Ok, so that’s not true but when was the last time you went to buy a bag of sugar and was confronted with a range of ‘Natural” sugar alternatives with names that sound like they came straight from a Russian power plant. These natural sweeteners have been promoted as the healthier alternative to evil sugar and the answer to preventing weight gain and type 2 diabetes as they contain minimal calories with the same level of sweetness.

So here is a brief overview of the 3 top sweeteners available

Stevia

Stevia is a simple plant originating from Paraguay. It’s like the mint or parsley that you grow in your garden. It’s been around forever, consumed for centuries in South America and has been consumed in Japan for decades. In fact, it makes up over 40% of their sweeteners. Processing the leaves into a powder sweetener results in a non-caloric extract that is 200-300 times sweeter than sugar. The extract is added to a bulking powder to bring it to the same sweetness level as sugar, and sold under various trade names.

Natvia

Natvia is a combination of 2-3% Stevia, and 98% Erythritol, a sugar polyol, which is added as a bulking powder to bring the Natvia product to the same sweetness level of sugar per teaspoon, without the calories. The amount of stevia is so small, it needs the erythritol to make it manageable and spoon-equivalent to sugar.

 

Xylitol

Xylitol is found naturally in fibrous fruits and vegies such as plums and corn and is also produced in the body. It has 40% less calories than sugar, as xylitol is metabolized slowly by the body, it doesn’t cause the ‘sugar spike’ that may be experienced with other sugar products and is therefore promoted to diabetics as a healthy sugar alternative.

In my 20 years in the healthy industry I have never come across a single client who has gotten fat or developed type 2 diabetes from eating too much sugar out of the sugar bowl in their kitchen. It is the combination of highly processed foods that contain excessive amounts of sugar and fat in high calorie combination such as ice cream, biscuits and chocolate that are creating the obesity epidemic in the country.

Personally I am a believer in real food so if you think you are eating too much sugar, why not just eat less.

 

About the Author
Kelley Bright


Kelley Bright is a highly credentialed health and fitness expert who holds a Masters degree in Nutrition/Dietetics, Bachelors degree in Exercise Science and a Diploma of Naturopathy.

Leave a Reply