Sweet Comparison of Sweeteners?

Sweet Comparison of Sweeteners? See the Infographic and Decide

3/5/2015

It's hard to know, with all the pro and con studies, spin-meistering and outright skullduggery by people interested in maintaining the status quo, which sweeteners are actually good for your health.

To cut through the knee-deep fog, Northwest Pharmacy (www.northwestpharmacy.com) has created the infographic entitled “A Comprehensive Comparison of Sweeteners”, that you can see below. OK, only the top section of it - go to their website for the rest.

While not the least comprehensive, it does give you an easy-to-reference list of some alternative sweeteners, along with how these substances can help – or hurt you and the environment too.

Even I didn't realize the detrimental effects that Aspartame and Splenda can have on you AND the environment. The effects of these and other food ingredients flowing back into the environment is hardly ever discussed or made part of full product lifecycle studies. That must change ASAP - and if you want it to, send the link to this blog post to all the people you know, who do care about the health of our planet as well as their own!

1 Comment

Sweetener Council link

3/15/2015 02:51:26 am

Though often misunderstood, aspartame has been thoroughly evaluated and approved as safe to consume by all major regulatory agencies around the world including Health Canada, the U.S. FDA, the European Food Safety Authority, and the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives who have all conducted rigorous safety evaluations on aspartame as they do for all food additives before they can be approved for consumer use.
The reason why aspartame is beneficial to use is because it provides sweetness without contributing calories or affecting blood sugar. This is very important for people with diabetes or prediabetes, who must control their sugar intake. Therefore, despite the claim made in the infographic presented here, aspartame does not alter blood insulin or blood glucose levels and thus does not contribute to the development of diabetes. In fact, both the Canadian and American Diabetes Association encourage the use of aspartame to manage diabetes while still enjoying sweet foods or beverage.
Yes, formaldehyde is formed during the breakdown of aspartame. A small amount of methanol is produced during the initial breakdown of aspartame and it is later converted, briefly, to formaldehyde. It is important to note that the body’s process from breaking down formaldehyde is very efficient. The half- life of formaldehyde is only 1-2 minutes meaning it is broken down to formic acid fairly rapidly. The final breakdown products of formaldehyde, the simple compounds carbon dioxide and water, are excreted from the body with no build up. What this means is that although formaldehyde is produced in the breakdown of aspartame, our bodies are so efficient in breaking it down that it will have no effect on our body.
Therefore, due to the vast body of evidence supporting the safety of aspartame including life-time animal studies, long-term toxicity studies, weight loss trials, and large population studies consumers should have every confidence when choose aspartame sweetened products without fear of adverse health effects.

Sweet Comparison of Sweeteners? See the Infographic and Decide

Leave a Reply.

Authors

Archives

Categories