What is the best sweetener… when you absolutely must use one?
So, you want to be healthy and lean and fit.. but once in a while you want to sweeten your oatmeal with something… and you always reach for that little bright colored package of.. 0-Calorie artificial sweetener.. You’re thinking, “It’s not going to affect me at all – it’s 0 Calories.”
Well, you may be wrong!
What Is The Best Sweetener?
A brand new research paper came out (in fact it’s December now and it’s actually published in the Appetite journal, Jan. 2013 issue) that studied rats fed yogurt sweetened with saccharin (the yellow package), another group of rats fed yogurt sweetened with aspartame (the blue package) and yet another group fed yogurt and sucrose (sugar).
The saccharin and aspartame are 0-Calorie artificial sweeteners. In other words they don’t add calories to whatever you’re eating, as opposed to sucrose, which has 4 Calories per gram, as we all know.
So, you’d think that the rats did better weight-wise on the artificial sweetener and yogurt diet, but they didn’t. In fact both – the saccharin and aspartame groups gained weight (given all their total calories were similar and they were exercise restricted) and the sugar and yogurt group didn’t gain weight!
What? Sugar is not bad for me?
Well, apparently if you have to choose between high-intensity vs sugar you’d better go with the sugar..
If you ask me, I’d say try with no sweetener at all so you can star getting used to more bland food and you don’t need a sweetener. But, in all honesty, I personally DO NEED a sweetener and I do use a sweetener, so I perfectly understand if you feel the same way. Just don’t use the artificial sweeteners… Go for the sugar instead.. and make it a rare occurrence… and make sure it’s in moderation. There is no need to go all out on the sugar and make a jam out of your oatmeal in the morning. The research I cited is not a “green light” for something like this. I repeat, IT IS NOT!