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Sugar or Sweetener?

iona_ellen
iona_ellen Posts: 138 Member
edited December 2 in Debate Club
My mum is (I suppose you could say) very against sweetener whereas I am all for it. But to be honest I'm not sure why....
Which do you think is a better option & why?
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Replies

  • Chef_Barbell
    Chef_Barbell Posts: 6,644 Member
    Either.
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    Sweetener. 100% Sugar affects blood glucose, can cause inflammation in those with health issues and isn't good for CAD. That's most people. If you want a treat, especially if it is one to share, it is MUCH safer to go with a sweetener.

    I realize the taste is different but it just requires some getting used to. The people i know who grew up on no sugar added diets tend to enjoy the taste as much as others enjoy sugar, and they avoid the health risks (if you don't believe the rumors about current available sweeteners). It's just a matter of what you are used to.

    The downside of sweeteners would be cost. They cost more than sugar.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Both are good options for different things.
    Sugar when I want the energy, sweetener when I don't.
  • paulgads82
    paulgads82 Posts: 256 Member
    Sugar. I love sugar.
  • TaraTall
    TaraTall Posts: 339 Member
    So situational. Taste for taste, I prefer sugar. I generally don't add much sugar to my food or drinks though
  • Joanna2012B
    Joanna2012B Posts: 1,448 Member
    I use Stevia myself, have been using for 12 years. There was an after taste, but became accustom to it very quick and now I can't use sugar in my coffee or tea. However, if I had to choose between sugar and sweetener, sugar for sure!
  • niblue
    niblue Posts: 339 Member
    I prefer sugar in my coffee because I haven't found a sweetener that I like the taste of.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,149 Member
    I go with sugar or honey to help save the bees.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    whichever one fits for your goals...
  • natalia50ish2014
    natalia50ish2014 Posts: 11 Member
    I use honey or maple syrup to make things more sweet and for desserts I. Try to use recipes with dates to satisfy my sweet tooth
  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
    jgnatca wrote: »
    I add sugar to my baking and is absolutely required for home-made bread.

    It's essential to have food for yeast in any bread. Homemade or not. You could feed the baker's yeast fructose or glucose or some other sugar, but my understanding is that baker's yeast simply loves sucrose. Not all yeasts, or even all strains of that particular species, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, love sucrose so much, and this relationship is no doubt why most leavened breads use that strain of yeast and have used sugar for as long as they've been around.

    I laugh whenever I see "sugar" listed as an ingredient in most breads, because of course most of the sugar is consumed by the yeast. They eat the sugar, poop out carbon dioxide, and die when you bake, leaving lovely holes all over the place. So the ingredient "sugar" really, technically, should be "dead yeast and air holes."

    As for me, I prefer the taste of sucrose (table sugar) to pretty much any other sweetener. There are some things I enjoy honey on, such as toast (sugar + cinnamon is a nice treat too, though). As I dislike drinking my calories, I switched to artificially-sweetened and unsweetened beverages many years ago, though. I don't mind aspartame, I've gotten used to it, although it seemed very odd to me at first. I find the aftertaste of both saccharine and sucralose to be quite unpleasant and have never gotten used to either. Particularly sucralose, which I can identify with the first taste of any food or beverage.
  • Crisseyda
    Crisseyda Posts: 532 Member
    I avoid sugar completely. I'm a little more open to artificial sweeteners--probably since I grew up around them with family with type 1 diabetics. However, don't think that no calories means no consequences. They don't help with weight loss. I would use sparingly.
  • snowflake930
    snowflake930 Posts: 2,188 Member
    Crisseyda wrote: »
    I avoid sugar completely. I'm a little more open to artificial sweeteners--probably since I grew up around them with family with type 1 diabetics. However, don't think that no calories means no consequences. They don't help with weight loss. I would use sparingly.

    I don't agree with the no/low calorie sweeteners not helping with weight loss because they can help keep calories lower depending on how much you use. For example, pop. Diet vs regular. You save a lot of calories by choosing diet over regular. I prefer not to drink my calories, but when I occasionally have pop, it is diet. I use both stevia and sugar depending on the use. I agree with using both sparingly.

  • Crisseyda
    Crisseyda Posts: 532 Member
    snowflake930 wrote: »
    Crisseyda wrote: »
    I avoid sugar completely. I'm a little more open to artificial sweeteners--probably since I grew up around them with family with type 1 diabetics. However, don't think that no calories means no consequences. They don't help with weight loss. I would use sparingly.

    I don't agree with the no/low calorie sweeteners not helping with weight loss because they can help keep calories lower depending on how much you use. For example, pop. Diet vs regular. You save a lot of calories by choosing diet over regular. I prefer not to drink my calories, but when I occasionally have pop, it is diet. I use both stevia and sugar depending on the use. I agree with using both sparingly.

    To clarify, they don't help unless you are replacing sugar. Although they won't increase blood sugar, they still stimulate an insulin response, which drives hunger.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    If I'm drinking a sweetened drink it's going to be sweetened with a no calorie sweetener. But for most other things I usually prefer some type of sugar.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    Crisseyda wrote: »
    I avoid sugar completely. I'm a little more open to artificial sweeteners--probably since I grew up around them with family with type 1 diabetics. However, don't think that no calories means no consequences. They don't help with weight loss. I would use sparingly.

    so no bread, vegetables, etc?
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    Crisseyda wrote: »
    snowflake930 wrote: »
    Crisseyda wrote: »
    I avoid sugar completely. I'm a little more open to artificial sweeteners--probably since I grew up around them with family with type 1 diabetics. However, don't think that no calories means no consequences. They don't help with weight loss. I would use sparingly.

