Sugar or sweetener??

Lauramumto4
Lauramumto4 Posts: 21 Member
edited November 18 in Health and Weight Loss
Which is better?? I know neither but I need something in my tea!!!
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Replies

  • lioness803
    lioness803 Posts: 325 Member
    It really doesn't matter...sweetener is lower calorie. Personally I can't stand the taste of sweetener (I also get a scratch in my throat if I eat sweeteners, so I'm one of the people who has some kind of sensitivity to them) If you can fit in the calories for a little bit of sugar, then use whichever you prefer. Taste wise, I like honey in my tea the best!
  • Rob_in_MI
    Rob_in_MI Posts: 393 Member
    Sweetener sucks compared to sugar, but it's an extra 200 calories a day otherwise.
  • Seajolly
    Seajolly Posts: 1,435 Member
    Personally I always go with the natural route... So I'd go with honey in my tea and adjust calories otherwise. But it just depends on the calories you are ok with having.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    what's wrong with sugar?
  • PrincessMel72
    PrincessMel72 Posts: 1,094 Member
    I can use sweetener in pretty much anything other than coffee. For coffee, I need real sugar!
  • cbihatt
    cbihatt Posts: 319 Member
    I actually prefer sweetener to sugar in my tea. I use Splenda and I find it to be sweeter than real sugar, so I use less of it.
  • Seajolly
    Seajolly Posts: 1,435 Member
    I like Splenda, it helps with lowering calories. BTW, neither is bad for you.

    All a matter of opinion...
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    Seajolly wrote: »
    I like Splenda, it helps with lowering calories. BTW, neither is bad for you.

    All a matter of opinion...

    Whatever, read my edit.
  • Sunna_W
    Sunna_W Posts: 744 Member
    Sugar or something similar like honey, agave nectar. I just try to not use it at all unless I am sick. I'd rather use the calories elsewhere. I drink my coffee / tea with half & half (there is some natural sugar in the half & half) and most times that is enough.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,149 Member
    Use whatever you like. Account for it in your food diary/calories.

    I like sugar and honey.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    For me it's "and" not "or".

    A teaspoon of sugar in my porridge because I prefer the taste.
    Diet fizzy drinks as I find sugary ones too sweet for my taste and prefer to save those calories for something else.

    Loads of sugar in energy drinks / snacks when I'm cycling a long distance and need the energy.


    BTW - my taste buds did change enormously when I stopped having sugar (or sweetener) in my tea and coffee. I find many commercial products just too sweet whatever the source of the sweetness.

  • YalithKBK
    YalithKBK Posts: 317 Member
    Whatever fits your calories and what you like the taste of. Personally, I like to use zero calorie sweetener so I can use those calories elsewhere.

    NEITHER are bad.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    cityruss wrote: »
    Sunna_W wrote: »
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    what's wrong with sugar?

    Depends on who you ask:
    • It's "refined" empty calories
    • Sugar plantations exploit the land and the people
    • Some of the most biodiverse regions on the planet have been cleared for sugarcane production.
    • 7.5 Bagasse, molasses, press mud, waste water and fly ash are produced during the manufacture of sugar. As bagasse, molasses and press mud are gainfully utilized, they do not cause much environmental pollution though they are potential pollutants. ... 7.7 Sugar mill waste water has low BOD.

    But fructose is worse; fructose is a major contributor to:
    • Insulin resistance and obesity
    • Elevated blood pressure
    • Elevated triglycerides and elevated LDL
    • Depletion of vitamins and minerals
    • Cardiovascular disease, liver disease, cancer, arthritis, and even gout


    Artificial Sweeteners are bad, because:

    1. They trick your taste buds.
    Artificial sweeteners, even natural ones like stevia, which comes from an herb, are hundreds, sometimes thousands, of times sweeter than sugar, says Anne Alexander, editor of Prevention magazine and author of the new book, The Sugar Smart Diet. Sucralose, sold under the brand name Splenda, is 600 times sweeter than table sugar, and neotame, an emerging alternative to aspartame, is 7,000 times sweeter. Stevia is 200 to 300 times sweeter than table sugar. "And evidence suggests that exposing your taste buds to these high-intensity sweeteners makes them less receptive to natural sources of sweetness such as fruit," says Alexander. When your taste buds get dulled, you're more likely to seek out sweeter and sweeter foods.

