Artificial Sweeteners vs. Real Sweeteners: Which Do You Use?

Our family is on a journey of cutting down on our sugar intake(albeit some more willing than others). I am in awe of all the "options" of sweeteners on the market. A local supermarket trip showed a whole aisle dedicated to the various types of sweeteners available.

Are you aware of the artificial sweeteners?  Aspartame  (Equal, Nutrasweet), Sucralose (Splenda) and Saccharin (Sweet n Low) are the biggest marketed ones and there is a lot of information available that would make you think twice about ingesting them. Check out a well documented book and video here Sweet Deception. These big giants of industry like (Monsanto) also produce well known pesticides(Round Up), GMO seeds and pharmaceutical drugs for us. Check it out for yourself see Sweet Poison. Splenda has been associated with numerous problems and is the equivalent of pouring bleach on your sugar! Truth About Splenda.

So, bypassing the chemicals, side affects and incriminating evidence against ingesting of all these chemicals we started back to sugar. But, not even all sugar is the same. White sugar can be cane or beet. Cane is a better choice since Monsanto is the biggest producer of GMO seeds for sugar beet production. There is turbinado, raw, brown, evaporated cane and the list goes on and on. But for those wishing to watch their sugar intake it is bad for the diabetic and borderline diabetic. Some say it is more addicting than cocaine.

Honey is a natural sweetener with immune boosting qualities and a healthy alternative to anything artificial, but for the diabetic again it is a no no.

High Fructose corn syrup( made from GMO corn), is a manufacturers dream for cheap production at the expense of our health. Read 5 Health Dangers of HFCS. Don't be fooled by the commercials out there saying it is good for you, do your own research.

The search now brings us to two healthier alternatives stevia and xylitol. Both are plant derived and do not increase an insulin response in people and as a bonus the sweeteners add little or no calories and no chemical by products.

Stevia is a plant from Paraguay and the leaves are crushed to produce a white powder. This powder is what is used as a sweetener. It can even  be grown at home in a garden or a pot as an annual. All you do is dry the leaves and the powder falls from the leaves. A supplier I found that ships live plants was Herbal Advantage, although more local garden suppliers are carrying it due to high demand.

from stevia.net

 It has been suppressed by the FDA, in fact the FDA wouldn't even allow it to be listed as a sweetener only a dietary supplement. Also because it has no profit in the drug industry, since it is a plant and unpatentable. Learn more here stevia.net

iHerb has it for $5.95 and using code FAM191 gets you $5 off your first order (note: their labeling is in the process of changing so the bottle may look different but the product is the same)

Stevia takes very little to make something sweet. A pinch to a 1/16 of a teaspoon is the same as a teaspoon of sugar or 1tsp. of stevia is the same as a cup of sugar. It can be used in beverages, baking, cooking and anything that needs sweetening. Now includes a tiny scoop to measure it out. It has a little aftertaste that some don't like, similiar to aspartame but we have made up "sweet juice" from this video with a stevia explanation and recipe link here My friends blog has an article "Ever Try Stevia"  I found a great website with recipes using stevia here at Stevia.com.

Xylitol is a sugar produced from alcohol of fibrous vegetables and plants. Some is from birch trees and other comes from corn.It is low-glycemic meaning good for diabetics and a great natural cavity fighter and tooth whitener. Learn more here. Use it like regular sugar a tsp. equals a tsp. of sugar.  iHerb has it again for $6.20 for a pound . You can find it in toothpaste, chewing gum and nasal sprays as well as the crystalline form. It tastes the most like sugar and is used in equal amounts like sugar is used at only 10 calories a tsp. The only problem baking wise is that you can't use it to feed yeast in making breads and other yeast using products. The NOW brand uses it from certified no GMO corn. About NOW Xylitol

NOW brand xylitol

If anyone has any recipes to share using alternatives or testimonies on how it works let me know. I am in the testing and trying mode of alternatives myself. I will update on results later.