How Sweet It Isn't

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I often say that Jen and I aren't militant about our power pantry lifestyle; we go with the flow concerning many limits on foods and what we'll keep in the house, etc. But one area we have been drawing a hard line on is artificial sweeteners. We have concluded, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there is no redeeming quality to these man-made substances and have eliminated them from our pantry. We'll stick with pure cane sugar, raw honey, stevia, and agave nectar, thank you.

I was talking with a friend the other day who asked me if artificial sweeteners were really all that bad. Isn't it okay to have a diet soda or two a day without worrying that it is killing us? While I seriously doubt one or two diet sodas a day will kill us (this decade) I fail to see why we should consume artificial sweeteners at all. For a soda a day, we'd do much better with a regular caffeinated, sugared soda (just one)...

What are the man-made culprits we're referring to? Aspartame, sucralose and saccharine, mainly. These sugar-free sweeteners have become ubiquitous in our manufactured foods, and the average American consumes over 20 pounds of them a year. Yuk.

Much of the support for the safety of artificial sweeteners (ie, FDA approval) reads like a cloak and dagger thriller. Read the Wikipedia entry on aspartame here... what a mess. Realize this: the FDA does no independent research of their own (they have no scientists in lab coats with test tubes and beakers, titrating stuff...). All the FDA does is review research findings provided to them by the manufacturer of the food/additive/pharmaceutical, etc. Yes, the fox is watching the hen house. This one fact is so misunderstood in American society - the FDA opinions are not neutral. They are based solely on research and data provided to them by outside entities who are working for those producing the substance in question. We have little to no reason to trust all FDA approvals...just sayin'.

So what sweeteners are okay? Well, the ones which have been processed the least. That would make raw honey the top of the heap; we eat it just the way the bees made it. Others are (from less to more processed): maple syrup, agave nectar (which is like maple syrup, only made from cactus sap), raw cane sugar (turbinado) and then coconut sugar, pure cane sugar, beet sugar, etc. Stevia is an interesting sweetener as it is a healthy, natural product in its raw form - it's an herbal leaf which happens to be very sweet. Be careful with processed stevia products, though, as some are cut with erythritol, xylitol and other processed sweeteners.

The key to healthy sweeteners, like so much in a power pantry, is restraint and moderation. The more we eat natural, whole food sweets (like apples and pears) and not concentrated sugars like honey and maple syrup, the more enjoyable those natural (limited) sweets will be in our diet. Be picky with the sweets in your power pantry and your body and health will thank you for it.

By the Way

There are hours of reading available on this topic online. Here are a few noteworthy articles:
The Mayo Clinic - great post on artificial sweeteners
Dr Oz - excellent perspective on the big picture for sweeteners
Harvard Medical School - weighs the cost of sugar-free

Beyond these, just Google "health effects artificial sweeteners", "aspartame effects" and any number of other search terms you can think of... you'll have plenty to read.