naturally sweet taste and wide range of use in cooking. Agave nectar comes in liquid form and has the consistency of honey. It may be used for baking, but it will take practice.

When making the choice as to which natural sweetener is right for you, it is important to sample the different brands available and decide which one fits your needs and taste preferences.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/029057_agave_nectar_stevia.html#ixzz1gXqI4wpP



Someone also mentioned HONEY!!
Unfortunately, I recall going to HiLo and when I enquired where the honey was, I was told the tiny bottles (ok, he said 'small' not tiny) were in the aisle by the sugar but the big bottles were in the LIQUOR cabinet.
The LIQUOR Cabinet?

Yep; for the price per ounce, you could very well buy a bottle of cognac.

[guyguy]

Everything you'd want to know about artificial sweeteners can be found at the following link, and on its website.

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/artificial-sweeteners

[lexbarker]

You can use Agave 'nectar' which is taken from the "Tequila" plant,
or Stevia which is the leaf from a shrub that originated in South America.

[Jason]

Aspartame is the artificial sweetener which is used in diet drinks and it has many controversies. Aspartame creates brain disorders and other brain diseases. Sucralose is the alternative of aspartame and it is safe to use and no drawbacks of it.