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A sugar substitute is a food additive which duplicates the effect of sugar on the taste, but with less food energy. In Commonwealth English, sugar substitutes are often referred to as "sweeteners" (to the exclusion of sugar).
They are often used in soft drinks such as cola and foods labeled as "diet" or "light".
Due to health reasons, primarily to lose weight, some people control their food energy intake by substituting sugar with other sweeteners with little or no food energy. Others, such as diabetics, must limit their consumption of sugar.
Chemical compounds used as sugar substitutes include saccharin (e.g. Sweet'N Low), aspartame (e.g. Equal, NutraSweet).
Some sugar substitutes, such as sorbitol, are used instead of sugar not because they lack food energy, but because they don't promote tooth decay or because they have advantages for people with diabetes mellitus in that they are metabolized more slowly than sugar and hence cause blood sugar levels to remain more stable.
People using sugar substitutes instead of sugar take the risk of replacing one health problem with a different one. For example, saccharin is allegedly a carcinogen to lab animals when taken in high quantities, while aspartame is an alleged neurotoxin in large doses. (Note that the evidence for these claims is controversial, as the experiments involved enormous doses of the substances to animals already predisposed to certain cancers. It is unclear whether such research has any relevance to small doses in humans.) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration determined in 1981 that aspartame is safe to use in foods. It has also ruled that all products containing aspartame must include a warning to phenylketonurics that the sweetener contains phenylalanine, and continues to review complaints alleging adverse reactions to products that contain aspartame.
Natural sugar substitutes:
- glycyrrhizin (see licorice) — 50x the sweetening potency of sucrose (by weight)
- thaumatin — 2,000x
- stevia — 250x
Artificial sugar substitutes:
- acesulfame potassium (also known as Acesulfame-K or Ace-K) — 200x
- alitame
- aspartame — 160x
- neotame — 7,000–13,000x
- cyclamate (calcium cyclamate or sodium cyclamate) — 30x
- glucitol
- saccharin (also spelled saccarine, saccarin, or saccharine) — 300x
- sorbitol
- sucralose (trademarked as Splenda or Splendar) — 600x
- xylitol — 1x (by weight), 1.5x (by energy content)
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