In attempts to “get healthy” some think that just substituting table sugar with something else “natural” or “organic” is a big step, and for some it will be.

However, let’s put to rest all the chatter about the ”natural”  sweeteners  and artificial sweeteners that may sound as if they are actually good for you or okay to ingest.

Let’s start with the artificial sweeteners:

SWEET’N LOW (SACCHARINE/CYCLAMATE)–Here’s theme that is recurring – Perform laboratory tests using toxic hazardous chemicals,  spill it on your hand, taste it, give it a name and use it in processed foods as a sweetener!  Sounds like the “Crisco” model!

Saccharin - In 1879 researchers were at Johns Hopkins University were working on toluene derivatives. Toluene is produced in the process of making gasoline from crude oil and in making coke from coal.  Exposure to high levels can cause unconsciousness and even death according to the U.S. Government’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry under the classification of hazardous.

One of the researchers spilled some of the toluene derivative on his hand while doing his research that day and later that night while at dinner noticed that his food tasted oddly sweet.  He traced the taste back to the chemicals he was researching that day and named the substance “saccharin” after the word saccharide, which means complex sugar.

Saccharin–a toluene derivative?  A Derivative of the same toluene used to make nail polish, rubber, paint, and paint thinners, etc., just to add no calorie sweetener to food?  Seriously?

Cyclamate – In 1937 a graduate student from the University of Illinois was trying to synthesize fever reducing drugs in the lab.  He laid his cigarette down on a lab bench and when he took another puff he discovered the sweet taste of cyclamate from the antipyretic drugs he had on his fingers.

Sweet’N Low was originally the first powdered no calorie sweetener and blended 10:1 ratio of cyclamate to saccharine.  After all of the disputes over cyclamates, Sweet’N Low today is a blend of saccharin and dextrose.

SUCRALOSE SPLENDA): Splenda was invented by scientists trying to find a better pesticide. One Scientist said to the other , “test it,” but the other scientist thought he said “TASTE II” and so he did and found that it was sweet.

A very dangerous new chemical — because in order to make sucralose, chlorine is added to sugar!  Research by the Sucralose Toxicity Information Center showed that years of sucralose use can lead to serious compromise of the immune system and neurological disorders.

Splenda is only “made from sugar” because they took a sugar molecule and substituted three of its atoms with chlorine. Chlorine when ingested in your body turns to methanol then in turn gets absorbed as formaldehyde.  Isn’t that interesting?  Formaldehyde–that’s for embalming, right?  Just think you can preserve yourself while you kill yourself!

“The manufacturer’s own short-term studies showed that very high doses of sucralose (far beyond what would be expected in an ordinary diet) caused shrunken thymus glands, enlarged livers, and kidney disorders in rodents. A more recent study also shows that Splenda significantly decreases beneficial gut flora.

As a side note, more than 90% of my clients have compromised guts (intestines).  Whether parasites, candida, toxicity, or poor bowel function, your health does begin in the gut.  In fact, at least 80% of your immune system is in your intestines!  Why would you want to do anything to compromise that?

“But in this case, the FDA decided that because these studies weren’t based on human test animals, they were not conclusive. Of course, rats had been chosen for the testing specifically because they metabolize sucralose more like humans than any other animal used for testing.

In other words, the FDA has tried to have it both ways — they accepted the manufacturer’s studies on rats because the manufacturer had shown that rats and humans metabolize the sweetener in similar ways, but shrugged off the safety concerns on the grounds that rats and humans are different.”

Sucralose has been implicated as a possible migraine trigger, for example. Self-reported adverse reactions to Splenda or sucralose collected by the Sucralose Toxicity Information Center include skin rashes/flushing, panic-like agitation, dizziness and numbness, diarrhea, swelling, muscle aches, headaches, intestinal cramping, bladder issues, and stomach pain. These show up at one end of the spectrum — in the people who have an allergy or sensitivity to the sucralose molecule. But no one can say to what degree consuming Splenda affects the rest of us, and there are no long-term studies in humans with large numbers of subjects to say one way or the other if it’s safe for everyone.

