Health

7 Best and Worst Sugar Substitutes

A sugar substitute can help keep you in your skinny jeans, but it may be harming your health. Here's the scoop on the best -- and worst -- sugar substitutes

February 14, 2012 | by Jennifer Carofano | 56 COMMENTS

The Best No. 3: Stevia (aka Truvia or SweetLeaf) Made from Stevia Rebaudiana, a plant indigenous to Paraguay and Brazil, this zero-calorie sugar substitute tastes just like table sugar and won't cause a jump in blood sugar levels. In fact, a study in the journal "Metabolism" showed that Stevia increased insulin production in lab animals -- a potential boon for diabetics. Look for the FDA-approved purified extract of Stevia, Rebiana, on ingredient lists.

SEE NEXT PAGE: The Best No. 2: Agave nectar

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The Splenda website and anti-Slenda websites all agree there's chlorine in Splenda. Chlorine is naturally occuring in a number of healthy foods, and is actually good for you this way. However, the Splenda process selectively replaces three hydrogen-oxygen groups on the sugar molecule with three chlorine atoms. I have reservations about this being "natural" or truly a healthy thing, though in fairness, Splenda doesn't claim to be "natural". I guess someday we'll find out more, like we did with Nutra-Sweet. Even Truvia is really Stevia and Splenda combined, simply put. Still, I'll use Splenda in moderation. I love honey, too... it's the bees knees! ;) And 100% real maple syrup to sweeten lemonade is amazing!

by HabibiPhoebe Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at 12:43PM Report as inappropriate

Thank you. I was just watching a documentry the otherday about the food buisness and how they use like aspartame to make you fatter and make you want more of their products even on "healthy" items diet soda. Scary stuff I would recommend everyone looking it up (Forget name but if you cant find it message me) I had no idea about honey being able to be used makes sense always loved honey just never thought about it in my coffee and what not. Will defiantly start now. Great article thank you

by Alana_Danes Thursday, February 28, 2013 at 04:04AM Report as inappropriate

Honey, good!

by EricaF123 Thursday, January 10, 2013 at 02:49PM Report as inappropriate

I love honey as a sweetener

by LittleBunny Friday, January 4, 2013 at 07:28AM Report as inappropriate

Go Honey!

by kimihavens Wednesday, November 7, 2012 at 01:59PM Report as inappropriate

I have to disagree with agave nectar being a great sweetener. I used it for a month without changing anything else in my diet and I gained 3 pounds! So much for better tasting greek yogurt. I now use 100% organic stevia extract.

by hiddenexpose Monday, August 20, 2012 at 01:01PM Report as inappropriate

I love honey but I only use it in things where I'll actually be able to taste the flavor of the honey. Most of the time I'll use Splenda instead, but I think I'll switch to Truvia in the future. I tried Agave Nectar but it's quite high calorie!

by LipglossandSpandex Tuesday, August 7, 2012 at 03:32PM Report as inappropriate

interesting

by Nicole2814 Wednesday, August 1, 2012 at 07:55PM Report as inappropriate

honey is my favorite

by LittleBunny Tuesday, July 31, 2012 at 04:20PM Report as inappropriate

hooray for honey!

by internet101 Tuesday, July 17, 2012 at 02:00PM Report as inappropriate

Splenda?

by asiagirl4ever Monday, July 16, 2012 at 08:34PM Report as inappropriate

Yay for honey!! I love that the number one sugar substitute is something natural and healthy.

by tallredamanda Wednesday, June 13, 2012 at 05:22AM Report as inappropriate

needs more balance, unnecessary scare-mongering - tell folk the lab rats ate an equivalent of a kilogram of sweetner per day to face the health issues. You DESERVE to die early if you eat a kg. of sweetenr per day all your (short) life.

by fanny_hill Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at 03:44AM Report as inappropriate

Time to rethink my sugar substitute intake...

by cheechy Tuesday, May 1, 2012 at 03:50AM Report as inappropriate

Much of this info has been published, but, still needs to be reinforced since many of us still are" junkies" to the artificial sweeteners. I am allergic to honey personally, and get headaches from aspertaine. I do not realize what I ate even contains it till the awful headache hits

by sexysaydie Monday, April 30, 2012 at 05:39AM Report as inappropriate

Gah my tummy is rumbling... I'm so so hungry!

by MissXu Sunday, April 29, 2012 at 06:30PM Report as inappropriate

I love honey!!

by lisiana_de_bem_justino Saturday, April 28, 2012 at 06:07PM Report as inappropriate

Yuck. My favorite is Sweet N Low. I know, I'm bad. :/ Stevia is nasty though... Splenda is nice too.

by catalinahx Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 08:42PM Report as inappropriate

I don't feel like I eat more because I use artificial sweeteners and I'm a Splenda cheerleader...

by Cheryl5752 Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 01:51PM Report as inappropriate

