Similarities and differences between natural and synthetic for sugar

THE REAL STUFF

For starters, sugar is sugar, no matter how it’s marketed, priced or packaged.  All sugar offers the same number of calories, although some may be less processed. It seems like every third day a “new” natural sugar emerges as the next best thing. Take for example, the increasingly popular coconut sugar or maple sugar, which are actually just fancy names with a heftier price tag for one ingredient: sugar. Your body can’t tell the difference between raw coconut sugar or processed table sugar, all sugar is metabolized and digested the same. While some more natural forms of sugar may contain a bit more minerals and haven’t undergone as much refinement, they really aren’t any healthier.

THE ARTIFICIAL STUFF

The most popular artificial sweeteners include sucralose (Splenda), aspartame (Equal) and saccharin (Sweet’N Low), neotame, and acesulfame-K are found in diet sodas, light yogurts or ice creams, sugar-free chewing gums and candies among other products. They’re oftentimes marketed as diet, sugar-free, calorie-free, low-calorie, skinny or light.

Artificial sweeteners are man-made, unnatural chemical compounds that our body doesn’t understand or know how to metabolize.  Some scientific evidence suggests artificial sweeteners may cause brain cancer or slow down metabolism – although most of these studies have been tested on animals, never humans.

Or what about the theory that eating alternative sweeteners makes you more inclined to eat a) a whole bag of sugar-free candies at one time, and b) overindulge in junk food later. Plus, certain types of sugar alcohols or sugar substitutes contain hard-to-digest ingredients that can manifest in symptoms of gastrointestinal discomfort, like bloating, gas, cramping, diarrhea, or even constipation.