    2. They trick your gut.
    Susan Swithers, PhD, professor of behavioral neuroscience at Purdue University and a leading researcher on artificial sweeteners, says that your gut gets confused when you eat zero-calorie-but-super-sweet artificial sweeteners. The sweet taste sends a signal to your gut that something high calorie is on its way, so your gut anticipates foods that do, in fact, have a high calorie count. But when those don't arrive, your gut doesn't utilize the foods efficiently, and that causes a cascading effect that interferes with your body's hunger signals.

    3. They mess with your hormones.
    Part of that cascading effect has to do with the hormone insulin. When you taste sweet foods, even if they have zero calories, your body still releases insulin as if you'd eaten sugar. Insulin leads to blood sugar spikes, which increase cravings. Swithers' research has also suggested that artificial sweeteners prevent your body from producing GLP-1, a hormone that controls blood sugar levels and feelings of satiety. Combined, the two haywire hormones could be causing you to feel hungrier and eat more.

    4. They make you overeat.
    It's not just a biochemical reaction that leads artificial sweeteners to pack on the pounds. Natasha Turner, ND, author of The Super-Charged Hormone Diet, says that artificially sweetened foods could trick you into overeating because of they way they feel in your mouth. "The taste and feel of food in our mouth influences our learned ability to match our caloric intake with our caloric need," she says. High fat, high sugar foods taste both sweet and dense, signaling to your brain that they're high calories. But artificially sweetened foods often have a thinner consistency and texture than sugar-sweetened foods and thus, aren't as satisfying. "Our natural ability to control how much we eat and, therefore, our body weight may be weakened when this natural link is impaired by consuming products that contain artificial sweeteners," she says.

    5. They increase the risk of diabetes.
    The two above, combined, could explain why a number of studies have found that diet soda drinkers are at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Researchers aren't clear as to why they're seeing this relationship, whether it's the fact that people eat other unhealthy foods that undo any calorie-saving effects of a no-calorie drink or if it's something biological related to the drinks' artificial sugars. But something is obviously amiss: A recent study from the University of Texas found that people who drank diet soda were 65 percent more likely to be overweight than people who drank no soda and, more bizarre, they were more likely to be overweight than people who drank regular soda.

    6. They're polluting your water.
    Artificial sweeteners are meant to be hearty—they're designed to withstand the harsh conditions of your body so they won't break down and add calories. Because they're so potent, they don't break down in the environment, when exposed to light, oxygen and microbes, either. In a 2009 study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, Swedish researchers detected sucralose and acesulfame K in treated wastewater, including samples that were pulled from a municipal water-supply source. They also noted that the artificial sweeteners hadn't degraded in wastewater sludge after a period of seven hours. Canadian researchers got the same results four years later; sucralose and acesulfame were found in each sample drawn from a river that collects wastewater from 33 different treatment plants.

    7. They're genetically modified.
    As if the preceding six reasons weren't enough to turn you off artificial sweeteners for good, here's one more: They're yet another source of genetically modified crops in your food. Artificial sweeteners such as sucralose, aspartame, neotame, and erythritol can all be made from corn, soy, or sugar beets. In the United States, the vast majority of those three crops have been genetically altered to resist or produce harmful pesticides.

    I'd ask for citations. But as there are non on the page you ripped this from, it's pointless.

    http://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/food/trying-lose-weight-stay-away-artificial-sweeteners

    Bias is bias.

    Hey, Rodale - my mother's organic gardening 'bible' :smiley:

    Leaving the scientific debate aside, my taste buds are made up - I think artificial sweeteners are NASTY tasting.

    cef2f7321cdf366f3dfa57d925ce2ffa_-yuck-yuck-yuck-meme-face-meme-yuck-face_625-416.jpeg
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    Rob_in_MI wrote: »
    Sweetener sucks compared to sugar, but it's an extra 200 calories a day otherwise.

    200 calories of sugar in tea? My goodness, that's some really sweet or high quantities of tea! At 15 calories per teaspoon, that's 13.3 teaspoons. I tapered down to 1/2 teaspoon of sugar per teabag, so would float away on 26.7 cups of tea per day.

    I'm still on my first cup of tea - hope I mathed right.

    Last night, my OH was giving me a hard time about my tea operation. He complained that there were 10 things on the counter just to make tea.

