Episode 164: Are Artificial Sweeteners Safe?
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Episode Description
In this episode of The Up-Beet Dietitians podcast, Emily and Hannah discuss the classic debate, are artificial sweeteners safe or should you just eat sugar? The girls break down their regulation process, potential harms, potential benefits, and dive into the popular sweeteners you have heard of. Aspartame, sucralose, saccharin, stevia, and monk fruit are just a couple of many that are discussed. Be sure to tune in to learn more!
Links mentioned in the episode:
Tune in on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or Substack to listen.
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Hello everybody, welcome back to a brand new episode of the The Up-Beet Dietitian's Podcast.
Hello.
Everyone today we are talking about sweetener and sugar alternatives.
Are they safe?
Are they healthy?
They have spent a lot of interesting press recently over the past year or two around these and especially about dietitians promoting them.
0:33
So we're going to talk about it a lot more in depth before we get into it.
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There's also more exclusive content on there if you'd like.
And this is, we figured we'd go to a little bit more of a tamer, safer topic today because life has just been crazy and we don't know how much, how controversial we can be.
1:00
This is still going to be controversial.
I was going to say, people are still going to hate on this.
But not as much as we have been quite recently.
And we're going to talk about like the side effects, how it might affect blood sugar, are they even safe to consume, stuff like that.
1:19
Yeah, We'll do a breakdown of all the ones that are FDA approved.
I'm curious on your experience as a dietitian, Like are you discussing these regularly at work?
No.
I wasn't sure if you would in renal very much.
Like sometimes with like diabetes, a lot of my, a lot of my patients are diabetic.
1:41
They'll ask me, but we don't really go that much.
It's more of like, sure, you they're fine to have it might be a spoiler they.
Probably already know what we're gonna say, what the bottom line was, but that's interesting.
1:57
I was curious.
I wondered if they would ever ask if it would like directly impact kidney health at all.
I could see that being a question I would get asked.
Surprisingly no.
That's good.
Actually, I either get like the people that like think everything is to get going to hurt the kidney or the people that are just along for the ride and most of them are just along for the ride and they'll they're like just tell me and I'm like, OK.
2:23
Yep, sounds about right.
On the contrary, I feel like I'm constantly talking about artificial sweeteners.
Like just today I probably discussed it with at least two patients.
Oh yeah.
What's is it like a like are they safe conversation or?
Yeah, they're always worried about their safety.
2:40
I do see a lot of diabetes patients as well.
So that's the biggest demographic, I would say.
Yeah.
Sometimes my eating disorder patients just because of course, like the overuse of them is a common eating disorder behavior which we can discuss today as well.
2:58
But I think it's more so in my like just like diabetes or like general Wellness, like those kind of discussions.
And it's usually, I don't want to put a blanket statement out, but I'm going to anyway.
It's usually the older adults who are like very much no, absolutely not.
3:14
I will never trust.
Astrot in my life.
That's so interesting.
I feel like that's the opposite for me.
Yeah.
But it's like, 'cause they're like really young and they're probably like maybe a little chronically online.
That's true too.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
3:29
I think with the older adults, they're just set in their ways and they've probably seen thousands of headlines about aspartame in their lifetime and there are the negative.
Anyway, let's get into it.
So First things first, what exactly are artificial sweeteners?
3:45
So for the purpose of today, we'll probably be using mostly that term artificial sweeteners, but they're also sometimes referred to as sugar substitutes or non nutritive sweeteners.
I personally like the word or the the term non nutri sweetener's the best.
I feel like it's the most like descriptive of them and I feel like the word artificial has a negative connotation to it.
4:06
I don't know.
What if you talk about these, what do you usually refer to them as?
Like as a umbrella term.
I call them like sweetener alternatives or sugar alternatives 'cause that's how I think they typically see it is like that's a good way to an alternative to sugar is in at least the context that I'm typically talking to them or they're questioning.
4:27
Yeah.
So all that said, you may hear these terms thrown around interchangeably and they are the most part you can mostly do that.
When we get to the description of each, there are a few different classifications the FDA uses on how they like classify the category they're in.
4:44
But again, for today, we'll be referring to them as mostly like artificial sweeteners or like sugar substitutes.
So they tend to be much, much sweeter than your typical table sugar or sucrose is the fancy name for it.
So usually super duper small amounts are needed compared to sugar.
