Sweeteners to Avoid

Be savvy about harmful and healthful sweeteners. Here’s a list of the three kinds of sweeteners to avoid along with their various brand names.

You’ll find details for those to favor at Quality Sweetener Guidelines. Armed with the information below about the “bad” sugars, you can now ignore various marketing claims for “natural” cane sugars and all sugar substitutes. Then how comforting to know that it’s a quality ingredient that sweetens your tea!

1. Artificial sugar substitutes include Canderel, Equal, Nectresse, NutraSweet, Splenda, Sunette, Sweet & Safe, Sweet One, Sweet’N Low and Sweet Twin. These artificially synthesized compounds act as neurotoxins, contributing to ADD, ADHD, and weight gain due to metabolic damage. Avoid all products containing these harsh-tasting, intense sweeteners.

Enjoy honey and other natural sweeteners.
Enjoy honey and other natural sweeteners.

2.  Synthetic sugar alcohols like malitol and xylitol, which are produced from by-products of the plywood industry and cornstalks. They are difficult to digest and cause gas and bloating in many people. Xylitol is dangerous—even life threatening—for pets, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. While data correlates xylitol with the reduction of dental caries, there are many less toxic ways of preventing tooth decay.

3. Refined sweeteners high in fructose include agave nectar, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup and refined beet, corn and cane sugar. These highly refined, empty calorie sweeteners contain no minerals. The numerous health problems associated with consumption of concentrated fructose include obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and liver cirrhosis.

While quality natural sweeteners also contain fructose, the difference is that they’re real foods with fiber, enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants as well as viable energetic and medicinal properties. In moderation you may healthfully enjoy: honey, maple syrup, Whole Cane Sugar (rapadura), Sucanat and fruit juice as per our Quality Sweetener Guidelines.

In comparison to the complex and smooth taste of Whole Cane Sugar and Sucanat, other cane products taste harsh, one dimensional and overly sweet. Their lower mineral composition (see representative comparisons below) aptly indicates that they’re more refined. These not recommended sugars include: brown sugar, cane crystals, demerarra sugar, dehydrated cane juice, granulated cane juice, invert sugar, milled cane sugar, muscavodo sugar, powdered sugar, raw sugar, turbinado sugar, unbleached sugarcane and yellow D sugar.

Whole Cane Sugar,100 mg
600 -1,000 potassium
40 – 1000 mg magnesium
50 – 100 mg phosphorus.

Muscavodo Sugar, 100 mg
100 mg potassium,
23 mg. magnesium
3.9 mg phosphorus.

Brown Sugar, 100 mg
100 mg potassium,
23 mg. magnesium
3.9 mg phosphorus

Granulated White Sugar, 100 mg
0.1 mg potassium,
0.0 mg. magnesium
0.0 mg phosphorus

11 Responses to Sweeteners to Avoid

  1. What are your thoughts on xylitol made from birch bark? I know it’s toxic to pets, but my understanding is that it’s a healthy version of xylitol. Thanks so much! 🙂

    • Excellent question. Yes jaggery, piloncillio and other ethnic cane products can be excellent quality if 100% cane and additive free.Just not always easy to find. And perhaps not organic.

  2. Hello Rebecca!

    I would like to tell you that during this 4 years since I have been living the diet you prescribed for me, I have missed my sweets! One thing I have always enjoyed is canned sour cherries.
    I bring them home and add my own sweetener. Well, now guess what?
    They don’t have it on the shelves anymore. People WANT that other kind of canned cherries that are already sweetened with the bad stuff. If anyone knows where to buy unsweetened cherries, I’d like to know about it. They could be frozen too.

    • Four years! And how are you feeling. I’m trusting that the diet is paying off. And while a little sweet is ok, if you’re craving “too much” (and only you can discern that) then that’s typically an indicator that you need a little more protein and/or fat in your diet.

      Yes…sour cherries are great and their availability varies from place to place. I buy mine dried from Eden Foods and if you click on the link on my page, you receive a 15% discount.

Leave a reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

New Whole Foods Encyclopedia
The Splendid Grain
 

Information on www.RebeccaWood.com is intended for educational purposes only and should not be substituted for medical advice from a doctor or healthcare provider. Rebecca Wood is neither a medical doctor nor a dietician. Use of this presentation does not establish a doctor-patient relationship. Note: no single facial indicator (such as wrinkles, discoloration or irregular skin texture) makes a particular diagnosis.

www.RebeccaWood.com is not responsible for the comments, views, or opinions made by site visitors, and the site itself reserves the right to use its own discretion when determining whether or not to remove offensive comments or images.

www.RebeccaWood.com is not responsible for the translation or interpretation of content.

©2023 Rebecca Wood