Nutrition Science and Everyday Application - beta v 0.1

Sugar Substitutes
You should now understand the problems with consuming too much added sugar, but what
if you’ve sworn off regular soda and switched to diet versions? What if you’re choosing
“sugar-free” products, sweetened not with sugar but with sugar substitutes like aspartame,
saccharin, or stevia? Are these a better choice?
Figure 4.40. Examples of products containing high-intensity sweeteners: diet soda, sugar-free
chocolate, and bulk containers of Splenda and stevia extract.
Diet sodas are the biggest source of sugar substitutes in the American diet, but these
ingredients are found in a range of foods, including ice cream, yogurt, cereals, iced tea,
energy drinks, candy, cookies, granola bars, salad dressings, frozen dinners, and energy
bars. 1 Products containing sugar substitutes are often labeled as sugar-free or “lite,” but
some don’t have any front-of-package labeling with this information, and you may not even
realize that you’re consuming them. With more consumers watching their sugar intake, the
use of sugar substitutes is growing, and the food industry is working hard to market them as
a healthier choice. We can expect to see them in more and more products, so it’s important
to understand what these substances are and what they may mean for our health.
WHAT ARE SUGAR SUBSTITUTES?
You may find sugar substitutes called lots of different things, including artificial, non-nutritive,
high-intensity, or low-calorie sweeteners. Regardless of the name, these are substances that
have a sweet taste but few or no calories. 2 In fact, they are much sweeter than sucrose, so a
tiny amount can add a lot of sweetness to food. (Sweetener packets like Splenda and Equal
contain a small amount of sweetener and a lot of filler ingredients.)
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