Sweet dishes are an integral part of celebration round the globe but the grave repercussions which follow are definitely not festive. Eventually, if you do not keep a check on your sweet tooth, you may turn out to be totally giving up on sugar when it starts threatening your life. Even though a significant part of the population has switched to low calorie sugar substitutes, there exist suspicion and indecision in their minds regarding safe consumption of such products.
What Are Artificial Sweeteners?
As recommended by the American Heart Association ,the National Institutes of Health and many others, limiting the appetite for added sugar is the only better way to keep away from diseases like diabetes, obesity etc. The problem with sugar intake is that the sweetness costs you so many extra calories with compromised nutrition which in turn spike your insulin and cause complications in the long run. Despite the fact that sugar(in any form) is detrimental to health, its not that easy for everyone to cut the sweet out. Artificial sweeteners, very aptly named are low calorie replacement for sugar. Commonly called non-nutritive sweeteners, they are extremely sweet and are used in such small quantities that they rarely contribute any calorie to the food, hence the name.
This post highlights two most widely used and commonly available artificial sweeteners in the market namely Aspartame and Sucralose.
Aspartame
Aspartame is the best known artificial sweetener. It is found to be 180-200 times sweeter than sugar and hence a very minimal amount of aspartame can sweeten up your food/beverage with almost no caloric addition to the meal. Aspartame has been formally in use since the early 1980s but recently it has been facing a lot of criticism over the internet. Believe it or not, all the bashing and conspiracy theories have been disapproved by the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) and Aspartame still retains the GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) label unless for any specific medical condition.
Sucralose
Sucralose came into use only after the defamation of Aspartame caught fire. This was more of a marketing gimmick and rebuilt strategy by Pepsico against the widespread public opposition to Aspartame. Even though the FDA and Pepsico both convey that Aspartame is harmless, it was announced in 2015 that "Diet Pepsi would be marked Aspartame free". What an irony! This move has put sucralose more in use but it simply makes no difference because FDA recognizes both Aspartame and Sucralose as safe for consumption.
These marketing strategies have made other companies rethink their strategies. An evident example is the Indian Sugar Free Gold (Aspartame) vs Sugar Free Natura (Sucralose).
Note that the only big difference you must consider between Aspartame and Sucralose is that Aspartame can not resist high temperature and is unsuitable for cooking or baking but this goes fine with Sucralose and it generally comes with a label - suitable for baking. Also it should not be forgotten that the benefit of using an artificial sweetener lies in the fact that even a small quantity of it with negligible calories is capable of sweetening up your dish. If used more than what is actually required, the purpose would any how be defeated. Please be assured that it is always better to avoid sugar than using them in the form of artificial sweeteners. Only for those who cannot resist their taste buds, it can be considered a better way to avoid those extra calories.
Everything being said, it would be advisable to limit your sugar intake, be it in any form. If you start building a habit now, sooner or later you would start relishing the natural sweetness in your foodstuffs. The purpose of this post was to shed some light on artificial sweeteners and it is still up to the readers to make a choice for their well-being but now with much more information at their disposal. As always, never forget to use the comment section in case you need more information on something.
Avoid added sugar to enjoy the Nature's taste
great
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