Are Artificial Sweeteners Safe?

Greetings!

Many of us have heard how sugar is not good for you. Yet, lots of people have a craving for sweet things.

These cravings can be a hard obstacle to overcome when trying to lose weight. The solution? Well, I use artificial sweeteners.

Having said that, the question of whether artificial sweeteners are good for you or not has always remained in my mind as a silent and uncomfortable concern, especially after reading concerned people talking about the risk of using aspartame based sweeteners.

Today I read an article by Havard Health Publications, discussing this very question.

In a nutshell, the article discusses how artificial sweeteners work, and says that they are safe to use in moderation.

That's a relief! I like using Splenda for my low fat baking recipes and my coffee and tea.

The only bad experience I had with artificial sweetener was when I purchased a whole lot of sugar-free candies (called "lollies" here down under). My partner and I eat most of that bag in less than 4 hours. The result? Constant visits to the toilet for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

On the brighter side of that incident, I think I lost a kilo in the process. However, I would not recommend this as a weight loss strategy. I'm sure it's not a healthy way of losing weight!

Here is an excerpt of what the article says:

Artificial sweeteners add sweetness without calories in two ways. First, they are so sweet — 160 to 13,000 times sweeter than sugar — that you need only a tiny bit to achieve the equivalent taste. You consume a fraction of a calorie to get the sweetness of many more calories worth of sugar. Second, because the body doesn’t fully absorb them, it also doesn’t fully absorb the few calories they contain.

Low-calorie sweeteners contain only a few calories per gram. Also known as sugar alcohols or polyols, they are 50%–92% sweeter than sugar. These sweeteners are found strictly in packaged goods — look for sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol, erythritol, and D-tagatose on the ingredients list. All sugar alcohols are absorbed slowly and incompletely by the intestine, which is why they have little caloric effect. However, this property can also cause gas and diarrhea if you consume too much. For many people, more than 50 grams per day of sorbitol or 20 grams per day of mannitol can cause these problems.

The author goes on with a run down of the different no-calories sweeteners, including:

• Acesulfame K (Sunett, Sweet One)
• Saccharin (Sweet ’N Low, Sugar Twin, others)
• Aspartame (Nutra-Sweet, Equal, others)
• Sucralose (Splenda, and
• Neotame

... and concludes that the above sweeteners are safe to use... again... in moderation.

So... there you are. You're safe (till they say otherwise, that is!).




Yours in health,



Jeff "The Skinny Chef"


For lots of delicious low fat recipes, weight loss and healthy eating tips and articles, visit www.Delicious-Low-Fat-Recipes.Com (They're so delicious... you won't believe they're good for you!).