about sweeteners

natural sugar substitutes

honey, molasses, maple syrup

For some reason, people think these things are better than white sugar. They contain a bit of minerals, which is an improvement over white sugar, but otherwise are nearly identical. White sugar breaks down in your stomach into half glucose (blood sugar) and half fructose (fruit sugar)... as do all of the common syrups. It may be somewhat healthier for normal people to eat these than white sugar, and they certainly add a special taste to some food products, but they are not any better for a diabetic than white sugar.

fructose

For a while, it seemed fructose was the wonder sugar. It has a much lower glycemic index than white sugar, meaning it raises blood glucose levels much less than white sugar does. Lots of "diabetic" products were made with fructose because it was considered better than sugar. However, we've recently discovered *why* fructose doesn't raise blood glucose as much as sugar, and that is because the liver draws it out of the blood to store it as fat. From an evolutionary viewpoint, this makes a lot of sense - fruits are largely available in fall, when people needed to put on fat to survive the winter. Unfortunately, evolution has not caught up with the fact that we have grocery stores today. Many people believe that the reason for the obesity epidemic is because so many food products are made with high-fructose corn syrup, which has a much higher proportion of fructose than white sugar does. Type II diabetics, with the twin problems of reduced insulin production and insulin resistance are already prone to obesity and therefore don't need to be eating this stuff.

sugar alcohols: erythritol, glycerol, lacitol, maltitol, mannitol, sorbitol and xylitol

These are called sugar alcohols, which is a bit misleading as they're neither chemically sugars nor what people commonly think of as alcohol. They are technically considered carbohydrates, but they don't seem to behave in the body the same, being incompletely metabolized in the GI tract. The side effect of this is that over-consumption can cause diarrhea. In the case of sugar alcohols, over-consumption can mean a very tiny amount: eating two sugar-free Reese's cups instead of one can cause an extreme reaction. Some people respond more strongly to sugar alcohols than others do, and some people respond more strongly to one than another. I've heard a lot of people say they tolerate erythritol better than the others. Some people seem to have the opposite problem, instead of not metabolizing sugar alcohols, they find their blood glucose levels increase nearly as much as if they ate white sugar. If you choose to use sugar alcohols, you should test your blood sugar to see how well you tolerate them. Sugar alcohols are commonly used in making sugar-free chocolate and hard candies because they add a mouth-feel you can't get from artificial sweeteners. Many of the sugar alcohols are available for use in home cooking.

stevia

Stevia is a very sweet, licorice-flavored herb. It is not approved in the US as a sugar substitute so can only be sold here as a dietary supplement, though other countries have approved it as a food additive. The raw herb is not useful in most cooking as the licorice flavor is very pronounced. However, purified stevia extracts do not have the licorice flavor. I grew some of the herb last year, but never did anything with it beyond chewing a leaf with a few peppermint or spearmint leaves. It is a heat-stable sweetener and therefore useful in cooking.

artificial sweeteners

saccharin, major brand name: Sweet N Low

Saccharin was banned in Canada after animal studies showing it caused cancer, but remains available in the US. It is a heat-stable sweetener. Many people find saccharin to have an unpleasant, bitter aftertaste. I can't stand the stuff myself.

aspartame, major brand name: Equal

Aspartame is controversial amongst some people; it probably has as many sites published about it than there are questioning JFK's assassination. I do not think it's bad, myself, except for those with PKU disease. It is not heat stable, but breaks down in heat. It works fine in coffee or hot tea, but you really can't cook with it as it breaks down and loses it's sweetness.

acesulfame potassium, major brand names: Sunett and Sweet One

This was the first heat-stable sweetener that was widely available since saccharin, so I'm uncertain why it didn't become more popular. Some people think it has a bitter aftertaste, but I don't taste that myself.

cylcamate, major brand names: Sugar Twin and Sucaryl

This stuff was banned in the US due to a study that was later discredited. It's approved in 55 countries, including Canada.

sucralose, major brand name: Splenda

This is the newest sweetener available to consumers. It is heat-stable and has much less aftertaste than most of the other sweeteners. It's still under patent and therefore not available as a generic yet and is thus expensive.

forms sweeteners come in

concentrated powders

Stevia and the artificial sweeteners are SO sweet that the powder is not very useful as you can't accurately measure the tiny amounts you'd need. Generally, the powders are available to food manufacturers, not consumers. The exception is stevia, whose extract is available powdered in health food stores. I have a small bottle I bought with a shaker top on it, and the shaker top is useless because you *can't* shake out little enough of the stuff to equal a couple teaspoons of sugar. 1/4 tsp of this brand of extract is equal to 1 cup of sugar, so there's no way to measure out the equivalent of a teaspoon or two. Still, I prefer buying it as a powder as it's the most frugal course.

liquids

Liquids are the *best* way for stevia and artificial sweeteners to be diluted for general use as dissolving them in water does not add additional carbohydrate to the sweetener. I buy a form of liquid sucralose that has an equivalence of 25 drops liquid is equal to a cup of sugar. This is a usable dilution. I dilute my stevia extract by dissolving 1 tsp of extract in 4 TB of water and then I store it in a dropper bottle. 2 drops of this is equivalent to a tsp of sugar. I have seen saccharin sold as a liquid directly in grocery stores, but liquid versions of the other sweeteners are uncommon; you'll have to Google to find a source.

tablets

Tablets are the second best way to buy artificial sweeteners. Tablets are formed by mixing the sweetener with dextrose and maltodextrin, which are carbohydrates. However, tablets add the least amount of carb of the commonly-available solid forms of the sweeteners. Tablets are generally equivalent to 1 tsp of sugar.

packets

Packets also add dextrose and maltodextrin to the artificial sweetener, but they add a bit more than in the case of the tablets. However, they're the most available form of most sweeteners so everyone tends to use them a lot. Packets are generally equivalent to 2 tsp of sugar.

bulk

This form of sweetener is majorly bulked out with gobs of dextrose and maltodextrin so that it will measure like sugar. Thus it's really a bad form of artificial sweetener and will raise blood glucose significantly and thus should be avoided by diabetics.

Equivalents

This table shows the equivalents for various forms of artificial sweeteners (AS) and stevia (S).

sugar	powder S extract	liquid AS (where 25 drops = 1 cup sugar)	tablets of AS	packets of AS	dilute S (1 tsp extract to 4 TB water)
1 tsp	not measurable	not measurable	1 tablet	1/2 packet	2 drops
2 tsp	not measurable	1 drop	2 tablets	1 packet	4 drops
1 TB	not measurable	2 drops	3 tablets	1 1/2 packets	6 drops
1/4 cup	not measurable	6 drops	6 tablets	3 packets	2 tsp
1/3 cup	not measurable	8 drops	16 tablets	8 packets	5 1/2 tsp
1/2 cup	1/8 tsp	2 tsp	12 tablets	6 packets	8 tsp
1 cup	1/4 tsp	4 tsp	24 tablets	12 packets	5 TB

If using in a recipe, tablets should either be crushed or dissolved in the liquid portion of the recipe.

Many people find using a mixture of sugar-substitutes to give the most satisfactory results in cooking as the various aftertastes seem to cancel out.

Myself, I mostly use aspartame packets or diluted stevia extract for drinks and liquid sucralose or powdered stevia in cooking.

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