3 Sugar Substitutes to Help You Kick Your Sugar Addiction

By Laird Harrison

The Simmons family was in trouble. Dan and Natalie were both at least 20 pounds overweight, and so were their teenage son and daughter. Their two elementary-school-age girls were slowly heading in the same direction, and several close relatives suffered from heart disease, arthritis, cancer, and diabetes. Facing these dangers, the Manti, Utah, family zeroed in on one culprit. “We decided to get off the sugar,” says Natalie, a 35-year-old homemaker.

The decision put the Simmonses on a track that more and more alternative medicine practitioners are advising. Everyone knows that candy causes tooth decay and too much cake can swell the waistline. But recently researchers have indicted sugar for contributing to an even wider range of ailments. As early as the 1960s, some studies showed that sugar can suppress the action of white blood cells, the foot soldiers of the immune system. More recently, the American Heart Association affirmed what many researchers had suspected: Sugar lowers HDL, the “good” cholesterol that helps keep blood vessels unclogged, while possibly raising levels of triglycerides, which do the opposite. The combination increases the danger of heart attack and stroke.

Eating too much sugar can also cause inflammation, another contributor to heart disease, among other health problems, says Priya Mohanty, a clinical assistant professor of medicine at the State University of New York in Buffalo, who studied the connection. And sugar consumption has been linked to yeast infections, colds, even schizophrenia.

“People are definitely eating too much sugar,” says physician Leo Galland, director of the Foundation for Integrated Medicine in New York City. “That’s bad because it displaces nutritious foods from the diet. But there are also hormonal effects on your body that can be quite complicated and in some cases quite negative.” This is why Galland and other practitioners advise their patients to cut down on sugar.

Natalie Simmons discovered that was easier said than done. “I was addicted to it,” she says. “Whenever I got tired during the day I’d slam down a Coke.” Trying to cut out a little here and there didn’t ease her cravings, so she went cold turkey—and plunged into a miserable four-day stretch filled with headaches and exhaustion.

She eventually weaned herself of her addiction to sweets, but found that neither she nor her family could completely give up their taste for them. That’s why Natalie started experimenting with sugar substitutes.

There are more than ever to choose from these days. Most are chemically devised in the laboratory, however, and while the FDA has signed off on the safety of saccharin, aspartame, and sucralose, among others, Natalie decided she didn’t like their artificial taste or cooking properties. So she was intrigued when her eldest daughter’s orthodontist suggested one of the few natural options, xylitol, a compound derived from birch and other hardwood trees. Another popular herbal sweetener is stevia, a shrub native to South America, where indigenous people have prized it for its sweetness for hundreds of years.

Galland prefers an even healthier option: fruit concentrates made from pomegranates, peaches, and grapes, among other fruits. “You’re starting with something that’s good for you,” he says, “so you wind up with a sweetener that also has health benefits.”

Almost three years after the Simmonses resolved to kick their sugar habit, they continue to experiment with substitutes. They’re also cultivating a taste for naturally good-tasting fresh foods. After all, a sun-ripened cherry offers pleasures no cherry-flavored soda can approach.

Within the first six months of eating this way, the four oldest family members had lost their excess weight, and Dan’s blood pressure had improved. The girls’ orthodontist is the latest to congratulate the family on their new healthy habits—the girls have gone two years without a cavity.

To celebrate, Natalie Simmons did what she always does now for special occasions–she whipped up a sugarless cake. For such treats she’s found that xylitol works beautifully. “We’re pleased as punch,” she says.

Sweet Stuff: Natural Sugar Substitutes

Most of the sugar Americans eat is hidden in cereals, bread, and other processed foods; a full third comes from soft drinks. So the only way to significantly cut back on the stuff is to read nutrition labels and ingredients lists closely. Sucrose (table sugar) is referred to as “sugar” on food packaging, and manufacturers are increasingly relying on fructose, particularly in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, which may be even more fattening.

Still, some of the more enlightened ones are considering natural options, like tagatose, which occurs naturally in some dairy products. It’s similar to table sugar in bulk and taste, with some 60 percent fewer calories.

