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Sugar Substitutes

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Are Sugar Substitutes Healthier Than Sugar?

Living in a world where there is seemingly a new “superfood” discovered each day and where people find solace in foods labeled “diet”, “fat-free”, “organic”, etc. it’s safe to say that people are becoming aware of the dangers some foods face to their health. Dangers like fried foods, processed meats, salt and of course sugar, or more importantly white refined sugar. Those wishing to satisfy their sweet tooth but are more concerned with dietary and health concerns should choose sugar substitutes over table sugar because they are healthier. White refined sugar, or table sugar, causes high blood glucose, teeth decay and has even been linked to cancer. Sugar substitutes on the other hand, which are explained …show more content…

To know whether or not sugar substitutes are healthier than sugar it would be best to first understand what sugar substitutes are. There are different categories of sugar substitutes available for consumption. They are the artificial sweeteners, the natural sweeteners, and the sugar alcohols. Artificial or non-nutritive sweeteners are sweeteners that are chemically manufactured. They are the ones most easy to spot while eating at some restaurants because they will be the colorful packets on the table grouped with the table sugar and other condiments. Some of the most common ones include aspartame, saccharin, and sucralose which are technical names for the well-known brands Equal, Sweet’N Low and Splenda respectively.
Next up there’s natural sweeteners, which can best be found at natural and organic establishments such as Whole Foods and the likes. Unlike artificial sweeteners, natural sweeteners, as the name suggests, are obtained from natural sources. Some natural sweeteners include agave nectar, raw cane sugar, stevia and …show more content…

One side effect common in sugar alcohols is the, for lack of a better phrase, “laxative effect” because it can’t be easily digested by the body. An experiment was done on forty-two healthy adults of different backgrounds because while the consequences of ingesting sorbitol were noted in children it had yet to be well documented in adults. Presumably the reason why the children had more documented information was because their bodies are less developed than adults therefore they experience the side effects more heavily and easily than their elders. The outcome of the study was that adults could suffer from sorbitol related diarrhea and gastric symptoms, symptoms which, can lead to a result of permanent irritable bowel syndrome. Intolerance of sorbitol is also affected by ones race or ethnicity with it being more common in non-whites such as African-American and Asians than in Caucasians. (Jain N.K. et al.,

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