Читать книгу The Quick Start Guide to Healthy Eating - Gretchen Scalpi RD CDN CDE - Страница 15

When it comes to artificial sweeteners, I believe it comes down to a personal choice. There are some pros and cons to using sugar substitutes. The artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, sucralose, or stevia are considered non-nutritive sweeteners. This means they don't have any significant caloric value. Artificial sweeteners can be useful for someone who is concerned about calories or needs to watch their blood sugar. Artificial sweeteners do not cause an increase in blood sugar, and they do not contribute to dental problems or cavities.

But they are not a magic bullet, either. When someone is counting his calories and buying products that are sugar-free, they have to keep in mind that “sugar-free” does not always mean “calorie free”. There may be no sugar in a sugar-free dessert, for example, but that doesn't mean that you can eat unlimited amounts. You may end up consuming a lot of calories from other ingredients in the sugar-free product. You have to consider all of those things.

Some people have health concerns regarding artificial sweeteners in general. This first became a concern when saccharin consumption was linked to bladder cancer in rats. There have not been any studies that have linked artificial sweeteners to cancer in humans, but many people don't want to take that chance. If you are not comfortable using artificial sweeteners, then choose not to use them.

The FDA and other public health organizations maintain that artificial sweeteners are safe. If you want to use them, as with anything else, you should do so in moderation. For example, using a bit of artificial sweetener in your coffee would be moderate use, but consumption of many cans of diet soda every day would be considered excessive.