Splenda, Stevia, Truvia, Honey?!

Ditch the Splenda for sure. Stevia and honey in moderate amounts are okay.

I've done some research on splenda and it has more in common chemically to pesticides than it does to table sugar. Stevia and honey, and organic sugar in moderation all the way!

I like Truvia. It doesn't have a bad aftertaste like Stevia. Stevia is so sweet whereas Truvia is close to sugar. Not sure why someone posted to stay away from Truvia, but it comes from the Stevia plant as well.

I am a food scientist and nutritionist and I will help to sort out any questions/fears you may have about artificial or natural sweeteners. First of all, make sure to do real research from scientifically reputable sites. Too much nonsense is propogated out there by gossip or opinion style websites tauting that aspartame is used to clean car engines and that since sucralose (Splenda) contains Chlorine, that it must be deadly. This is all ridiculous. Let me first clarify one thing...just because something is "natural" does not make it necessarily safe. For example, supplements found at healthfood stores are NOT regulated by the FDA, but people go bananas over them because they are all "natural", while the same people scoff at ingredients on labels such as niacinamide (vitamin B3), ascorbic acid (vitmain C) or acetic acid (vinegar). See how a chemical-sounding name can make these harmless things sound scarier?? This is why supplements like fat burners are later pulled from the shelves for giving people heart attacks later...there are no researchers testing to ensure beforehand that there are these side effects. Also, there is no real definition for what makes something natural. Companies come up with their own definition of what is deemed "natural" as this is a current trend in the food industry that has no real support. To clarify further, there is no regulation on whether something is natural or not and different companies may define this differently. Food additives are tightly regulated and go through extremely stringent and intense testing before they are approved. This can occaisionally span decades of research with thousands of groups trying to solve these safety problems. With that said, some healthfood supplements are generally recognized as safe and can be taken with confidence and some approved additives, while deemed "safe" by the FDA should be consumed in moderate quanitities and not over-used.

Truvia and Purevia are both sweeteners containing Stevia derivatives mixed with sugar alcohols and bulking agents or flavoring. Bulking agents are necessary because these things contain much higher sweetness per gram as compared to sugar, so to make the measurements equivalent, more carbohydrate needs to be aded to basically take up space. Stevia on its own is extremely bitter and not very palatable other than just being sweet, so I assume that the flavors may be trying to make the Stevia more palatable. Stevia is the sweetener most recently approved for use in foods, however it has been used for years in other contries while being safe and also sold in the USA as a supplement. Sucralose has been researched for a couple decades and has been found to be safe. The backlash from aspartame and saccharin has for some reason now moved on to sucralose because everybody just wants a scapegoat to all gang up against. These artificial sweeteners have been shown to be safe with a multitude of research studies and it baffles me why peolple still think they are "poisonous" or "toxic". With this in mind, one should still practice moderation with all these. To my disappointment, food companies are loading these into everything, so although you think you are not consuming them very often, you are most likely consuming much more of them than you think. I think a good option would be to go 50:50 with sugar and splenda or honey and splenda (or truvia, stevia, lo han guo, purevia, aspartame, or whatever) to lower calories if that is your biggest concern. I think its smarter to use artificial sweeteners if it is the only way you can ditch some sugar calories and lose weight from obese or overweight to become a healthy weight, beause this is a bigger immediate risk to your health. If you are trying to do away with sweeteners all together, I think just lowering the amount of sweeteners you put in things slowly is a good way to gradually wean yourself off of sugar/sweeteners. I personally LOVE honey in tea and only use about a teaspoon per cup. I feel like the sweetness of the honey brings out the flavor in the tea and I would prefer this and just eat the calories.

Overall message:
-Be smart
-Do your research (not from bogus opinion sites)
-EVERYTHING in moderation (remember, even things like vitamin A are toxic at high enough levels)

I would cut out the splenda, I had a big box of it too and got rid of it. Personally I use honey, since it is a natural raw sugar, or agave nectar> Just thought that I would put in my two cents.

when I use anything it's honey (raw or with the comb) or raw sugar

I've tried most artificial sweeteners and I don't like the chemically taste. i can tolerate stevia and agave but one packet of sugar in the raw or a half a teaspoon of honey are usually just enough for me and I don't sacrifice more than 20/25 calories max

Just as a side note......just because the FDA approves something does not mean it is a clean food. I eat clean as well as a ton of other people, not sure if you are, but processed foods, table sugar, or any artificial sweetener is not considered a clean food because it is not from a natural state...meaning it is so far from nature that man has taken all the nutritional value out of it. So really, anything with no nutritional value is off limits for me.
Another thing about artificial sweeteners is that it tricks your brain. Basically, they make you feel more hungry.
I hope this helps clarify any other concerns.

thanks everyone. currently doing my research on what to switch to; raw agave or raw honey

We use both in our house for different things.