Sugar Free Options

From "Sugar in the morning, sugar in the evening, sugar at suppertime..." to a sugar-free craze, sweet-toothed dieters can’t seem to escape the cravings. No surprise humans naturally have an appetite for sugary foods. But in excess, these all add up to surplus calories that you later see as cellulite on your hips and thighs. What’s more, too much sugar in the diet translates into a variety of diseases that could be prevented by simple moderation.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, an average Australian eats 37.6kg of sugar a year, mostly from soft drinks, tea and coffee, but ice-cream, cereals and baked goodies remain the all-time favourites. An average can of soft drink has about 130 calories from eight teaspoons of sugar enough to put you on a canoe for 45 minutes. Want to skip the aerobics class and still drink your soda or eat another slice of "guilt-free" pizza? Artificial sweeteners come to your rescue, but at the price of your health. What is better: sugar or sugar-free? Decide for yourself after reading this.

Artificial Sweeteners
If you decided to kick your sugar habit, you may have tried the substitutes. Eight artificial sweeteners have found their legal way to the tables of Australian dieters: Saccharin, Cyclamate, Aspartame, Acesulfame-K, Thaumatin, Sucralose, Alitame and Neotame. But what is the price of the calorie-free sweetness? Intended to help diabetics and obese people the diet solution may not be so easy on your health.

Saccharin, the granddaddy of all sugar substitutes, is up to 500 times sweeter than sugar, inexpensive to make, has a good shelf life, and is stable at high temperatures which makes it an option for sweetening baked goods.

Saccharin doesn’t raise blood sugar, is quickly metabolised and is excreted from the body within 48 hours. Its role in causing bladder cancer in humans, comprehensively studied in the 1970s, remains questionable among experts. "Suggestive evidence" shows that heavy saccharin users (consuming over six servings a day) may have an increased risk of developing cancer, but the food industry pushes the message that "moderate" amounts are safe for most people.

Aspartame, sold under trade names such as NutraSweet and Equal, one of the most thoroughly tested and studied food additives, is about 200 times sweeter than sugar, but has no calories. It is the most popular artificial sweetener due to its inexpensive production costs and ease of manufacturing.

Derived from petroleum, aspartame represents two amino acids – phenylalanine and aspartic acid, plus methanol, formaldehyde and formate. These are potentially toxic and are suspected to cause headaches, migraines, memory loss, fatigue, depression, irritability, panic attacks, rapid heart beat, food cravings, diarrhoea, nausea, weight gain, convulsions, dizziness, blindness, brain damage and fertility problems, to name a few.

However, after reviewing 100 toxicological studies on aspartame, the US Food and Drug Administration and Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) found that aspartame is not dangerous: drinking diet cola does not raise levels of aspartic acid in the blood, methanol occurs naturally in foods, and phenylalanine is simply an amino acid. Theoretically, a healthy body can digest small amounts of aspartame just like any other protein, but the battle continues.

One in 16,000 people has the genetic disorder phenylketonuria, which is a deficiency in the enzyme phenylalanine hydroxlase. This enzyme is needed to metabolise the amino acid phenylalanine to the amino acid tyrosine. Left untreated, the condition can cause brain damage. All products containing aspartame must carry a warning: "Contains Phenylalanine".

Neotame is almost identical to aspartame with the only exception being that two organic groups (a methyl ester and a neohexyl group) are added to phenylalanine and aspartic acid. Neotame is 30 times sweeter than aspartame, or 7000 to 13,000 times as sweet as sugar. It is said to be safe for people with phenylketonuria. Side effects are same as for aspartame.

With a 600-fold sweetness over sugar, sucralose is made from sugar by changing its molecular structure through adding chlorine. As a chlorocarbon, Sucralose is accused of causing liver, kidney, and reproductive system damage, lowered immunity, and genetic disruption. Makers of sucralose justify the sweetener’s safety by its natural origin – sugar comes from plants, and chlorine is found in lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, melons, peanut butter and table salt and also forms a part of the digestive acid in the stomach.

