Con­ven­tional sweet­en­ers are unhealthy as you know, but what are the alternatives? So you have decided to give sugar the boot, but you would still like to have a bit of sweet in your life.

Why is sugar bad?  Apart from caus­ing tooth cav­i­ties and mak­ing us pick up weight, sugar causes large spikes of Insulin, a hor­mone that helps cells absorb sugar from the blood stream.  Con­stant high Insulin lev­els increase your chances of Dia­betes, heart dis­ease and can­cer.  Raised Insulin lve­les can also cause hor­monal prob­lems like infer­til­ity and Poly Cys­tic Ovar­ian Syn­drome in women and low testos­terone in men that can lead to fatigue and erec­tile dys­func­tion.   Sugar is highly addic­tive and stim­u­lates the same parts of our brains as drugs like cocaine.

The Good:

Xyl­i­tol is a nat­ural low calo­rie sugar found in tree bark and is har­vested from birch tree forests or man­u­fac­tured from corn.  The beauty of xyl­i­tol is that it doesn’t affect insulin lev­els, so it doesn’t increase chances of devel­op­ing insulin resis­tance, dia­betes or hor­monal prob­lems.  Xyl­i­tol has slight antibac­te­r­ial prop­er­ties and unlike table sugar actu­ally pre­vents tooth decay.  It is often used in sugar free gum, and can be used in bak­ing.  It has a slightly cool mouth feel which is dif­fer­ent from table sugar, but this effect can be reduced if  used in com­bi­na­tion with Ste­via.  Xyl­i­tol can cause diar­rhoea in large quan­ti­ties, so if your tummy gets upset when using xyl­i­tol ini­tially, reduce the amount you con­sume per day until your sys­tem adjusts.

Ste­via is extracted from a plant called Ste­via rebau­di­ana that grows in Bazil and Paraguai.  It is 600 times sweeter than sugar and con­tains no calo­ries.  Be care­ful of sweet­ener sachets and tablets made with ste­via as these often con­tain dex­trose (a sugar) and sucralose (as dis­cussed above in the ‘worst’ cat­e­gory).  Ste­via is best used in a pure pow­der or liq­uid form.  Please be super care­ful how much you use: 6 drops are equal in sweet­ness to a spoon of table sugar so it is easy to use too much.  Ste­via is great for bak­ing– use in com­bi­na­tion with xylitol.

Ery­thri­tol is a no calo­rie sweet­ener that occurs nat­u­rally in some fruit and fer­mented foods.  It is sim­i­lar to xyl­i­tol.  It has less risks of caus­ing diar­rhoea in sus­cep­ti­ble peo­ple because it is absorbed higher up in the diges­tive tract.  It can cause headaches and slight nau­sea in a small per­cent­age of peo­ple if con­sumed in large quantities.

The Not-So-Good:

A lot of nat­ural sug­ars sub­sti­tutes are still sug­ars with the same risks as nor­mal table sugar.  They might be less refined, but they still cause large insulin spikes and still have the same risks of increas­ing your chances of obe­sity, dia­betes, can­cer etc.  Remem­ber that all raw or brown sug­ars are still sugar at heart with maybe a bit of caramel or molasses added.

Honey falls into this cat­e­gory.  It is a great med­i­c­i­nal sub­stance in raw form to treat ail­ments like sore throats and skin dis­eases.  A spoon of honey made by bees in your area taken daily for a few weeks before spring can even help pre­vent hayfever, but honey is still mostly sugar and should not be taken daily as a sugar substitute.

Agarve is a sugar that is made from the same plant that tequila is made.  It is a high fruc­tose sugar.  Fruc­tose is the sugar most com­monly found in fruit, and can be healthy if con­sumed in whole fruit where fibre con­tent slows down sugar absorp­tion and the amount con­sumed is lim­ited.  Con­cen­trated fruc­tose as is found in Agarve syrup can increase fats in the blood (triglyc­erides) and can cause fat deposits in the liver itself (fatty liver syn­drome) which affects liver function.

The Ugly:

Sac­cha­rin has been linked to increased chances of devel­op­ing blad­der can­cer in a num­ber of studies.

Aspar­t­a­mine has been linked to weight gain (!) and decreased insulin sen­si­tiv­ity, which can lead to insulin resis­tance and ulti­mately type 2 diabetes.

Sucralose was once thought to be the answer to our sugar prayers, but is start­ing to not look too good either.  It is made by adding a chlo­rine mol­e­cule to nor­mal table sugar which makes it less absorbable.  The prob­lem is that the small per­cent­age that does get absorbed is very dif­fi­cult for your body to get rid of.  Sucralose has been linked to pos­si­ble birth defects, can­cer, and immune dysfunction.

Try to do a 10 day Sugar detox.  Avoid all sug­ars except for xyl­i­tol, Ste­via and Ery­thri­tol from your diet.  Your sugar crav­ings will get less severe each day and will even­tu­ally disappear.

Keep Well,

Dr Jana