ASPARTAME (NUTRI-SWEET, EQUAL)

Aspartate (main ingredient in Nutrisweet/Equal) in simplistic terms, causes the brain neurons to constantly fire – that’s why it’s called an excitotoxin – these neurons actually keep firing and are literally excited to death.

Aspartame is so much sweeter than sugar that frequent consumption can lead people to actually consume more calories.  I’ve always said, “fat people drink diet-coke!” The truth is… “phenylalanine and aspartic acid, the amino acids which make up the bulk of aspartame, are known to rapidly stimulate the release of insulin and leptin, which are hormones that signal the body to store fat…”  Sweet Deception by Dr. Mercola

Glutamate (MSG, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, Glutamaic acid, etc.)is also an amino acid and does exactly the same thing as Aspartate with respect to brain cells.  “Likewise, exposing neurons to glutamate or aspartate can induce paired helical filaments very similar to those seen in naturally occurring Alzheimer’s disease…” (Excitotoxins, The Taste That Kills by Russell L. Blaylock, MD)

Sadly in a child’s brain, the constant firing of neurons and death of brain cells causes irreversible damage!

“Aspartame accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA. Many of these reactions are very serious including seizures and death.(1) A few of the 90 different documented symptoms listed in the report as being caused by aspartame include: Headaches/migraines, dizziness, seizures, nausea, numbness, muscle spasms, weight gain, rashes, depression, fatigue, irritability, tachycardia, insomnia, vision problems, hearing loss, heart palpitations, breathing difficulties, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, loss of taste, tinnitus, vertigo, memory loss, and joint pain.

According to researchers and physicians studying the adverse effects of aspartame, the following chronic illnesses can be triggered or worsened by ingesting of aspartame:(2) Brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, parkinson’s disease, alzheimer’s, mental retardation, lymphoma, birth defects, fibromyalgia, and diabetes…”  Mercola

Don’t you just wonder why people keep drinking toxic chemicals every time you see someone drinking a diet soda??? They are better off with HFCF!!!!

NEOTAME – Monsanto developed a new version of aspartame which is 72 times sweeter than aspartame and called neotame.  Neotame is chemically related aspartame and is 7 to 13 thousand times sweeter than sugar, stable at high heat and not broken down in the body into the amino acid phenylalanine.  Neotame is aspartame plus 3-di-methyl-butyl, which is on the EPA’s list of most hazardous chemicals.  Wow!  What an improvement over aspartame!  I just bet that it is being used in processed foods under some mysterious ingredient name…

SUGAR ALCOHOLS – XYLOTOL, MANNITOL, SORBITOL, MALTITOL, ISOMALT, LACTITOL, TAGATOSE ERYTHITOL-Sugar alcohols are found naturally in low levels in some raw fruits and vegetables and don’t cause problems in their raw state.

However, the sugar alcohols (Polyols) manufactured are quite different in the way the body reacts to them.  Most sugar alcohols are not considered GRAS (generally regarded as safe) under food and beverage law, but are allowed under the American cosmetic, flavor, and pharmaceutical regulations. They can cause the following adverse side effects at only 1½ teaspoons per day and some polyols have been linked directly to malignant tumor activity:

Bloating

Gastrointestinal distress

Diarrhea

Anal leakage

These symptoms are particularly dangereous in infants, children, diabetics, hyperinsulinemics of hypoglycemic, pregnamt women, seniors and many other health compromised people.

Don’t sugar alcohols sound too good to be true?  You would think it’s a miracle sugar substitute in all the hype.  From Dr. Mercola in Sweet Deception,  “… However, even though sugar alcohols do not raise your blood sugar levels as much as table sugar, they do raise them.
Sugar alcohols can also be converted to fat, and may contribute to an increase in blood triglyceride levels and weight gain.  The exception to this rule is erythritol, which does not appear to raise blood sugars, but unfortunately also has inferior sweetening power.”

Studies have shown that of the sugar alcohols xylitol is probably the best because of the health benefits associated with it, such as the benefit of preventing tooth decay and ear infections, however, it is still a manufactured,  manipulated product.

