Sweet Talk (Lyndsay)

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Artificial sweeteners, also called sugar substitutes, offer the sweetness of sugar without the calories. Artificial sweeteners are many times sweeter than sugar, so it takes a smaller amount to sweeten foods.
Artificial sweeteners include:

Saccharin (Sweet'N Low)
Aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal)
Acesulfame potassium (Sunett)
Sucralose (Splenda)
Rebiana (Truvia, PureVia)

Artificial sweeteners don't affect your blood sugar level. However, other ingredients in foods containing artificial sweeteners can still affect your blood sugar level (if other carbohydrates are present.)
Another term that can often lead to confusion is sugar alcohols (mannitol, sorbitol and xylitol.) Sugar alcohols have half the calories as regular sugar, and therefore can effect blood sugar levels when consumed in large quantities. Beware-sugar alcohols can also cause diarrhea.
Then we have the confusion with knowing what is safe in this department. “Do sugar substitutes cause cancer?” The FDA has established an "acceptable daily intake" (ADI) for each sweetener. This is the maximum amount considered safe to eat each day during your lifetime. ADIs are intended to be about 100 times less than the smallest amount that might cause health concerns.

Artificial sweetener	ADI*	Estimated ADI equivalent**	OK for cooking?
Aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal)	50 milligrams (mg) per kilogram (kg)	18 to 19 cans of diet cola	No
Saccharin (Sweet'N Low, SugarTwin)	5 mg per kg	9 to 12 packets of sweetener	Yes
Acesulfame K (Sunett, Sweet One)	15 mg per kg	30 to 32 cans of diet lemon-lime soda***	Yes
Sucralose (Splenda)	5 mg per kg	6 cans of diet cola***	Yes

*FDA-established acceptable daily intake (ADI) limit per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body weight.
**Product-consumption equivalent for a person weighing 150 pounds (68 kilograms).
***These products usually contain more than one type of sweetener

This month’s takeaway message should be no surprise. Key term MODERATION. Sugar substitutes are appropriate for someone with diabetes, we just need to make sure we are not over-consuming these products since they still in most cases have calories. Happy Valentines Day. Hope it is sweet.

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