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NUTRITIONAL SCIENCE
The Truth About Artificial Sweeteners
They won’t kill, but they also won’t cure
In our modern world, a sedentary lifestyle has become popular — walking is handled by e-scooters, stairs are moving by themselves, high-caloric food will be delivered to our couch, our free time is spent sitting in front of a monitor, no physical activity is necessary — and still we crave for easy and practical solutions to reduce our accessory body weight. We go for ZERO effort.
#1 What is the difference between regular sugars and sweeteners?
Nutritive sweeteners provide energy (calories) because they can be metabolized by our bodies. You probably know them as sugar, carbohydrates, glucose, fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, maltose, sucrose, or agave syrup.
Non-nutritive sweeteners can’t be metabolized by our body and therefore don’t provide energy (no calories), because they won’t be metabolized. They just taste incredibly sweet. You’ve probably heard of saccharine, aspartame, or cyclamate but there a dozens more. They’re also called artificial sweeteners (AS). If they’re derived from natural sources (e.g. Stevia) they’re called natural sweeteners.
