ASK A DIETITIAN

We get the scoop on natural and artificial sweeteners

We’ve been receiving lots of questions from readers about which diets they should follow, but before we tackle those, I wanted to focus on one of the most common questions I get in my classes: Is it healthier to use honey, agave or maple syrup instead of white sugar?

To answer this question, let’s break it down a bit.

Sugar is a generic name for sweet carbohydrates, and they are found naturally in most plants, but especially in sugar cane and sugar beets — hence their names.

The white stuff we know as sugar is also called sucrose. It is most often extracted and refined from either sugar cane or beets before ending up on our tables. Sucrose actually consists of two simpler sugars bound together: glucose and fructose. Most forms of added and natural sugar have both fructose and glucose in varying amounts.

Let’s start with glucose. Glucose occurs naturally in plants and fruits. In short, our bodies can use glucose for energy or convert it into glycogen to be stored and used later. Glucose is the human body’s key source of

energy and supplies almost all the energy for the brain, so a shortage can influence psychological processes such as emotions and decisionmaking. Ever been “hangry” before? That’s low glucose in the blood.

Fructose is fruit sugar, occurring naturally in fruit. It also occurs naturally in cane sugar and honey, and it is incredibly sweet. In fact, it’s the sweetest of all naturally occurring carbohydrates, which is information that will come in handy in a second.

Now that we have some definitions down, let’s look at individual sweeteners.

Sucrose, or table sugar, is made of equal parts glucose and fructose. It is highly refined and also the most common type of sugar used in baking and cooking. It has no nutritional value, but the cultural value is undeniable. Without it, those cupcakes or warm chocolate chip cookies might not put the same smile on your face. (As a nutritionist, I have to acknowledge the emotional part of food, too.)

Molasses is a viscous byproduct of the sugar refining process. It is added back to table sugar to produce brown sugar. Brown sugar is about 90 percent sucrose and 10 percent molasses. The molasses provides a darker color and a minor amount of trace nutrients. That being said, not enough nutrients to claim that brown sugar is healthy, but it makes for a chewy cookie!

Raw sugar is also called turbinado sugar. This raw form of sugar is somewhat less processed than table sugar and retains some natural molasses. However, the differences between sugar and raw sugar are minor, and their effects on your health are largely the same.

Honey is made by bees and is mainly fructose (about 38 percent) and glucose (about 32 percent), with the remainder being other complex carbohydrates. Since it contains a bit more fructose than glucose, it is sweeter, so you do not need to use as much for desired sweetness.

Agave nectar or syrup is a sweetener commercially produced from several species of agave. It is often used by people with type 2 diabetes because of its low glycemic index, which means it raises blood glucose (blood sugar) at a slower pace. Agave nectar has a low-glycemic index for one reason only: it’s largely made of fructose, about 70 to 90 percent. However, some studies have shown that excess fructose consumption can lead to an increase in triglycerides in the blood and contribute

to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

Bottom line: All types of sugar provide roughly the same number of calories (15 to 20 calories per teaspoon), and when it comes to digestion and metabolism, your body can’t tell the difference. Excess intake of sugar can be bad for you no matter what kind you use. If you want something sweet, choose the sweetener that you like the best, exercise moderation and thoroughly enjoy it.

Just don’t buy into the idea that it’s any better for you than plain old sugar.

But what about artificial sugar?

I often get questions regarding artificial sweeteners and their safety. The Food and Drug Administration refers to these sweeteners as high-intensity sweeteners because they are many times sweeter than sugar but contribute only a few to no calories when added to foods.

The FDA has approved eight artificial sweeteners for use in the United States: saccharin (Sweet’N Low), aspartame (Nutrasweet, Equal and Sugar Twin), monk fruit, acesulfame potassium (Sunett and Sweet One), sucralose (Splenda), neotame (Newtame), advantame and steviol glycosides (stevia).

Before approving these sweeteners, the FDA reviewed more than 100 safety studies that were conducted on each sweetener, including studies to assess cancer risk. The results of these studies showed no evidence that these sweeteners cause cancer or pose any other threat to human health.

Artificial sweeteners are often employed as a sugar substitute and weight-management strategy. While some studies have found that replacing caloric sweeteners with lower or no-calorie alternatives might facilitate weight loss, there are large population studies that suggest that frequent consumption of artificial sweeteners may be linked with weight gain.

Some researchers believe that artificial sweeteners do not satisfy our biological sugar cravings in the same manner as sugar and could therefore lead to increased food intake. However, the evidence is mixed.

There’s also new research showing that artificial sweeteners can cause disruption in the gut bacterial environment, which can lead to constipation and/or induce glucose intolerance in both rats and humans.

It’s worth noting that people with a rare hereditary disease known as phenylketonuria (PKU) have a difficult time metabolizing phenylalanine, a component of aspartame, and should control their intake of phenylalanine from all sources, including aspartame. Labels of aspartame-containing foods and beverages must include a statement that informs individuals with PKU that the product contains phenylalanine.

Bottom line: According to research, artificial sweeteners are not completely toxic, but I am not convinced that they are perfectly safe either. The research goes both ways, and the decision about using them must come down to the individual.

Like most things in life, moderation is key. If you struggle with sugar cravings and deicide to replace sugar with an artificial sweetener, are you really getting to the root of the problem? Maintaining a healthy weight for your body type is about behavior changes, not tricking your body.

DEBORAH CANNON / AMERICAN-STATESMAN PHOTOS What’s the difference, nutritionally speaking, between maple syrup, agave nectar, white sugar, honey, raw sugar and brown sugar? Central Texas Food Bank’s Mary Agnew has answers.

One of the exercises that Mary Agnew does with nutrition students compares the amount of sugar in an orange (4 teaspoons) to the amount in orange juice (8 teaspoons).

DEBORAH CANNON / AMERICAN-STATESMAN PHOTOS Sugars are mostly made up of fructose and glucose, and our bodies process each differently.

An apple has 5 teaspoons of sugar, which is less than the amount in a small bottle of juice.

Granola sweetened with honey will satisfy the sweet tooth without a large amount of sugar.