http://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/daily-dose-apr...-_-2009_Apr_21-_-Dose-_-readon
Are fake sugars safe?
Move over, Splenda. Sugar's new doppelganger is coming soon to cafés everywhere.
Made from Rebaudioside A, an extract of the leaves of the stevia plant, the newest zero-calorie sugar sub promises to be up to 300 times sweeter than regular sugar.
If you're like more than half of all Americans, the white stuff you reach for comes in a pink, blue, yellow, or green packet, not a sugar bowl. Stevia is being marketed as the first all-natural calorie-free sweetener, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's good for you. But to figure out how these chemicals are tinkering with your health, you first have to learn what's in them.
The pink one, Sweet'N Low, contains saccharin. It was discovered in 1879 and is the result of a chemical reaction that produces methyl anthranilate (yum!). It has only 1/8 calorie per teaspoon versus sugar's 15, yet it's 300 times sweeter than the natural stuff.
The blue packets, labeled Equal or NutraSweet, contain slightly less bitter tasting aspartame, which is derived from the amino acids L-aspartic acid and L-phenylalanine. On diner counters and in diet foods since 1981, aspartame contains 24 calories per teaspoon, but because it's 180 times sweeter than sugar.
In the yellow packet comes Splenda, which gets its sweetness from sucralose. As it says on the label, sucralose — which has been around since 1998 and is used in ice cream, sauces, and jellies—is made from sugar and tastes closest to the real thing. To create it, food chemists substitute chlorine atoms for three hydrogen-oxygen groups on the sucrose molecule. That switch makes Splenda a tongue-tingling 600 times sweeter than sugar.
Can these chemical concoctions really be good for you? Despite a handful of scary studies back in the '70s that linked saccharin to increased rates of cancer in rats, there's little evidence that artificial sweeteners cause problems in humans.
One exception: A 2001 study from the journal Headache found that aspartame can trigger head pain. Experts believe that the phenylalanine in aspartame has a negative impact on neurotransmitters. If you're prone to headaches (especially skull-splitting migraines), avoid foods with aspartame or phenylalanine in their ingredient lists.
Though these sweeteners are basically calorie free, they might make you gain weight in the long run by teasing your sweet tooth.
A study on rats last year, reported in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience, suggested that ingesting the artificial sweetener saccharin confuses the body's ability to regulate food intake, and may actually cause weight gain for some. In short, the artificial sweetener might trigger the expectation of real food to come, so the body coaxes a person to then eat more, concluded Purdue University researchers Susan Swithers and Terry Davidson.
The bottom line: Most nutritionists agree that you'll end up healthier and more satisfied eating a few squares of chocolate after lunch than feasting on artificially sweetened foods all day. And when you face your morning coffee, remember that sugar delivers just 15 calories per tablespoon — which you can burn by sleeping for 13 minutes.
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