Which is best: natural sugar or sugar substitutes?
Ellen switched to regular Coke. She had been drinking diet drinks but she heard that sugar substitutes caused people to crave more sweets. She heard that people who drink diet drinks are heavier than those who don’t. She certainly didn’t want either of those things. “All natural cane sugar” seemed pure so, to be on the safe side, she switched back to soda containing sugar.
Like many, Ellen tries hard to make the best choices for her health. But it’s so dang confusing trying to figure who and what to believe. I feel you! The public is flooded with misinformation about common health issues. Most non-experts are uninformed or misinformed. There’s misinformation, and then there’s disinformation. This includes falsehoods intentionally spread for financial or political advantage which have nothing to do with quality science or evidence-based care.
As a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist it is my job to interpret the science and base my advice on the best evidence currently available. Nutrition is a science and new studies sometimes reveal previously unknown factors which may, in turn, lead to changing dietary recommendations. This is actually a good thing, but it does add to people’s frustration about not knowing what to believe.
What the public usually hears are headlines and one or two sentences about a study. To sell products or improve ratings, these studies are usually sensationalized and quite shocking. If you read the actual study to see what the scientists found it’s usually something quite different than what the headline reported. Bad News Diet Soda Drinkers: Your Favorite Beverage May Lead to More Belly Fat as You Age.
In addition to misleading headlines, there is a difference in the quality of studies. Many studies are observational, meaning there was a correlation seen between two factors. Examples of these studies that got a lot of attention are those that show that people with a higher body mass index, or BMI, are more likely to use low calorie sweeteners. That does not mean the sweeteners caused a higher BMI. It’s possible that people with a higher BMI are more interested in using low calorie sweeteners to cut calories.
Other types of studies involve animals. While these studies may be beneficial, we cannot take the leap that humans would be affected the same as the animals in the study. The gold standard in studies include well designed controlled clinical trials with humans demonstrating a clear cause and effect. More studies are done to see if the same results are replicated. The studies are then subjected to a peer review by other experts in the field. If these vetted and consistent results contradict previously accepted knowledge, it is time to change nutritional advice.
Low calorie sweeteners, also called non-nutritive sweeteners are a popular subject of mis-and disinformation.
They have been studied for decades and have been determined to be safe. They do not cause obesity or any known health problem and can be very useful as part of a weight control strategy. People who want a sweet taste without calories often choose low calorie sweeteners. Because they do not contain carbohydrate, people who have diabetes often choose these sweeteners to help control their glucose level.
Don’t be fooled into thinking “natural sugar” is healthy. “Natural” is often used as a marketing term. You may be interested to learn that there is no formal definition for “natural” from the USDA or FDA. Sugar is sugar and too much sugar is definitely not healthy.
Americans consume too much sugar. The average American consumes 17 teaspoons of added sugar a day. That’s 55 pounds of sugar a year. The leading source of added sugar in the US diet is sugar sweetened beverages. There is 11 teaspoons of added sugar in one 12 ounce soda. The American Heart Association recommends women limit their added sugar to 6 teaspoons a day and men limit theirs to 9 teaspoons a day. Thus, you consume more than the daily recommended limit on added sugar with one “regular” soda.
Too much added sugar does lead to weight gain, obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Added sugars are sugars or syrups that are added to foods and beverages when they’re processed or prepared. Naturally occurring sugar such as those in fruit and milk are not added sugars and are not a health concern. The new food labels list the amount of added sugar under “Total Carbohydrate.”
Added sugars have many different names and include:
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brown sugar
corn sweetener
corn syrup
dextrose
fructose
glucose
high fructose corn syrup
honey
lactose
malt syrup
maltose
molasses
raw sugar
sucrose
Ellen could save 65 grams of added sugar and 233 calories for every 20 ounce soft drink she replaced with water or a diet drink. Once she knew the facts, it was an easy choice to return to the sugar-free drinks she thought she had to give up to be “healthy.” Turned out, the diet drink she was drinking allowed her a sweet taste without calories.
To be clear, there are no nutrients or anything you need in diet drinks so avoiding them all together is fine. Water is the best beverage to drink.
To find out how much of each sweeteners is shown to be safe check out Are Low- Calorie and No Calorie Sweeteners Safe?
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