The Sweet Truth on Sweeteners

Canderel. Equal. Sweetex. It is unlikely that you have not seen one of these products on the supermarket shelves. But despite it’s wide use the topic of sweeteners is confusing. Time to dish the sweet tooth (sorry… truth!) on sweeteners.

An artificial sweetener is any sweetener that is used instead of normal table sugar. The benefit of artificial sweeteners is that it adds sweetness to a meal yet without the added kilojoules to the diet.  Sweeteners can offer consumers a way to enjoy the taste of sweetness with little or no energy and rise in blood sugar levels (also called the glycemic response).  This is particularly useful in weight control and as part of the diabetic diet, as well as in dental health.

In the United States, 9 out of 10 people report buying or using sweeteners and low-calorie products. With increased interest in health and well-being sweetener use has also increased in Europe in recent years. In our own (very scientific) Good Life poll, 3 out of 10 readers reported using a sweetener or low-calorie sweetener product in their diet. In response scientists have responded to consumer demand by developing, researching, and producing an ever increasing number of sweetener options, with supermarkets offering a wide range of choice in sweeteners. However this increase has also led to great concern about the effects of sweetener intake on health, with focus shifting from diabetes in the 1960s, to hyperactivity and behavior issues in children in the 1990s, and to the cause of obesity in the 2000s.

 

 

Nutritive vs. non-nutrititive sweeteners

Sweeteners can be divided into two groups: nutritive and non-nutritive sweeteners.

1. Nutritive sweeteners (e.g. fructose, sucrose, glucose, xylitol, etc) provide a sweet taste and are also a source of energy.
2. Non-nutritive sweeteners (e.g. aspartame, acesulfame-K, etc) are sweet without energy. Because they are so sweet, non-nutritive sweeteners sweeten with little volume and thus contain insignificant amounts of energy. The five nonnutritive sweeteners that have been approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) are acesulfame-K, aspartame, neotame, saccharin, sucralose.

There is little direct scientific evidence showing negative long-term effects of both types of sweeteners on overall health. Each sweetener approved has undergone rigorous scrutiny and been shown to be safe as part of a healthy diet. Nutritive sweeteners are generally recognized as safe by the FDA yet there is concern about large volume of nutritive sweetener intakes.

Sweeteners (nutritive and non-nutritive) approved by the FDA

	Sweetener	Energy (kcal/g)	Comments
Nutritive Sweeteners	Sorbitol	2.6	50-70x sweeter than sugar May experience a laxative effect when consuming more than 50g
	Mannitol	1.6	50-70x sweeter than sugar May experience a laxative effect when consuming more than 20g
	Xylitol	2.4	As sweet as sugar
Non-nutritive Sweeteners	Saccharin e.g. Sweetex	0	200-700x sweeter than sugar Non-carcinogenic No GI response
	Aspartame e.g. Canderel, Equal, NutraSweet	4	160-220x sweeter than sugar Non-carcinogenic Limited GI response
	Acesulfame-K e.g. Sunnet, Sweet One	0	200x sweeter than sugar Non-carcinogenic No GI response
	Sucralose e.g. Canderel yellow, Splenda	0	600x sweeter than sugar Non-carcinogenic No GI response
	Neotame	0	8 000x sweeter than sugar Non-carcinogenic No GI response

GI= glycemic index

Source

Position of the American Dietetic Association: Use of Nutritive and Nonnutritive Sweeteners. J Am Diet Assoc. 2004; 104:255-275.