Sweet newcomers like stevia and agave are making their way into our morning coffee, while regular sugar and sketchy artificial sweeteners are losing the nutritional race.
These new low-cal sweeteners are derived from natural substances, rather than synthesized like saccharin and aspartame so choosing them can make you feel at least somewhat healthy. But according to SELF, there still are concerns.
Are they safe?
Many of these natural sweeteners are new, so they haven't been studied as extensively as sugar and artificial substitutes have, SELF stated.
Barry Popkin, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor of nutrition, says although we would expect natural to mean there is nothing artificial about it, some new sweeteners may undergo chemical processing to extract them from their original sources. And while the FDA does review the data provided and considers most of them to be generally recognized as safe, we're not sure if the extraction process affects their healthfulness. This is because manufacturers don't provide many details, according to SELF.
But the Center for Science in the Public Interest believes this new generation of sweeteners is probably safer than aspartame and saccharin, which has been thought to increase one's risk of cancer. However, this was before the FDA and the American Cancer Society dismissed the theory because of it's basis on older animal studies that had very large amounts of artificial sweeteners, SELF reported.
However, there is one new sweetener that CSPI has put in its "caution" category: the monk-fruit extract found in products such as Nectresse because it has been poorly tested for safety.
"But since it's derived from fruit, it is probably safe," says CSPI's executive director Michael Jacobson.
Is it slimming?
Except for agave syrup, the new sweeteners are very low-calorie or calorie-free, so we would assume they can help decrease our calorie intake. But we can't be so sure because there's no research that specifically looks at how these sweeteners affect weight loss, according to SELF.
The existing studies on dieting focus on the older generation of artificial sweeteners and the evidence is mixed there, too.
"Our research shows that artificial sweeteners do appear to reduce the risk for weight gain when combined with a healthy, well-balanced diet," says Popkin.
But a 2013 study review in Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism found that in the case of artificial sweeteners, as little as the amount found in one can of diet soda a day, are associated with an increased likelihood of weight gain and diabetes, SELF reported.
"Sweeteners may be interfering with the psychological responses that help us regulate body weights and control blood sugar," said Susan Swithers, the study's author and a professor of behavioral neuroscience at Purdue University.
In simpler terms, this means when we taste something sweet, our bodies actually expect real calories to go into our stomachs, so in order to prepare, we release insulin and other hormones to react to the influx and register fullness. But when there aren't any calories, the insulin and other hormones can cause our blood sugar to plunge and can make us crave more sweets and overeat, SELF reported.
Although the study focused on artificial low-calorie sweeteners, experts think the effect would be the same for natural sweeteners, too.
"We would not expect natural low-calorie sweeteners to be any better than artificial sweeteners when it comes to weight management," says Swithers.
But there is good news. You may be able to counter the overeating effect if you have sweetened foods that contain fiber, like oatmeal for example. The fiber will help keep insulin levels steady so blood sugar doesn't plunge, says New York psychologist Stephen Gullo.
So what's the verdict?
One thing is clear: studies continue to show that sugar is a major factor in obesity, heart disease, inflammation and other chronic health conditions. Therefore, many experts advocate controlling added sugar intake in our diets as much as possible.
But Cindy Fitch, a registered dietician and director or Families and Health Programs at West Virginia University's extension service, says, "If you have a sweet tooth, consuming sugar substitutes is better for you."