5:03
We'll go over I have some fast facts today.
I know you guys love the fast facts.
So for each of the the sweeteners I have a fast fact and one of them usually includes like how much sweeter than sugar the sweeteners all are.
Always.
See, it's like thousands times more.
5:18
That's like such a fun part.
I'm excited for that.
Well, we can play a guessing game, but I won't guess.
We'll have them guess and then we'll.
Just never know if they're right or wrong, Let us know.
How do you they can let you guys will know, but look forward to that.
That would be fun.
I love that idea.
5:36
Of course being non nutritive that just means they don't provide any calories or very very few if you're eating like a lot of it.
But again, you don't need much of these sweeteners because they are so sweet and potent and they're usually found.
And of course, like sugar free products like diet sodas are the big one.
That's probably my main consumption of these personally.
5:55
Like different like protein bars and such, usually the ones that claim to be like lower carb, but they use a lot of sugar alcohols in these kind of bars typically, which we'll go over those as well 'cause they're a little bit different than like your aspartame and sucralose chewing gum.
And then like desserts like sugar free desserts like sugar free pudding, light ice cream, sugar free jello, that kind of stuff.
6:16
People see it as like the like diety foods they're like that's at least how they're they tend to be advertised like sugar free, low calorie, calorie free, what not.
Yeah, if you ever have a product you eat that says it's sugar free or like no sugar added, but it still tastes super duper sweet, chances are there's a sugar substitute in there.
6:40
So we're gonna talk a little bit.
We're the main thing we're talking about is safety because that's always one of the biggest concerns with these.
And to answer your question, are they safe?
Yes, the USDA does have a chart that we will include in the show notes if you'd like to look at it that illustrates the safe amount of each sweetener based off of like our acceptable daily intakes.
7:08
And this is how like this is this is always one of the biggest argument points that people utilize like the amount and the dose, which we always talk about as well.
Like what is the dose?
Ask that.
So this is a nice chart to at least have that.
7:24
And when Hannah goes into her fast facts for like the sweetness or this how much sweeter they are compared to sugar, you'll kind of start to see like the correlation between how much they're actually using and what that will result in for the sweetness level.
7:45
Like spoiler, a lot of them are a lot less because they're so sweet.
Exactly.
But I had AI had a typo.
I had USDA in there.
This graph would you can include the link to this from the FDA, the FDA, sorry, no, that was my bad.
The FDA is the one who overseas the regulation of these sweeteners.
8:06
So yeah, we'll include the little graphic so you guys can see it.
It's kind of cool.
It has like a little bar graph, which is just so fun.
So when we talk about them being a substitute to sugar, which like Emily said, is usually how they are being thought of as the question you might be having is, are these sweeteners better than sugar?
8:21
Like which one's the best one to choose?
And of course, I know I have a hard time answering that question.
I can't just say like, yes, 1 is better than the other.
It's not really how it works.
The context really matters here, of course.
And there could be a valid reason to choose either a a sugar substitute or like regular old sugar or brown sugar or honey or molasses.
8:43
Like I know in my own personal life, I tend to choose usually I'll use like regular sugar if I'm like baking or cooking, something like that.
I will use like a honey, a molasses if I'm looking for that particular taste profile.
9:01
I get that question a lot too.
I'm sure you do too, Emily.
Like refined versus natural sugars.
As we know that all breaks down into glucose in the end.
So it's just the context of how you're using it.
But my main use of sugar substitutes is my beloved diet sodas, which I will be bringing to the grave with me.
9:20
Yes, I, I would agree.
I think a lot of it is the context like a lot of it is like personal preference.
Are you cooking, baking, what is happening?
And then like I know from like a diabetes standpoint, which we both work a lot with, oftentimes the sugar alternatives are like they tend to prefer those 'cause I don't have to think about it quite as much then like with blood sugar spiking.
9:50
But that's like with that specific, that case specifically, like if you're not diabetic, you wouldn't have to be watching that as closely.
Yeah, yeah.
And if you do have diabetes, you could totally find a way to fit in regular sugars too, of course.
10:07
But I agree that is the case where I feel like the sweetener substitutes are the most beneficial.
Those who have diabetes, PCOS, really anyone who is trying to manage that blood sugar.
But like Emily was sort of saying, if you don't have a need to micromanage your blood sugar, don't.
10:28
You don't.
Just drive me crazy.
So much.
