Essay On Sugar Substitutes

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Sugar Substitutes

In our society persons are continually searching for ways to ‘cut calories’. Due to this, the fad of using sugar substitutes arose. The presences of sugar substitutes in one’s diet allows persons to have the sweet taste associated with table sugar without the calories.
These sugar substitutes such as Splenda® and Equal ® are used in everyday life; however they pose harmful problems and have side effects.
The purpose of this research paper is to highlight:
- The various types of sugar substitutes,
- The categories they fall into,
- Their uses ,
- And any contraindications and side effects
The main sources of this research are The Truth about Artificial Sweeteners or Sugar Substitutes publicized by American Dietetic Association’s Evidence Analysis Library (2011) as well as Understanding Nutrition by …show more content…

Others are Sugar Alcohols (polyols), Novel Sweeteners and Natural Sweeteners. They can also be further divided into nutritive and non- nutritive sweeteners. Sugar Alcohols are carbohydrates which are found naturally in fruits and can be manufactured. Examples of Sugar alcohols are isomalt, mannitol, sorbitol and xylitol. Some sources also place Stevia in this category. Generally speaking they have a sweet taste and a cooling sensation in the mouth while not encouraging tooth decay. They are a good sugar alternative because even though they contain calories it is much less than table sugar. (Murano, 2009).
Artificial sweeteners on the other hand include Acesulfame- K, Aspartame, Saccharin, Sucralose, Alitame and Cyclamate. Each of these has their individual characteristics. In fact, aspartame is 200 times sweeter than sucrose and is made up of amino acids, thus, has four (4) kcal per gram like any other protein. (Tandel, 2011)Due to its degree of sweetness very little is needed to sweeten a food and as a result has little caloric

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