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Truth About Sweeteners

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Submitted By leaharvay
Words 664
Pages 3
Leah Arvay
ENG 1020 052
November 11, 2013
The Truth about Sweeteners When you go to the store do you ever notice that all of these sweet foods and drinks are claiming to have no sugar and zero calories? And if all these foods and drinks are claiming to have no sugar in them, then why are our obesity numbers in this country continuing to rise? The American Heart Association says in their 2013 Statistical Fact Sheet that 23.9 million children ranging the ages of 2 to 19 are either overweight or obese, 154.7 million adults (ages 20+) are overweight or obese. (American Heart Association) Everybody knows that if you eat too much sugar or too many processed foods and don’t get enough exercise the result is weight gain. But in a society that is next to obsessed with weight loss and trying to find the quickest way to get rid of the weight and to keep it off without truly changing the look or taste of the food we have had to become creative with what we are now including in food.
For a food to be sweet but not contain any sugar or calories, it needs to contain a type of sweetener, typically an artificial sweetener or a sugar substitute. There are many sugar substitutes on the market right now, and even though they help lower the amount of calories and eliminate the sugar, those sweeteners will actually have a negative effect on your body and your children’s body so much so that you’re better off consuming the calories and sugar by using either the real thing or a natural sweetener. Sweeteners are in almost every food you can think of. It is in soda’s (especially diet), energy drinks, gum, jelly’s/jams, yogurt, ice cream, you can even buy the sweeteners themselves in little packets. They are actually trying to get permission to put artificial sweeteners in milk, so more children will drink milk. Most places you look for information regarding sweeteners will tell you they are a good sugar substitute. That they contain no calories, or very minimal amounts and you don’t need to use as much as you normally would with normal sugar. Which is very helpful for weight loss. It is also said that it helps prevent tooth decay and cavities. (Mayo Clinic) Also according to the Mayo Clinic, there are two main areas of health benefits for artificial sweeteners, weight control and diabetes. When it comes to weight loss, using artificial sweeteners cuts down the amount of sugar needed in foods. Typically, “each gram of regular table sugar contains 4 calories. A teaspoon of sugar is about 4 grams. For perspective, consider that 12-ounce can of sweetened cola that contains 8 teaspoons of added sugar, or about 130 calories.” (Mayo Clinic) When it comes to diabetes The Mayo Clinic says, “Artificial sweeteners may be a good alternative to sugar if you have diabetes. Unlike sugar, artificial sweeteners generally don’t raise blood sugar levels because they are not carbohydrates.” (Mayo Clinic) Which is a very good point. People with diabetes are constantly having to check their blood sugar levels and make sure they are stable. Up until now, artificial sweeteners has been used in a very broad term. There are four different groups of sweeteners: artificial sweeteners, Sugar alcohols, Novel sweeteners, Natural sweeteners. Some of those included in artificial sweeteners are: Acesulfame potassium (Sunette, Sweet One), Aspartame (Equal, Nutrasweet), Neotame, Saccharin (SugarTwin, Sweet’N Low), Sucralose (Splenda). Some of those included in sugar alcohols are: Erythritol, Xylitol, Sorbitol. In novel sweeteners the biggest name is the stevia extracts (Pure Via, Truvia). For natural sweeteners you can use agave nectar, date sugar, fruit juice concentrate, honey, maple syrup, or molasses. (Mayo Clinic) By no means does this list include all of the other possibilities or options out in the world today. This is merely a list of the big names that can be found in different products.

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