I get this a lot. My usual response is threefold:
1. Anything will kill you in excess.
2. Studies have tried and failed to link moderate use of Splenda to health problems, whereas
3. We know for a fact that sugar WILL kill you. Even in moderation it does harm, which requires immediate action to prevent (specifically, cleaning your teeth ASAP).
"But what about honey? What about raw sugar? What about fructose?" I hear you ask! Well, they are all the same. Sugar is sugar is sugar. High fructose corn syrup is currently being demonized, but seriously, folks, it's just sugar. If it's slightly less healthy than regular sugar, that's like saying hitting yourself with a mallet hurts less than hitting yourself with a hammer. They both hurt.
That said, I do prefer to use raw sugar and honey, but that's because white sugar sometimes triggers migraines in my family (we don't know why). Also, I just like the flavor!
I still use sucralose (Splenda) as my go-to sweetener for most things, but only for budgetary considerations. The exception is when I am cooking something chocolate flavored, I will often use Truvia, because its taste goes really well with chocolate for some reason. As more varieties of natural sweeteners enter the market, I play with them and develop preferences, and have incorporated some into my regular use. Here's a breakdown of the ones I've tried.
- Stevia - a natural plant extract. Now available in many forms. Interestingly, it was banned for some time, and still is banned in some parts of the world. I wasn't able to find out a good reason for this, though, and it's now sanctioned by our government. Rebiana (Reb A) is the specific word for the extract used by PureVia and Truvia. It's used in some parts of the world as a treatment for diabetes, and some studies do show an increase in insulin sensitivity and production; someday, we might be using stevia as a medicine. Until then, it's a sweetener.
- Truvia: The best Stevia I've tried, sold in both packet and loose form as stevia extract in a base of erythritol (discussed below). Made by the Coca-Cola Company. I use this in recipes calling for chocolate, because something about it makes chocolate taste more chocolatey, which is always a good thing.
- PureVia: The same thing, but has a more bitter taste. Made by the Pepsi Company.
- Stevia in the Raw: Trading on their Sugar in the Raw brand, this is stevia in a base of maltodextrin, a common food starch. The maltodextrin annoys me. If I'm going to eat maltodextrin, I will just get Splenda. Furthermore, this has a strong bitter taste that has ruined more than one dessert for me.
- Sucralose - Splenda's sweetener, now available in generic form. Safe except linked to thyroid problems (among others) in rodents at massive doses. Thyroid problems are treatable and the symptoms are obvious, and in order to trigger this problem, you'd have to, for example, drink two DOZEN cans of Splenda-sweetened sodas PER DAY for weeks, in order to even come close to the doses given to those rats. I consider Splenda to be safe and affordable. It's sold in a base of food starches to make it fluffy, which contributes some calories and makes it dissolve into liquids a bit unpredictably, but this is a minor issue.
- Aspartame - Originally marketed as Equal. Whether by virtue of its older age, or by actual dangers, aspartame has had more potential problems linked with it. I have a major weakness for diet soda, and that's made with aspartame, so I never use aspartame in other forms in order to keep my consumption moderate. UPDATE: I poked around looking at some more research, and the FDA says I can drink 21 cans of soda a day for the rest of my life and the aspartame won't hurt me (which is not to say it's a good idea!). There's still a surprising amount of controversy over it, though, and its presence in the "safe foods" list is by a non-unanimous vote.
- Saccharine - I think this tastes nasty and never use it. Maybe it's unhealthy, I don't know. Either way, it's gross.
- Sugar alcohols - carbohydrates that taste like sugar but are metabolized so slowly as to have a negligible effect on blood sugar, making them safe for diabetics. There are many kinds of sugar alcohols which have different properties. Almost all of them are naturally produced in plants or even in the human body.
- Maltitol: Used in candy-making for its gooiness, but difficult to digest. It causes all kinds of intestinal distress in high doses, and for many, a "high dose" is, say, two bites of candy. The cause is the same as beans, meaning some people don't digest it well (which is kind of the point, since the idea is to digest these slowly and avoid the sugar rush). Sorbitol is very similar.
- Erythritol: Metabolized and excreted through the renal system, meaning you pee it out. Thus, no intestinal problems. It's a good solution for people like my husband who can't tolerate maltitol. However, the idea of peeing sweetly weirds me out, and I prefer not to use too much of this in case it turns out someday that it's not good for your kidneys. There's no evidence causing me to think that, it's just my hangup.
- Xylitol: My favorite of all. Xylitol has been linked to major health benefits (yes! Healthy sweetness!) for our mouths, preventing dental decay and the passing of dental bacteria from mothers to babies. Chewing gum with xylitol is great for your teeth. Nobody knows why (or they didn't last I checked) but the theory is that the bacteria think it's sugar and try to eat it, then can't flourish because (HA!) it's not really sugar after all. Xylitol has also been used to combat fungal infections and as a systemic antibiotic for various infections. But there is one massive drawback. Xylitol is extremely toxic to dogs. Some dogs tolerate it well, but some will die after eating two sticks of xylitol gum. The reaction is not a conventional toxicity like chocolate, but rather an autoimmune response like a peanut allergy, hence the unpredictability of it. The emergency room visit and the followup vet bills after Trinity got into some xylitol have convinced me to only keep this around in small quantities and be VERY VERY careful to keep it WELL out of her reach.
- Ideal Brand: The name is silly, but actually it kind of IS ideal. It's xylitol intensified with sucralose, to make it more affordable. This is available in many grocery stores, albeit in small amounts and not for the best price. Still, I keep it around and use it to sweeten drinks like tea and chocolate milk, figuring this maximizes the health benefits of the xylitol. The fact that it comes in paper packets means it's safer from Trinity, too, since I use it one packet at a time instead of putting into whole recipes.
Well, there you have it. I hope that helps. At the moment, nobody is reading this blog but me and possibly my mom, so I have not bothered to cite sources and write a bibliography. Someday when I am rich and famous and it's worth my time to do so, I'll come back here and write something more detailed for y'all.
Enjoy the sweet life, people!
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