Artificial Sweeteners, what's your take on them?

[Phil P]

I keep hearing different opinions on this topic and wondered what your guys' opinion was.

[Spartan26]

Avoid as best I can. High fructose corn syrup is no health benefit but I'm more concerned about what artificial sweeteners do to the brain.

[MoneyJungle]

I don't put away enough sweets to really worry too much about it but I put regular sugar in my coffee, when I occasionally sweeten it. There's a lot of heated rhetoric regarding sweeteners. I have an uninformed and ignorant opinion that it's worse than sugar. My tin foil hat tendencies are suspicious of how addictive artificial sweeteners might be. Hopefully I can become a little more informed via this thread.

EDIT: Upon about twenty minutes of googling it looks like sucralose (ie splenda) hasn't been proven dangerous. I don't see any damning evidence regarding aspartame, either. I think I'll still stick with regular sugar, though.

[jyng1]

I don't put away enough sweets to really worry too much about it but I put regular sugar in my coffee, when I occasionally sweeten it.

Sweeteners you put in your coffee are probably a minor fraction of the 27 teaspoons that you consume every day hidden in processed food.

[ACow]

I'm not aware of specific strong evidence linking them to anything particularly hazardous, but I'm open to any evievidenceat that rears it's head. I can't say they're big enough a part of my life to really spend too much time targeting/thinking about...

[jyng1]

I'm not aware of specific strong evidence linking them to anything particularly hazardous, but I'm open to any evievidenceat that rears it's head. I can't say they're big enough a part of my life to really spend too much time targeting/thinking about...

http://www.prevention.com/health/hea...es-and-obesity

No doubt you've heard about the recent study that links artificial sweeteners with an increased risk of diabetes. Published in the September 17 issue of Nature, the Israeli study showed that eating just an average amount of saccharin, aspartame, and sucralose (say, some Nutrasweet in your coffee and a couple Diet Cokes during the day) seems to alter the composition of bacteria in our intestines. In turn, this can set us up for glucose intolerance—in which too much sugar winds up floating around the bloodstream—and eventually lead to type 2 diabetes. Further, researchers surmise that the artificial sweeteners we now find in everything from soft drinks to sugarless gum and sugar-free candy may actually be contributing to our obesity epidemic.

[starla]

If I'm consuming something with no other nutritional value like a soda or candy, I prefer artificial because eating/drinking that much straight sugar would give me a headache. But if it's just a small quantity, or it's in something (like a cake), then I want real sugar. I've had some sugar free pie and it's always a disappointment, not even worth the reduced calories, so in that case I'd get real pie or nothing. Best is to stay away from sweets.

[jyng1]

Wow, no wonder I like Ben and Jerry's.

[rhinosaur]

I don't really care one way or the other. I like that artificial sweeteners don't make my mouth all gross, but real sugar tastes a little better. I don't consume large quantities of either.

[jigglypuff]

i very rarely add sweeteners to my food so i'm fine telling myself all processed sweet things are carcinogenic and just being done with it. it's still hard to avoid if you tell yourself that. more than a few bites of sweet food makes me nauseous, typically.

edit: k i lied. i guess i really like sweet drinks that aren't insane in the sugar content (rules out a lot) and do enjoy some sweetener in my tea, but nothing artificial.