Sweeten Smarter: What is the Healthiest Sweetener to Use?

When it comes to sweetening our foods and beverages, the options can feel overwhelming. From natural sugars found in fruits to artificial and plant-based sweeteners, understanding the pros and cons of each is essential for making informed dietary choices.

With sugar consumption being a major factor in overall health and linked to issues such as weight gain and type 2 diabetes, many people are reevaluating their sources of sweetness.

With all of the options available, what is the healthiest sweetener to use? This blog will guide you through the different types of sugars, how they impact the body, and what alternatives are available to help you make healthier choices. Whether you’re aiming to cut back on refined sugars or are curious about sugar substitutes, here’s what you need to know.

Sugar is one type of carbohydrate along with fiber and starch. Carbohydrates are essential in our diet because the body uses them in large amounts. Sugar is a term for many types of sugar including white table sugar (sucrose) which is the most common. 

Sugar is only one of the many types of sugars found in fruits, vegetables, grains, and dairy products. These natural sugars include fructose, galactose, glucose, lactose, and maltose.

To answer the question: what is the healthiest sweetener to use, it’s important to understand how the body processes sugar.

Our bodies process the sugars from foods; then the cells pull glucose from the bloodstream to use for fuel and energy. Removing whole-food carbohydrates from your diet is not a healthy choice because there are nutrient benefits that fruits and vegetables contain, not just sugar. 

You can make better choices for where the sweetness in your diet comes from by choosing naturally derived sugars instead of refined sugars.

There is a big difference between added sugar and naturally occurring sugar, particularly in cookies, donuts, candy, and bread, where refined sugar is added. The problem is that these are empty calories and there’s hardly any nutrient value. Consuming too much refined sugars with no nutrients can lead to health problems which include high blood sugar, insulin resistance, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.

Consuming fruits with naturally occurring fructose, juices, honey, and maple syrup has some nutritional benefits. Fruits contain fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants along with naturally occurring sugar and will sustain blood sugar longer than refined sugar

Sugar substitutes are sweet-tasting dietary additives that contain no sugar and little to no calories. These ingredients are marketed as “sugar-free,” “keto,” or “low carb.” Sugar substitutes fall into three categories: artificial sweeteners, sugar alcohols, and novel sweeteners.

Artificial sweeteners such as acesulfame, advantame, aspartame, saccharin, and sucralose are created from chemicals in a lab. They can be 200 to 700 times sweeter than sugar. They contain no calories or sugar and do not contain any beneficial nutrients. These ingredients are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration as food additives. 

However, some experts believe that artificial sweeteners pose health risks. Research has been ongoing for artificial sweeteners and they are considered generally safe and acceptable for consumption at an acceptable daily intake. However, they have been linked to imbalances of gut bacteria that can lead to poor blood sugar control, increased food cravings, and weight gain.

Very similar to artificial sweeteners, sugar alcohols are created synthetically and usually from actual sugar. Sugar alcohols are commonly found in processed foods such as chewing gum and hard candies. They are known to cause some gastrointestinal discomfort such as bloating, gas, or diarrhea. Some examples of sugar alcohols are erythritol, isomalt, lactitol, maltitol, sorbitol, and xylitol.