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.

When considering sugar substitutes there are two very distinct directions you can go. You can go with a man made artificial or an all natural sweetener. Each have their own side effects or benefits to consider. Artificial sweeteners are specifically engineered to provide some particular benefit, but I don’t know that we have figured out how to create a chemical that provides that benefit without causing another side effect. Even natural sweeteners will have different benefits and side effects to consider. You will need to decide which works best for you.

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.

Quickly catching up in popularity are the all natural sweeteners. Some of them you may have heard of are Erythritol, Xylitol, Mannitol, Sorbitol and Stevia. All of these are 100% natural and sweet to the taste. However, just because it is all natural doesn’t mean it won’t have side effects. Three of the above mentioned seem to stand out as better alternatives to sugar; Erythritol, Xylitol and Stevia. Xylitol and Stevia will cause digestion issues if you aren’t careful with the quantity you consume. Erythritol however is digested differently by the body and will not cause gastric pain. Another nice benefit of Erythritol is that it is the only one that doesn’t promote tooth decay and it is the only one on the list to be zero calorie.

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.

This article represents only an extremely small part of the opinions and considerations to filter through. It is clear that my choice is Erythritol, but that is because I have done the research and tried the products. Hopefully my explanation of the process of eliminating artificial sweeteners as too dangerous from your list of options and the rationale used to determine Eyrithritol as the lucky winner will help you follow a similar path.

Learn more about natural sweeteners at www.doctorgrandmas.com. Doctor Grandma’s website is filled with information about the benefits of Erythritol and other healthy foods.