Is There Such Thing as a SAFE Artificial Sweetener?

Stevia is the new alternative, supposedly all natural, low-cal sweetner.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia


You can buy packets of it now, and some of the more "Greener" places carry it, but there are a lot of experts who think it will eventually replace Aspartame as the new low-cal sweetner in most beverages.


You're better off using plain ol' sugar in your Iced Tea, I would say.

 

With regular sodas you have people who think HFCS is a major factor in obesity, diabetes, dental problems, etc. You also have people who think that it is total bs. So regular sodas have their problems too.

 

HFCS is the main sugar substitute used to sweeten virtually every beverage not labeled diet. But the main problem is people who drink 4-5 sodas a day are consuming nearly half a pound of sugar just from that source alone. It doesn't matter if you're drinking Dr. Pepper made with Cane Sugar or HFCS, sugar is still sugar and calories and still calories.

 

One problem with artificial sweeteners is that when you taste something sweet it signals to your body to produce insulin. Then, when your blood doesn't actually receive the sugar it is expecting it causes you to try to compensate. This is one of the reasons why diet drinks don't really help you to lose weight.
If you are using a sugar substitute in baking it generally won't work because sugar has a number of chemical properties that substitutes lack. It will work if the only purpose is to sweeten and no one eating the product has a decent palate. Personally I find I can always detect artificial sweeteners and I'm admitedly paranoid about them. (I worry more about what a diet soda will do to my unborn children than a glass of wine.)

 

A number of sodas are made with sugar rather than HFCS. Just check in other areas of the grocery store, not next to the Cokes and Pepsis

 

I agree but there are some people who still think otherwise just like with aspartame. For every study that shows aspartame is not safe there is one that shows it is. For every study saying HFCS doesn't cause obesity there is one that says it has different effects than cane sugar.

I drink diet sodas and the only thing sweetened without artificial sweeteners is tea.

 

I drink diet so....

 

I had an older Step Brother who was a Mountain Dew addict.

He drank 2 two-liter bottles of it per day. I assure you I am not exaggerating because he would take his bottles in to the recycle center every few months and get quite a bit of money back.

It was nuts. Thats like taking a 2 pound bag of pure sugar and eating it every day.


Yet he never gained a pound.

b*stard.


I gained a lot of weight in my teen years, mostly from drinking Cokes like crazy all the time.

I cut them out when I was 20 and I lost 40 pounds by switching to Diet sodas.

These days I only drink water and occasionally a beverage sweetened with cane sugar.

 

I can almost guarantee you the "studies" done in favor of artificial sweeteners and high fructose corn syrup have corporate interests best in mind.

The government keeps corn cheap so its only natural in our free-enterprise system that we progressively start producing everything from corn.

You'd be surprised to know what percentage of things in the supermarket are made out of corn and corn-derivatives.

 

My wife used to buy Stevia in bulk at Whole Paycheck a few years back. We had to stop buying it, because it sucked the big one.

Now it's nothing but turbinado.

 

My guess is that having one soda a day, diet or otherwise probably won't kill you in the long run. But if you're drinking a lot of soda it really isn't the best thirst quencher. If you drink as much water as you are supposed to (something like half a gallon) you won't have much space or time to drink sodas. Of course, I'm supposed to be drinking a whole gallon every day and it's just not happening.

 

Aspartame isn't really a giant cancer risk like people would have you believe. You'd have to ingest an ungodly amount and basically live in a room of it up to your eyeballs in nutrasweet. Neither is sucralose (splenda).

They are, however, linked to kidney, thymus, and liver problems. It stunts your metabolism and can also cause headaches in some people.

It isn't healthy for sure, and I avoid it in favor of either things like agave nectar or just pure raw sugar.

 

I try to drink 96 ounces of water a day like I was a few months ago but I'm barely getting 72 right now.

I think the easiest way I found to do it was to fill up a large container with water first thing in the morning and just keep drinking it throughout the day. Of course the larger the container, the harder it becomes to lug it around with you all the time.

 

It isn't exactly eco-friendly, but I try to drink five 16oz bottles of water (the typical size you see everywhere) a day bare minimum. That's 80... so anything more than that is gravy.

If I can refill it, I do though.

 

Wrong.

Paranoia is defined as a thought process characterized by excessive fear and anxiety.

I guarantee you I am not afraid of Big Business corrupting our food supply, just outraged and determined to bring awareness to those who chose to remain in complete and utter ignorance.

 

Just to clarify: Splenda is NOT aspartame. Splenda is sucralose, which is chemically different (much more similar to standard sucrose) and has been around since 1976. So it's nothing new.

Also, bear in mind that with all of these sweeteners (saccharin, aspartame, and sucralose) the doseage required to produce any adverse effects in testing (both test in favor of, and test against) was massive. We're talking thousands of packets per day. This wouldn't happen in real-world application.

Whether or not they are effective for losing weight is a separate discussion, but I think you are safe consuming any of them, as long as it's in moderation. And I don't think you can say that any of them is more or less "dangerous" than HFCS.

 

Logically, I just don't think anyone can be sure it is ever safe to drink chemically produced sweeteners.

Even if impartial studies were to show the risks would be relatively low, I think its easier to just cut them out and not have it be an issue at all.

I always thought it would too hard for me to quit sodas, but it actually is quite easy if you (as Mrs Valdez pointed out) drink your required amount of water each day.