Let’s face it – sugar is sugar and the food industry is constantly trying to “candy-coat”  the fact that sugar is still sugar, no matter what you call it and it still is and always will be very harmful to the body.

SUGAR - Table sugar, cane sugar, etc. is made of 50% glucose and 50% fructose.  It is recognized by the body as a simple sugar, and it can deal with it, albeit it is stressful to deal with but it does nonetheless.  Too much sugar can lead to diabetes, which will lead to heart disease, renal disease, pripheral vascular disease, diabetic retinitis (blindness), diabetic peripheral neuropathy , etc.

FRUCTOSE – It’s natural sugar found in fruits, right?  So it should be okay to use as a sugar replacement.  WRONG!  Any type of fructose is very dangerous – it essentially sends the message to the liver to store fat.  That’s why we eat fruit in season and with some type of a fat for a buffer.  The fruit is complete with fiber as well as the fructose.  Please see my earlier blog, Fruit will make you Fat. Remember, fructose raises triglyceride levels and lowers HDL levels among other things.

FRUCTO-OLIGOSACCHARIDES (FOS) – a type of soluable fiber and is not very sweet and is usually mixed with other more intense sweeteners.  Since it is indigestible, it can cause digestive distress including gas and bloating when eaten excessively.

Sadly, because of the misleading labeling in  the health foods industry, generally when you see FOS on the label it’s probably really fructose mislabeled in order to deceive you into believing the product is sugar free.

HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP – We all know it is bad, and to reiterate, in addition to being genetically modified corn, it is anywhere from 42% to 45% glucose and 55% – 58/% fructose. The acid enzyme procedure used to manufacture it aside, your body doesn’t readily recognize the new structure, and that’s where the mayhem  begins—that extra punch of fructose.

AGAVE NECTAR – Can be 55 percent to 90 percent fructose, depending on brand!

In spite of manufacturer’s claims, most agave “nectar” is not made from the sap of the yucca or agave plant but from its pineapple-like root bulb[i]. The root has a complex carbohydrate called inulin, which is made up of fructose molecules.

The process which many, if not most, agave producers use to convert this inulin into “nectar” is VERY similar to the process by which cornstarch is converted into HFCS1.

Though processing methods can differ among manufacturers, most commercially available agave is converted into fructose-rich syrup using genetically modified enzymes and a chemically intensive process involving caustic acids, clarifiers, and filtration chemicals [ii]. Here is a partial list of the chemicals many producers use:

• Activated charcoal
• Cationic and ionic resins
• Sulfuric and/or hydrofluoric acid
• Dicalite
• Clarimex
• Inulin enzymes
• Fructozyme

How natural does this sound?

Anyway, of the “good” agave syrups here’s a breakdown of three:

Fructose is Fructose, People!

GLUCOSE- (dextrose) – You can get dextrose for about $1 a pound at the health food store.   It does not affect the liver the way fructose does.  Glucose does not cause insulin resistance or trick your body into persistant hunger the way fructose does.

Except for individuals with full blown- diabetes, glucose does not trigger harmful metabolic changes!  It is okay to use sparingly, and is only about 70% as sweet as sucrose so you’ll end up using a bit more of it for the same amount of sweetness, making it slightly more expensive than sucrose—but still well worth it for your health as it has ZERO grams of fructose.  You need to get from reputable source, as it is can be a corn derivative and you want to make sure it is not genetically modified.

Remember, glucose can be used directly by every cell in your body and as such is far safer than the metabolic poison fructose.

HONEY –  Don’t be fooled and misled – honey packs a punch in that it can contain as much as fructose or more than HFCS.

MOLASSES – has a high fructose content, though not as much as honey.   Molasses has 5.5 grams of fructose per 1 tablespoon and honey for same amount is 8.8 grams of fructose!  If you are trying to keep your total daily fructose consumption down at 25, this is pretty high at 1 tablespoon!

PURE MAPLE SUGAR SYRUP,–By composition, this sugar is about 90% sucrose (remember sucrose is 50% glucose 50% fructose), the remainder consisting of variable amounts of glucose and fructose.  Extreme caution should be taken when choosing a maple syrup, using brands that are  organic or guaranteed not to use formaldehyde .  Formaldehyde is used in the production of mose commercial brands of pure maple syrup!