Yeah, I know For me, a question I get all the time is why do you choose diet soda?
As a non diet dietitian, you should be having the regular stuff.
And that's a very common misconception with like the non diet approach, we'll call it, is that we're always choosing the, I hate the word unhealthy, as you guys know, but we're always choosing the like the option that diet culture says is so bad for you, which in this case would be like a Coke.
10:58
A regular Coke for me, I just simply don't feel the best.
I love soda so much.
I want to have it regularly.
I enjoy the bubbles, the taste.
It's just like a total vibe for me.
And I would not feel good having a regular soda like on a daily basis.
11:15
And I don't mind the taste of the sugar substitutes.
So for me, it's a fine swap to make and I don't have any negative side effects to it, which we will discuss some possible side effects in a minute.
But I'm one of the lucky ones who doesn't get like headaches or anything like that from aspartame.
So it's again like all about the why behind that choice.
11:33
If I have a regular Coke, I'm not going to sweat it.
It's fine.
My body can handle that.
If that's like what's presented to me.
And I like am forced to drink it, which I know is not actually going to happen.
No one's holding a Pew Pew to my head and told me I have to drink Coke, but you guys get the point.
11:49
It's all about the why behind that choice and not letting diet culture be too much of an influence there.
Yeah, and at the end of the day, you'll be fine either way, probably.
Exactly.
Most likely, but some.
We'll talk about the benefits first.
We'll start with some nice things about these sugar alternatives, sweetener alternatives.
12:11
They like we've been talking about diabetes so much, they don't have that much of an impact, like there's or little to none impact on your blood sugars, which doesn't.
I think this is like a common misconception like I was talking about earlier how my patients will be like, oh, no sugar at all.
12:30
That's so much easier to manage.
I don't have to think about it, but that doesn't mean that you should avoid sugar and carbs in general completely.
Like we actually would recommend not doing that from a blood sugar stability standpoint.
But I think like the diet soda example, if you're someone who consistently likes to partake, then this could help.
12:53
And if you're diabetic, it might not impact them as much, which could help you not have to stress about that quite as much.
But if you wanted to like, like there's a way to fit it in, but it can't help with blood sugars potentially if you don't want to think about that or you're in a situation where blood sugar stabilization is something you have to pay attention to a little bit more.
13:12
Another one, something I would probably benefit from and I don't even, well, I do eat a lot of sugar.
That's a lie.
Is dental health.
Choosing sweetener alternatives or sugar alternatives will probably benefit your dental a little bit more.
13:34
And I don't care.
I don't care.
It's one of those things where you know you're aware of the benefit, but at the end of the day, maybe someone can relate.
I'm not gonna have my sugar free gummies over my Sour Patch Kids.
13:52
The sugar free candy is a whole other ball game.
They have not.
That's where it's.
Primarily coming from, yeah.
Yeah, the way they have like the diet soda, specifically the 0 sugar soda, which is usually my go to the 0.
Sugar soda, they got down.
They got that down the sugar free candy.
No, till that day comes it will stick to my gummies.
14:14
Yeah, go to the dentist.
Brush your teeth as often as appropriate.
Yeah.
And eat your regular candy if that's what you like.
And then lastly, just choosing these sweetener alternatives can help decrease your overall sugar intake, kind of like what Hannah was talking about.
14:34
Like if she were to drink normal Coke every single day, she probably wouldn't feel very good, but choosing this alternative might make her feel a little bit better.
So try and incorporate some of that gentle nutrition with intuitive eating, doing things that still make us feel good, but we're not doing them in a way that is diet, dietier, Wellness, culture driven, something that will just like help you feel good.
15:04
And it's OK to think about your it's OK to like prioritize your physical health as well.
I feel like that's another very common misconception is non diet means you don't care about your health.
Exactly, it doesn't.
It's not automatically like disordered eating to consider your sugar intake for the day.
15:24
Again, it's like the extreme at what you're thinking about it.
If you're becoming obsessive, it's like consuming your every behavior and thought.
Yeah.
And like you are like, if back to my soda example, if I were to have a regular soda, a coke, let's say, and like freak out about it or like restrict the rest of the day, not eat breakfast the next morning, whatever.
15:48
Like that is no longer that gentle nutrition.
I don't I didn't look into this and I don't want to speak on a subject I'm not very educated on.
But have you seen any updates on Coca-Cola and like Trump's presidency?