    I work from home and brew most of the day's tea in the AM, so will have some hot Earl Grey going, some peach and black tea that I cool down for 'ice tea' (only it's room temperature in my case), and some Morning Thunder that I cool and use for the liquid in my smoothie. (That last doesn't get any sugar as the fruit in my smoothie makes it plenty sweet.)

    Don't know how he got to 10, but I do have a lot of tea going at one time :smiley:
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    I think it depends on how much of it you are eating. If you tend to eat a lot of sugars, then I would switch to sweeteners. High blood glucose swings are not healthful to anyone. Plus there are some who theorize that high levels of sugar (and refined ultraprocessed food) in the diet may contribute to insulin resistance.

    That artificial sweeteners are unhealthy has largely been debunked, whereas higher levels of sugar does appear to be unhealthy. When dealing with added sugars/sweeteners, I would go with the sweetener.
    JMO
  • ConnieT1030
    ConnieT1030 Posts: 894 Member
    "Better" is a subjective term, also, vague without parameters. Better for what purpose? Better for whom?


    For weightloss, a non-nutritive sweetener will work better.
    For diabetics, any non-sugar sweetener (that doesnt raise blood sugar) work better.
    For someone who can't tolerate sugar alcohols, anything but those work better.
    If you don't like the taste of one or more, any but that/those will work better.
    Taste is also subjective, so the one you like the taste of works better to eat, if it doesn't make you overeat something with calories.

    Neither is bad for you unless you have a medical problem/reaction to it/them.

    The hype and fear mongering about artificial or processed sweeteners is all exaggeration, speculation and general bunk. Your body MUST have sugar to function and can use several types. Non-nutritive sugars it can't, which is why it has no calories. You just get calories, and the sugar your cells need, from the other foods you eat.

    Personally speaking, I like truvia, no calories, works well, no aftertaste. I think aspartame has an aftertaste, so I dont generally eat/use it, but I have discovered I really like splenda/sucralose.
    I eat things with sugar in it, but I dont add sugar to things, just because I dont happen to have any regular sugar in the house, and havent found the need to for quite some time, and I almost never bake from scratch. Thats what works for me.
    Youll have to experiment to find out what works for you.
  • dfwesq
    dfwesq Posts: 592 Member
    edited April 2017
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    what's wrong with sugar?
    High in calories, compared with other sweeteners, and bad for teeth.

    Fwiw, choosing between sugar and other sweeteners isn't a matter of natural vs. artificial. There are plenty of non-sugar sweeteners, including stevia, xylitol, and erythritol, that are no more artificial than sugar is.
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    dfwesq wrote: »
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    what's wrong with sugar?
    High in calories, compared with other sweeteners, and bad for teeth.

    Fwiw, choosing between sugar and other sweeteners isn't a matter of natural vs. artificial. There are plenty of non-sugar sweeteners, including stevia, xylitol, and erythritol, that are no more artificial than sugar is.

    Nothing wrong with high in calories. On my long hikes, sugar is the best thing of all. I need the energy sugar gives me. My favorite cookie to pack is the Oreo or Fig Newtons.

    Bad for teeth, maybe, but good dental hygiene is important. Brushing after eating is always a good idea.
  • dfwesq
    dfwesq Posts: 592 Member
    nvmomketo wrote: »
    I think it depends on how much of it you are eating. If you tend to eat a lot of sugars, then I would switch to sweeteners. High blood glucose swings are not healthful to anyone. Plus there are some who theorize that high levels of sugar (and refined ultraprocessed food) in the diet may contribute to insulin resistance.

    That artificial sweeteners are unhealthy has largely been debunked, whereas higher levels of sugar does appear to be unhealthy. When dealing with added sugars/sweeteners, I would go with the sweetener.
    JMO
    This is a good point. There is some scientific evidence that eating a lot of either fructose or sucrose could lead to metabolic problems. I don't know that anything has been proven, but it's at least a possibility. Btw, the amount of naturally-occurring sugars in fruits and vegetables is fairly low and doesn't seem to be a problem.

  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    dfwesq wrote: »
    Nothing wrong with high in calories. On my long hikes, sugar is the best thing of all. I need the energy sugar gives me. My favorite cookie to pack is the Oreo or Fig Newtons
    If you are need a way to eat a lot of quickly-available calories, eating sugar is probably the best way to do it. On the other hand, if you're trying to lose weight and extra calories aren't what you're after, it's probably not what you want. (Because this is posted in the weight loss area, I'm assuming the latter.)

    Good point!
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