FRUIT  JUICE CONCENTRATE, ETC. – When I see these sweeteners, I cringe –concentrated fructose as main component. The juice is particularly bad because it is almost pure concentrated fructose without the benefit of the fiber of the fruit!  How is that healthy?

BROWN RICE SYRUP – made by fermenting brown rice with chemical enzymes, followed by centrifuging, filtering and purifying to a dextrose consistency.  As you can imagine, all nutrition has been stripped and it is mostly maltose with half the sweetness of sugar.

LO HAN KUO – fruit of the momordica grosvenori, a plant in the cucumber and melon family the extracts of which can be 250 time sweeter than sugar and tastes like black licorice.

Lo Han has been used for centuries I Traditional Chinese Medicine to improve skin conditions, sore throats, coughs, purifying the blood and regulating the digestive tract.  Lo Han is actually processed less than stevia, can be heated, can control food and sugar cravings, and like stevia has no calories or sugar.

STEVIA – Stevia rebaudiana A plant whose leaves when dried are very sweet—up to 300 times as sweet as sugar.  It is a genus of about 240 species of herbs and shrubs in the sunflower family and native to tropical and subtropical regions from western North America to South America.

Stevia gives almost no glycemic response and has been used in Japan for decades.  The US banned Stevia in the early 1990s unless labeled as a supplement, but in 2008 approved rebaudioside A extrct as a food additive.

From Wikipedia, “In terms of weight fraction, the four major steviol glycosides found in the stevia plant tissue are:

• 5–10% stevioside (250–300X of sugar)
• 2–4% rebaudioside A — most sweet (350–450X of sugar) and least bitter
• 1–2% rebaudioside C
• ½–1% dulcoside A.

Rebaudioside B, D, and E may also be present in minute quantities; however, it is suspected that rebaudioside B is a byproduct of the isolation technique. ^[2] The two majority compounds stevioside and rebaudioside, primarily responsible for the sweet taste of stevia leaves, were first isolated by two French chemists in 1931…

Rebiana is the trade name^[4] for a zero-calorie sweetener containing mainly rebaudioside A (also called Reb A).^[5] Truvia is the consumer brand for Rebiana marketed by Cargill and developed jointly with The Coca-Cola Company.^[6] PureVia is PepsiCo‘s brand of Reb A sweetener. Enliten is Corn Products International‘s brand of Reb A sweetener.”

Stevia is the preferred sweetener to use, but only in the natural “supplement” form, not isolated, manipulated and manufactured by a company as cited above!

DATE SUGAR – dehydrated dates ground into powder and is 85% sucrose.  See maple syrup above.

SUCCANT AND TURBINADO SUGARS –  Succant is a contraction of “Sucre de canne naturel”, which was introduced by Pronatec in 1978 and is a brand name for whole cane sugar. Unlike refined and processed white sugar, Sucanat retains its molasses content; it is essentially pure dried sugar cane juice. The juice is extracted by mechanical processes, heated and cooled at which point the small brown grainy crystals are formed.

Sucanat may be confused with turbinado sugar; however, the two are fundamentally different. Turbinado sugar contains only a trace amount of its original molasses content, making it similar to refined sugar except with a golden color and a hint of molasses flavor. Sucanat, on the other hand, retains its full molasses content and flavor, thus making it, as stated above, pure dried cane juice. Its grainy form also contrasts with the clear, crystalline form of turbinado.  BUT IT IS STILL SUGAR!

I think that when you look at the pros and cons of the choices of sweeteners, the best choices are self-evident.

Resources:

Mercola.com

The sugar fix, Dr. Richard Johnson

Douglassreport.com

Wikipedia.com

Sweet Deception, by Dr. James Mercola

Excitotoxins, the Taste that Kills by Dr. Russell Blaylock

Janet Stuck is a Doctor of Naturopathy, Certified Nutritional Counselor, Certified Wellness Nutritional Counselor, Master Herbologist and Certified Natural Health Professional. Janet writes for

www.LiberationWellnessBlog.com and her website www.onestopherbshop.net.