Splenda " has shown no harmful effects to humans"? It absolutely does. Did they pay to be on the "best" side of this list? Splenda causes severe GI distress in many, many people. It CAN be very harmful. I am a human.

by aasamantha_kelly Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 08:11PM Report as inappropriate

Very useful information, more people need to know about this kind of thing.

by nikki_glorioso Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 04:30PM Report as inappropriate

Every morning I have two cups of coffee with one packet Splenda for each cup. Li9ke it the best.

by Teelee Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 01:41PM Report as inappropriate

Aspartame gives me awful headaches.

by Signalflare66 Monday, April 23, 2012 at 03:01AM Report as inappropriate

very helpful! i bake a lot and perhaps i'll try using splenda one of these days...

by mlenaei Friday, April 13, 2012 at 08:58AM Report as inappropriate

Splenda tastes exactly like sugar

by Kary43 Sunday, April 8, 2012 at 05:08PM Report as inappropriate

Good information.

by andyv1217 Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at 03:48PM Report as inappropriate

great info

by eatinglipstick Tuesday, April 3, 2012 at 07:55PM Report as inappropriate

good to know

by AngelRayn73 Thursday, March 29, 2012 at 02:36PM Report as inappropriate

The real thing is the best to use in moderation. Same holds true for butter. I'd rather have a little of the real food rather than a bunch of chemicals. We really need to read labels!

by ronist Thursday, March 29, 2012 at 12:33PM Report as inappropriate

I have to disagree with the Splenda... it is another artificial sweetener so you might as well stay away from it since there are SO many natural plant fiber options like Stevia! Plus Stevia is like 200 times as sweet so you use less.

by pynkNymphette Wednesday, March 28, 2012 at 11:16PM Report as inappropriate

this is good to know....now i watch more what is in the snacks I eat.

by AngelRayn73 Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at 05:40PM Report as inappropriate

not good

by msrayz10 Monday, March 26, 2012 at 01:11PM Report as inappropriate

HONEY! All the other artificial stuff is just plain gross!

by MissXu Saturday, March 24, 2012 at 01:42PM Report as inappropriate

I am addicted to Splenda. Even if it isn't bad for me I know I should cut back a little bit.

by beautybody Friday, March 23, 2012 at 03:39PM Report as inappropriate

I thought Splenda was bad, but this is comforting information. However, it looks like honey will be making it's way back to the tea tray for me!!

by fallintrust Sunday, March 18, 2012 at 12:24AM Report as inappropriate

good info

by eatinglipstick Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 12:18PM Report as inappropriate

yay I knew about that Stevia and splenda were ok for you! I also knew that sweet and low and equal were bad for you!!

by Mishashawnea Tuesday, March 13, 2012 at 10:12PM Report as inappropriate

splenda is by far the most common too-i never knew it was one of the best-i always thought it was the worst

by judyangel101 Monday, March 12, 2012 at 10:56AM Report as inappropriate

After having aspartame poisoning, which was misdiagnosed as Multiple Sclerosis, I had to change sweeteners so now I use Splenda or real sugar. I think the real thing is always better for you.

by powerwoman033 Wednesday, March 7, 2012 at 11:41PM Report as inappropriate

I looooooooooooooooooooooove Agave Nectar...it really is a great sugar substitute.

by MizzPink Monday, February 27, 2012 at 01:20PM Report as inappropriate

i use honey in just about everything!

by seaorchid05 Monday, February 27, 2012 at 12:11PM Report as inappropriate

I have switched to agave nectar as a natural sugar substitute. It is a healthier choice because of it's low glycemic level. Great healthy beauty tips on Beauty Blog by Ms Toi

by Ms.Toi Friday, February 24, 2012 at 06:44AM Report as inappropriate

seeing this picture over and over again made me decide to go get doughnuts...but this is a very informative article that basically just confirmed what I already suspected about some of the sweeteners out there. Now I won't feel as bad for drinking regular Coke more.

by shinyandiknowit Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 07:03PM Report as inappropriate

thanks for this post! I am always wondering about that. and I used to use Sweet N Low! It will be hard to break my family of this habit, they're hooked on the pink as well. Is honey really good in coffee though?

by slvandas Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 04:32PM Report as inappropriate

wow i will have to buy some honey,its also good for a hair mask too.

by sandyc Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 03:39PM Report as inappropriate

A really good roundup. If you do a little more research on these, you'll see that the research findings on some of these, including agave nectar, is mixed. It just depends on which sources you believe/trust most.

by Jewelrydesigner Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 02:46PM Report as inappropriate

Good to know. Love Stevia and Agave nectar!

by sweettpea29 Monday, February 20, 2012 at 02:51PM Report as inappropriate

This was very interesting! I was surprised that sugar substitutes can cause cancer. I always use honey as a sweetner and this just reassured me that im definitely making the right choice

by cheydy15 Monday, February 20, 2012 at 12:24PM Report as inappropriate