Natural alternatives to sugar abound—sucanat, honey, molasses, rice syrup, barley malt, and date sugar among them. In looking for substitutes to recommend, we focused on ones that either are relatively low in calories and won’t boost blood sugar levels, or offer nutritional benefits. Here’s what stirs our lemonade.

Best All Around: Xylitol

• What it is: A sugar alcohol also known as “wood sugar,” xylitol is derived from birch and other hardwood trees.
• What we like about it: It tastes good and has about 40 percent fewer calories than sugar. Using it may reduce the risk of cavities; some pediatricians recommend that children chew xylitol gum to lower the chances of ear infection; and you can bake with it, too.
• What we don’t like: Too much xylitol can cause digestive distress, especially when you first start to use it. The same goes for xylitol’s chemical cousins: sorbitol, mannitol, maltitol, lactitol, isomalt, and erythritol.
• How to use it: Mix xylitol in its granulated form into your own recipes the same way you would table sugar. Bear in mind that it won’t work for making bread, since yeast growth depends on real sugar.
• How to find it: Previously available only in gum and other candy, xylitol can now be found in crystalline form in many health food stores and on websites like xylitolstore.com and iherb.com.

Nutritional Winner: Fruit Juice Concentrate

• What it is: Distilled versions of fruit juice, concentrates come either frozen or refrigerated. You can also make your own by cooking whole fruits at a low temperature until they become a thick syrup. Fruit juice concentrates work well in most baked goods, except white cakes and recipes calling for chocolate, and are excellent for sweetening tea, lemonade, hot cereal, and plain yogurt.
• What we like about it: Delivers a healthy hit of the fruit’s natural antioxidants along with a sweet taste.
• What we don’t like: You’re still getting a dose of sugar (mostly in fructose form). Also, the concentrate yields a denser texture when used for baking.
• How to use it: For baking, substitute two-thirds to three-quarters cup of fruit concentrate for one cup of sugar. Add a few tablespoons of flour to batter if too wet.
• How to find it: Go to the frozen juice aisle of stores. For unique flavors, like pomegranate and fruit blends, visit waxorchards.com and naturesflavors.com.

Top No-Calorie Option: Stevia

• What it is: An extract from a shrub (Stevia rebaudiana) native to South America.
• What we like about it: Stevia is virtually calorie free. And some research indicates it may help people with high blood pressure bring it under control.
• What we don’t like: Though it’s sold legally as a dietary supplement, the FDA has not approved it for use in foods because of concerns about its safety: Male rats fed stevia’s active ingredient, stevioside, produced fewer sperm; pregnant hamsters eating it had fewer live babies and higher death rates. Also, studies have shown that a chemical in stevioside can cause changes in the genes of lab animals. Stevia advocates argue that the doses used in the animals were much larger than what human beings would consume, and that the sweetener has been used safely in other countries for many years, so they aren’t worried about any adverse health effects. A more immediate problem for some is the bitter overtone to the sweetness. And it doesn’t work well for baking.
• How to use it: You can buy the actual leaves, which aren’t as sweet, or steviosides in liquid or powder form. Sprinkle a few drops or grains on your cereal, or mix them in your tea. Stevia is up to 300 times as sweet as sugar, so you only need a teaspoon where you would use a cup of sugar.
• How to find it: Ask for stevia in your health food store, or order it from websites like steviasmart.com, stevianow.com, or mulberrycreek.com, which sells potted stevia plants for $4.

Most of the sugar Americans eat is hidden in cereals, bread, and other processed foods; a full third comes from soft drinks. So the only way to significantly cut back on the stuff is to read nutrition labels and ingredients lists closely. Sucrose (table sugar) is referred to as “sugar” on food packaging, and manufacturers are increasingly relying on fructose, particularly in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, which may be even more fattening.

Still, some of the more enlightened ones are considering natural options, like tagatose, which occurs naturally in some dairy products. It’s similar to table sugar in bulk and taste, with some 60 percent fewer calories.

Natural alternatives to sugar abound—sucanat, honey, molasses, rice syrup, barley malt, and date sugar among them. In looking for substitutes to recommend, we focused on ones that either are relatively low in calories and won’t boost blood sugar levels, or offer nutritional benefits.