    I don't agree with the no/low calorie sweeteners not helping with weight loss because they can help keep calories lower depending on how much you use. For example, pop. Diet vs regular. You save a lot of calories by choosing diet over regular. I prefer not to drink my calories, but when I occasionally have pop, it is diet. I use both stevia and sugar depending on the use. I agree with using both sparingly.

    To clarify, they don't help unless you are replacing sugar. Although they won't increase blood sugar, they still stimulate an insulin response, which drives hunger.

    wrong..
  • Crisseyda
    Crisseyda Posts: 532 Member
    edited June 2016
    Artificial sweetners increase cravings for sweet:
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892765/pdf/yjbm_83_2_101.pdf

    This study followed 62 overweight women trying to lose weight who regularly drank diet beverages. Half the women were randomized to start drinking water instead, the other half continued drinking diet beverages (one small drink five days a week) for 24 weeks. The women who switched to water lost significantly more weight. The water group also improved their fasting insulin, signs of insulin resistance and their glucose tolerance, compared to the diet drinks group.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26537940

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2014/09/18/could-artificial-sweeteners-be-contributing-to-the-obesity-crisis/#465faec65dbf
  • Crisseyda
    Crisseyda Posts: 532 Member
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    Crisseyda wrote: »
    Artificial sweetners increase cravings for sweet:
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892765/pdf/yjbm_83_2_101.pdf

    This study followed 62 overweight women trying to lose weight who regularly drank diet beverages. Half the women were randomized to start drinking water instead, the other half continued drinking diet beverages (one small drink five days a week) for 24 weeks. The women who switched to water lost significantly more weight. The water group also improved their fasting insulin, signs of insulin resistance and their glucose tolerance, compared to the diet drinks group.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26537940

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2014/09/18/could-artificial-sweeteners-be-contributing-to-the-obesity-crisis/#465faec65dbf

    you are moving hte goalposts from your origial post..

    insulin does not drive hunger...

    I don't need to read the study to know that they lost weight when they switched to water because they were giving up calorie dense things for less calorie dense things...its not complicated...

    Giving up diet coke for water is not "giving up calorie dense things for less calorie dense things."
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    Crisseyda wrote: »
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    Crisseyda wrote: »
    Artificial sweetners increase cravings for sweet:
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892765/pdf/yjbm_83_2_101.pdf

    This study followed 62 overweight women trying to lose weight who regularly drank diet beverages. Half the women were randomized to start drinking water instead, the other half continued drinking diet beverages (one small drink five days a week) for 24 weeks. The women who switched to water lost significantly more weight. The water group also improved their fasting insulin, signs of insulin resistance and their glucose tolerance, compared to the diet drinks group.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26537940

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2014/09/18/could-artificial-sweeteners-be-contributing-to-the-obesity-crisis/#465faec65dbf

    you are moving hte goalposts from your origial post..

    insulin does not drive hunger...

    I don't need to read the study to know that they lost weight when they switched to water because they were giving up calorie dense things for less calorie dense things...its not complicated...

    Giving up diet coke for water is not "giving up calorie dense things for less calorie dense things."

    never said that it was..

    i said they lost weight by lowering calorie intake; i.e. giving up calorie dense foods...
  • gatorsong
    gatorsong Posts: 7,000 Member
    I prefer sweetener, but that is only because it is a 0 calorie. I don't use much of it either. Usually I don't even use the whole packet and I only put it in my coffee or on my grits. I do prefer the taste of raw sugar, but don't want the extra calories.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    @tomteboda lol @ "dead yeast air holes".
  • sashayoung72
    sashayoung72 Posts: 441 Member
    stevia, or raw local honey
  • rhtexasgal
    rhtexasgal Posts: 572 Member
    I still use sugar, just a little in my coffee. I also use monk fruit as well as SugaVida.
  • brilliantwords
    brilliantwords Posts: 97 Member
    edited June 2016
    I don't drink things like soda often, but when I do I sure am NOT going to consume my calories in a drink, so I'll go with the artificial sweetener. Even for something like an iced coffee, if I couldn't get it made with sweetener, I'd choose to go without it completely rather than "waste" my calories.

    Artificial sweeteners don't increase my cravings (as it's claimed to do for some people). If anything, when I'm on a cut, it can prevent me from snacking in the evening.

    I've lost 100 lbs consuming artificial sweeteners, so I don't believe people when they claim it causes weight gain (just because of my own experience with it).
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    Crisseyda wrote: »
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    Crisseyda wrote: »
    Artificial sweetners increase cravings for sweet:
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892765/pdf/yjbm_83_2_101.pdf

    This study followed 62 overweight women trying to lose weight who regularly drank diet beverages. Half the women were randomized to start drinking water instead, the other half continued drinking diet beverages (one small drink five days a week) for 24 weeks. The women who switched to water lost significantly more weight. The water group also improved their fasting insulin, signs of insulin resistance and their glucose tolerance, compared to the diet drinks group.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26537940

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2014/09/18/could-artificial-sweeteners-be-contributing-to-the-obesity-crisis/#465faec65dbf

    you are moving hte goalposts from your origial post..

    insulin does not drive hunger...

    I don't need to read the study to know that they lost weight when they switched to water because they were giving up calorie dense things for less calorie dense things...its not complicated...

    Giving up diet coke for water is not "giving up calorie dense things for less calorie dense things."

    never said that it was..

    i said they lost weight by lowering calorie intake; i.e. giving up calorie dense foods...

    How does that suggest that insulin doesn't "stimulate an insulin response, which drives hunger" (the original goal post)?
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