Kinds Of Artificial Sweeteners
People who suffer from diabetes wish to know the kinds of artificial sweeteners that can help them maintain their sugar level in control. There can be several kinds of artificial sweeteners depending on the ingredients, uses, and side-effects.
Initially it is necessary to know the meaning of artificial sweeteners. Many people are familiar with the names of low-calorie sweeteners, reduced-calorie sweeteners, and sugars. It should be noted that not all sweeteners are artificial or synthetic. In order to know the artificial nature of sweeteners it becomes necessary to compare them with the natural sweeteners.
Sugar can be natural sweetener that includes vast amount of carbohydrates. Sugar can increase level of glucose consumed by the body.
Example: cane sugar, fructose, brown sugar, and honey.
Similarly reduced calorie sweeteners are also natural that consists of alcohols of sugar. Sugar level of blood gets controlled on the basis of these sweeteners.
Example: xylitol, isomalt, and sorbitol.
Low-calorie sweetener is categorized as artificial sweetener. These are not available in nature and need to be produced into scientific laboratories. These are used by many diabetic patients since these sweeteners don’t include calories.
Now, let’s take a wide look on kinds of artificial sweeteners. There are four main categories of artificial sweeteners including saccharin, aspartame, acesulfame, and sucralose.
Saccharin:
These are available in two forms. These can be used as hot or cold food. Pregnant women or the women who breastfeeds her baby should avoid consuming saccharin sweetener. These sweeteners are used in baking, beverages, and cooking. Also, these sweeteners can be used as cereals.
Acesulfame:
These are also called as Acesulfame-K. These sweeteners consist of high amounts of potassium. These can be used in both hot as well as cold foods. Uses of Acesulfame are same to that of saccharin.
Aspartame:
These sweeteners are available into two forms. One can obtain these sweeteners into cold and warm food types. People suffering with phenylketonuria should avoid this sweetner. Aspartame is considered as one of the most favored kinds of artificial sweeteners. This sweetener can be used into cereals. Apart from this, several beverages include aspartame as an added sweetener. This sweetener has got 200 times higher sweetness than sugar.
Sucralose:
Splenda or simply sucralose is one chief type of artificial sweeteners. Many baking as well as cooking recipes include sucralose as an additional sweetness gainer. The amount of calories included into this sweetener is almost zero. Indeed this sweetener is 600 times extra sweeter than cane sugar. Many types of fast foods, junk foods, beverages, and processed foods consist of this kind of sweetener. Many diabetic patients prefer sucralose as substitute to the saccharin. This sweetener has got tremendous importance among those who like sweet foods. Among all other kinds of artificial sweeteners sucralose is considered as more powerful. People who possess insightful digestive system should avoid consuming sucralose. There is one thought related to these sweeteners that say sucralose contains three chlorine atoms which can be risky for the human body. Therefore one should consider this sweetener after receiving proper prescription from the doctor.