Artificial sweeteners – good or bad?
There’s a lot of controversy around whether artificial sweeteners are a good alternative or even worse for you than regular sugar. This week I’m going to answer some FAQs around artificial sweeteners to clear the air on what the current evidence supports and what is merely a myth (until further research proves otherwise!).
Firstly – what are artificial sweeteners?
Just like the name, they are a synthetic form of sugar that is generally used as a sugar substitute because they’re super sweet (about 200x sweeter than table sugar) and are either low or calorie free. There are 3 different types of sweeteners - the more natural ones (e.g. stevia and monk fruit extract), nutritive ones (e.g. xylitol found in gum or fructose which is high in carbs like sugar) and less natural, artificial ones (e.g. aspartame (Equal) or sucralose (Splenda)).
Are they a good alternative if you’re trying to lose weight?
The word ‘alternative’ means to use in replacement. So, if you are already eating or drinking a high sugar product regularly (be that soft drink, cereal, UpnGo’s, jelly, fruity yogurt, cookies etc…) or if you add a sugar to your tea and coffee daily then yes - opting for the ‘sugar-free’ option that uses artificial or natural sweeteners or using Stevia in your tea, coffee or baked goods would be a better alternatives.
What if you’re a diabetic? Artificial or non-nutritive natural sweeteners don’t cause spikes in blood sugar levels, and hence insulin levels, so low-sugar or sugar-free alternative foods and drinks could be a great alternative to help manage your blood sugar levels while still being able to enjoy the sweet foods you love.
I heard they cause cancer, is this true?
There’s actually no sound evidence to support that ‘artificial sweeteners’ are a direct cause of cancer or any other health issues and are even safe during pregnancy. This is on the basis that you have a moderate intake of these sweetened products and only consume the ones legal here in Australia. For example, with a can of diet soft drink containing 200 or 300 mg of aspartame, an adult weighing 70kg would need to consume more than 9–14 cans per day to exceed the acceptable daily intake.
Won’t they still cause me to gain weight?
Scientifically no. Its not the sweetener itself that could potentially cause weight gain but instead you might find you get used to having sweet foods in your diet and start to crave these more frequently and as a result you’re eating more sweet calorie dense foods, but otherwise if you’re able to manage this then there’s no possibility of gaining weight.
Summary
All sweeteners (artificial, natural or nutritive) are not essential to have in your diet. They can be a better replacement to the regular sugar product, but that also depends on how often you’re consuming these high-sugar foods. Some people will also experience bad side effects like gut pain or migraines when consuming sweeteners and hence in these cases it might be better to have the normal sugar alternative- as always in moderation.