16:04
I saw they like sponsored him.
I thought I like.
It wasn't a paid sponsorship, but it was a like, yeah, let's go into this.
He's going to this presidency drinking Diet Coke.
I think it was Diet Coke.
16:21
I distinctly remember Diet Coke.
I think you're right.
But I'm like, and then people are like, I've always been Pepsi.
And I was like, there's a lot of non, there's a lot of Diet Coke lovers out there.
I like half jokingly told Ross I wanted to get a Diet Coke tattoo and he's like, don't you do that?
16:39
Because if they pretty bad, he was like gonna regret that.
And I'm like, thank God for him.
Yes, thank goodness, he said.
That we can do a like a soda one.
Though I wanna do a soda 1 still.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like the little like a kilo can or something that'd.
16:55
Be cute.
Just.
No.
No brands, No brands, no books, no artists, no authors.
I.
Mean 1 can be literally nothing is safe.
You probably shouldn't even do anything podcast really because who knows, we could turn it evil.
17:13
We could turn don't get a beat tattoo because we could turn it anytime.
Well, that's kind of sad, I hope.
It is sad.
I hope they change their tune but if not I'm not anti Pepsi.
No I mean in my I like Pepsi.
17:29
You like it more than Coke?
I like Pepsi more than Coke.
Wow and.
This is, and I think it's 'cause Pepsi's sweeter to me and I like, I like pretty sweet things.
Yeah well have No Fear I currently have like 0 sugar ginger ale root beer 7UP.
17:47
You have me.
Covered there so fresca in my friend right now so I'm good.
You have other options.
You'll be.
On it, plenty of options.
Yeah.
All right, let's go over the possible risk because to the credit of the haters, there are some.
That said, though, for the general population, consuming these artificial sweeteners will not cause any side effects.
18:08
For most of you listening, there is very little risk to you consuming these in the quantity that you're likely consuming them.
Most of you probably aren't consuming 20 cans of Diet Coke per day every day for like a lifetime if you were this.
Is not medical advice.
18:26
We're making very general assumptions about all of you right now.
Yes, of course, Of course some do anecdotally report that like I hear like aspartame and headaches.
I hear those two a lot.
I have a Co worker who actually always talks about that.
18:42
She doesn't choose Diet Coke because it gives her a headache and that's the case.
Don't choose Diet Coke.
Like once again, it's fine.
The difference is that she's not telling her patients, since Diet Coke gives me a headache, that it must be bad for everybody else out there.
Which is just crazy to me.
18:58
I think about that all the time and I'm like, if we started dishing out our weird body, things that like we experience like.
So she has an IBS girly for you?
Yeah, no one would be eating any.
Like we would all have weird eating habits if we all ate like me and we would.
19:14
We don't need that.
So anytime anecdotal, why am I thinking like confessionals like like reality TV anecdotal stories come out about like from one person specific experience.
19:32
I would listen to them, make them feel understood, hear them out, but I would not take that as all or nothing advice or whatever.
It is or like assume that it's going to apply to you.
There is a very rare condition known as PKU.
19:53
I can never say this.
I would love to hear you pronounce it, but I'll get my hand out purposely.
Did not want to say this.
I'm always being oddly silent.
I'm like fetal ketoneuria is I think how you say it.
PKU is how we all say it in the field.
20:09
It's it's so rare.
Like there's not a lot of people who have this and you are test for it as a newborn like at the hospital, so you would know if you had it.
But if you do have this, you have to look out for phenylalanine, which is amino acid that is in aspartame.
20:26
And you might have seen these warnings on products that have aspartame that says like not safe for those who have PKU, like I know like some Diasotos will have it on there.
So that is one case where for sure aspartame needs to be avoided.
But again, chances are you don't have this, and if you do, you probably know about it.
20:47
So it wouldn't just like spawn upon you overnight or anything, no.
You would know and like if you don't have PKO, you don't have to be looking for labels talking about PKO or if only if you're dating someone or a family member like you do not need to go out of wait your way to look for this.
21:16
No, OK, let's break down all the different ones.
So yes, like I've kind of alluded to, these are all regulated by the FDA as food additives, at least for these first few.
The last three that I have listed all kind of have their own categories, but all these first ones here are regulated as food additives.
21:35
So that is what like their category is, and they're all a little different based on their chemical composition and their sweetness level.
