Sweeteners - 5 Best and 5 Worst

I’ve added the stevia herb, the plant leaves, not the sweetener to teas and it works great! It does have a slight “green” taste, but very sweet.

Interesting read for sure! I tend to avoid table sugar, HFCS, and Splenda anyway. Splenda has a funky taste to me. HFCS for the reasons stated in the article and Sugar because my past love for it is what got me to my current level of obesity. Was not aware of the level of fructose in Agave, though it makes sense. So will be avoiding that going forward.
Stevia extract has been my sweetener of choice for the past couple of years. I use powdered Stevia Extract from Puritan’s Pride which unfortunately they no longer sell. I wish I could find more… its the kind where 1/32 of a teaspoon equals a teaspoon of sugar for sweetness value. And with so little being used, there is no aftertaste.

Have heard interesting things about phenylalanine and equal and splenda, nutrasweet etc which incorporate artificial sweetening agents, but much of the scare-hype has been dispelled (see http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2004/08/05/1167056.htm)

Phenylalanine can be a bit of a buzz topic in terms of carcinogenic foods – but the aspartame carcinogenicty revisions that happened were like “meh, it’s cool guys, don’t even worry.”

That first article specifically references diet soft drinks – but the aspartame and phenylalanine style sweeteners are all over.

So…. personal readings – aside from glucose and blood sugar concerns for specific individuals, which are definitely important, the artificial sweeteners aren’t really that evil.

That being said – I still use raw sugar :P