Sneaky Sugars And Substitute Sweeteners That Are Poisoning Your Family

Sugar – is it really that bad? We’ve all heard we should limit our sugar intake, but it can’t really be that bad, right?

After all, it’s in the majority of processed foods we buy at the store. Maybe you know that it can lead to a poor dental checkup and possibly some hyper kids, but what else can it possibly be affecting? Let’s take a look!

Why ditch sugar?

Cutting out sugar can be hard. Read on to find out why it’s so important to limit sugar intake. Seeing its effects will help to reaffirm your decision to take a break from the sweet stuff and give your system a break.

The unfortunate reality is that sugar has crept into many of our food products and meals to the degree that is impacting our weight, inflammation levels, and overall health.

What even is sugar?

Sugars are a type of carbohydrate – a macromolecule we need in our diet. However, certain forms of carbohydrates (simple carbohydrates) are not only devoid of nutritional value but they are known as ANTI-NUTRIENTS, meaning they actually rob the body of nutrients.

How does sugar affect the body?

Where is sugar hiding in our diet?

Even if you’re not eating the obvious forms of sugar, like candy, cookies, desserts, and sweetened beverages, sugar may still be sneaking into your diet under the radar.

The Nutrition Facts label is required to inform you how much sugar is in a food and to break out naturally occurring sugar from added sugars.

However, it can still be tricky to calculate how much is too much. To truly get an idea of how much sugar is in a food, become a savvy label sleuth.

There are more than 60 names for added sugars!

To identify added sugars, look at the ingredients list. Some major clues that an ingredient has added sugars include:

• It has a syrup (examples: corn syrup, rice syrup)
• It ends in an “ose” (examples: sucrose, fructose, maltose, dextrose)
• It has sugar in the name (examples: raw sugar, cane sugar, brown sugar, confectionery sugar)

–> If one of these forms of sugar is listed as one of the first three ingredients of a food, it is high in sugar.

–>Another trick that food manufacturers use is to include multiple types of sugar in a particular processed food. This serves to increase the sugar content without being obvious. For example, you may not find sugar listed as one of the first three ingredients, but when you look further down on the list, you may find multiple types of sugar in the same food.

For more information on how much sugar we’re actually eating, check out my Blood Sugar blog.

Identifying the Pros and Cons of Added Sugars

The Pros: Sweeteners

Added sugar can help make food delicious and help you to consume healthful nutrients in a more appealing way. Ever heard “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down?”

For example, adding a small amount of local honey to herbal tea or making energy bites with nuts, seeds and oats. Likewise, using maple syrup or coconut palm sugar in baked goods can be delicious, and you can control the amount of sugar making them healthier and much more nutritious.

Just remember that even healthful alternatives like honey and pure maple syrup are still concentrated forms of sugar and can still significantly spike your blood sugar.

Natural, non-caloric sweeteners like stevia and allulose can replace added sugar leading to reduced calories and sugar intake.

Because stevia is much sweeter than sugar, using a little goes a long way toward helping meet sweetness goals. Allulose is a little less sweet than sugar, so adjust according to your taste.

These natural sugar alternatives can help with stabilizing blood sugars – especially as we transition to less sugar in our diet.

For example, replacing a high-sugar chocolate cookie with a few squares of dark chocolate or chips made with stevia (think Lily’s brand) can take the edge off of cravings with little to no added sugar.

Reducing sugar is also beneficial to your dental health.

The Cons: Sweeteners

When we take in too much added sugar, it comes with an unhealthy price tag: unstable blood sugar, cravings, increased fatigue, increased risk of obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, inflammation, and sugar addiction.

One study that looked at people over the course of 15 years found that those who got 17% to 21% of their calories from added sugar had a 38% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease compared with those who got 8% of their calories as added sugar.

Likewise, when we swap sugar for artificial sweeteners, problems can arise too.

Artificial sweeteners:

• Intensify sweet cravings (most of these sweeteners are 100s to 1000s of times sweeter than sugar or fruit)
• Reduce your sense of feeling full (also known as satiety) which can lead to eating larger portion sizes
• Distort your taste buds causing you to want sweeter foods to satisfy your cravings
• Negatively impact gut health

Let’s explore some of the natural and artificial sweeteners available.

Non-Nutritive (Calorie Free)/Artifical Sweeteners:

1. Aspartame (Equal®)

• Origin: artificial non-saccharide sweetener
• Sweetness: 200x sweeter than sugar
• Considerations: Higher sweetness level may also increase sweetness tolerance and lead to additional sweetener usage. This sweetener has been linked to migraines and possible central nervous system problems.

2. Sucralose (Splenda®)

• Origin: A chemically altered sugar molecule (a disaccharide derivative), rendering it unusable by our digestive system.
• Sweetness: 600x sweeter than sugar
• Considerations: Extreme sweetness level may actually increase our sweetness tolerance, leading to the desire for more sugar. Potential impact on the digestive system with negative impacts on our gut health and microbiome with regular intake.

3. Acesulfame Potassium (K) (Sunett® / Sweet One®)

• Origin: Chemically created from acetoacetic acid and potassium
• Sweetness: 200x sweeter than sugar
• Considerations: High intensity sweetness may have similar impact on desire for more sugar (same as aspartame and sucralose)

4. Saccharin (Sweet ’N Low®, Sweet Twin®, Necta Sweet®)

• Origin: Created by oxidizing chemicals o-toluene sulfonamide or phthalic anhydride
• Sweetness: 300-400x sweeter than sugar
• Considerations: Often combined with other sweeteners due to aftertaste. Saccharin belongs to a class of compounds known as sulfonamides, which can cause allergic reactions in some individuals. Saccharin has been linked to cancer in some studies.

Natural sweeteners:

1. Allulose

• Origin: A monosaccharide found naturally in limited numbers of foods including dried fruits like raisins as well as jackfruit; derived from corn for sweetener
• Sweetness: 70% as sweet as sugar
• Considerations: Most allulose (70%) is absorbed by the small intestine and excreted in the urine and has no impact on blood glucose or insulin levels. The remaining allulose passes through your intestines and is excreted intact and has minimal impact on our gut microbiome with little risk of GI distress. As allulose isn’t metabolized by our system and has no impact on blood glucose or insulin levels, it’s a good alternative for diabetics.

2. Monk fruit

• Origin: Derived from Luo Han Guo plant native to Southern China
• Sweetness: 150-200x sweeter than regular sugar
• Considerations: Monk fruit sweeteners are often in the crystal form, which is combined with erythritol (see below). Monk fruit is generally recommended as safe sweetener for diabetics.

3. Stevia

• Origin: Leaves of the stevia plant native to South America
• Sweetness: 200-300x sweeter than sugar
• Considerations: Often has a bitter aftertaste. Can be highly refined to Reb A (vs whole leaf). The high sweetness level may negatively impact one’s sugar tolerance.

4. Sugar Alcohols: Also known as polyols, sugar alcohols are found in some fruits and vegetables, but most often produced by altering the chemical structure of natural sugar molecules.

Identifying added sugars and hidden sugars in your diet and replacing them with nutrient-rich foods has an incredible impact on your gut microbiome and overall health. The great news is that these changes to your microbiome happen surprisingly fast!

Interested in reading more about sugar? Check out my Blood Sugar blog!