Unlike sugar, the body doesn’t recognise sucralose as a carbohydrate and passes through the digestive system unchanged, making it calorie-free.

Acesulfame-K (called "Sunette") is a noncaloric slightly bitter sweetener 200 times sweeter than sucrose. This organic salt is composed of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, sulfur and potassium atoms and surpasses digestion and is excreted from the body. Often combined with other sweeteners for taste purposes, it is stable when heated, so is often used in baked products. The additive hasn’t been well-tested, but reports indicate that it may cause cancer and thyroid malfunction in animals.

Cyclamate is the least commercially popular sweetener, with only 30–50 times the sweetness of sugar and an unpleasant aftertaste for some. Used with other sweeteners, cyclamate is a stable and soluble cyclamic acid salt regarded by major industry as ‘safe’, but many scientists regard it as a carcinogen.

Can you gain weight from "diet" drinks? Studies consistently show that people who consume artificial sweeteners gain more weight than those who avoid them entirely because weight loss is related to more than just calories.

Artificial sweeteners may stimulate appetite (quite frequent) by chemical irritation of taste buds, increase sodium levels leading to bloating and cause dehydration.

Have you noticed that the more dieft soft drinks you drink, the more you want to drink, just like after eating salty foods? This is because the brain may not get the thirst message right and interpret it as hunger, sending you for more snacks – after all, you are ‘allowed’ to eat more, because diet soft drinks don’t have any calories, right? Not so if you care about keeping your body healthy, lean and clean.

Sweet Solution
While cutting calories from sugar-laden foods will do your body good, going the chemical way may take a toll on your health. Artificial sweeteners are not found in nature and the long-term effects of these remain unanswered. On the other hand, refined and processed sugar as we know it is made from the plant – either cane, beets or corn.

The dilemma with sugar is that it may not be your best carbohydrate source. You can obtain sufficient amounts of glucose from complex carbohydrates found in natural grains, pulses, legumes and potatoes. These are loaded with vitalising essential micro- and macronutrients, antioxidants and bioflavanoids. You can also metabolise glucose from protein, just not very efficiently.

Bye-Bye Cravings
If you crave sweets, your body may be missing minerals and vitamins, not just calories. But if your blood sugar runs low and you need a fix, naturally sweet, fresh fruits and vegetables are more satisfying and refreshing. Pumpkin, corn, sweet potatoes, beets, and any aromatic fruits are nutritionally fascinating. Diet-wise, fruits, berries and veggies contain fructose, a fruit sugar, which does not raise your insulin levels and goes straight to your liver for metabolism – no energy ‘peaks and valleys’ or blood sugar blues.

You may also try minimally processed naturally delicious date sugar, honey, brown rice or maple syrup. With just a few drops, the slow-burning carbohydrates won’t cause a "sugar rush" and give a constant stream of pure energy for many hours.

If you still want to give your sweet tooth what it screams for without the calories and any health damage, there are plenty of other options.

Xylitol is a white crystalline powder found naturally in fruits, veggies and body tissues. Derived from hardwood trees, Xylitol has 40 percent fewer calories than sugar and a glycemic index of 7, and it has minimal effects on blood sugar and insulin levels. Delicious and healthy, xylitol also inhibits bacterial growth, yeast infections, plaque and dental cavities and balances mineral exchange in the body.

Stevia, from the natural plant of the Asteracae family, has been used in South America for hundreds of years, is 300 times sweeter than sugar without the calories. It helps stabilize blood sugar levels, lowers elevated blood pressure, reduces gas and stomach acidity and improves mental acuity.

Isomalt, or sugar alcohol, is made from beet sugar using glucose and fructose. It looks and tastes like sugar but has only half the calories of sugar because human enzymes digest Isomalt slower and in lesser amounts than sugar. It belongs to a fibre group known as "low digestible carbohydrates", which also stimulate bowel activity and help counteract constipation by acting like fibre and keeping blood sugar and insulin levels almost unchanged.