They all kind of have their own different uses and they tend to like food companies will use similar ones for similar things.
21:52
Like soda usually has this certain one, like diet jello, like sugar free jello will have like this certain one.
Even if it's eight different brands of sugar free jello, they usually use the similar ones for similar purposes, if that makes sense.
Typically based off of like once again, going back to like the cooking and like baking idea of like these tend to work that's.
22:15
Stability, stuff like that.
Yeah.
They're gonna science.
They all have.
Similar ideas, it's just a lot of branding and sometimes slight differences in products across them.
First one though, Aspartame.
22:32
Public Enemy number one of all of these.
This one's been getting a lot of heat recently.
Do you remember that?
Was it last?
Year well link our Washington Post article that we talked about or that we were like well we weren't featured in it but some of our peers were there were some dietitians who were like working with a it's called the safety of aspartame is the name of the the oh I don't know if it was like a some.
22:57
Kind of branch or whatever, yeah.
Organization.
That's the word and I did include a link here.
We can include it for you guys too.
On this website.
They showed there are over 100 studies demonstrating the safety of aspartame.
And that is what the R DS who collaborated with them were talking about was just like the safety of this.
23:15
And that's when the Washington Post came in and said that R DS are paid by big food, yadda, yadda, yadda.
And we talked about that already.
I think we even like hinted on our thoughts on aspartame in that video or that podcast and we probably said we're gonna eventually talk about it more and took us a good six months to do it and here we are following through.
23:36
We eventually got there, yeah, but essentially, Long story short, it's fine to consume.
It's fine.
And.
This is the one that I feel like it's the most hate.
23:52
It's also the most I think just well known and heard about.
But ironically, it has like, it's like one of the most studied of all of these.
Yes, which is funny, but just right now, for whatever reason, someone at who was on aspartame's side got in some bad issues with someone on the media and now they are under attack.
24:22
But OK, should you?
Hannah, Hannah, go over your wait.
We have to let them guess.
OK.
So we're gonna tell you how much like this time, sweeter than sugar, and you have to guess.
Aspartame is blank time, sweeter than sugar.
24:38
So have you guessed?
OK, the answer is at 200.
So like gram per gram aspartame is 200 times sweeter than sucrose table sugar.
Pretty crazy if you're thinking of these sweeteners as like a little packets you get like the diner or whatever you'd see aspartame in Nutrasweet Equal and Sugar Twin.
24:59
This is all for the US by the way.
I'm sure that different countries have different like brand names for these sweeteners.
And in terms of the ADI, which I think I have listed for most of these, which is the acceptable daily intake.
So basically how much of the sweetener you would need to consume every day for a lifetime for it to be too much for your body to handle?
25:22
Basically for aspartame, it is 50 milligrams of aspartame per kilogram of your body weight.
So in other words, and you may have heard this example before, if a person weighing like 150 lbs would consume like 19 cans of diet soda every day for their lifetime, at that point they would exceed the ADI.
25:44
But otherwise, having a Diet Coke, even like once a day, 2 diet Cokes a day, you're not getting anywhere close to this ADI.
No, you will be OK.
You'll be OK.
I can't. 19 cans is a lot that keeps expensive.
26:02
Very expensive.
And again, it's like over a long period of time.
Like if you had 19 cans of soda today, you probably would feel like crap for other reasons.
But it's not the aspartame coming to get you in that moment.
This is like over years and years and years of you having those 19 cans every single day.
Let's go to our next one, Sucralose.
26:19
I feel like Sucralose gets attacked like a little bit, but it's because I kind of have.
These ranked in like.
Popularity, yes, which I appreciate you.
And then the ones you ended with, I'm like OT 'cause these are like the like healthy ones that people like.
I see what you did there.
26:35
But the.
Sucralose another one.
There are over 110 studies specifically around.
Like what are the potential toxic effects of this?
And once again, it is fine.
26:52
This one is crazy to me.
Hannah's like fast facts.
OK, I'll lay it out for him.
And one little hint I will give you is it's sweeter than aspartame.
So there's your hint.
Sucralose is blank times sweeter than sugar.
And again, it's more than 200.
27:09
You ready?
OK, it's 600 times sweeter than sugar.
That's.
Crazy to me.
This is Splenda, by the way.
You guys all probably know who Splenda is.
If you're in the US.
If you're in the US, yeah, cool thing about sucralose is that it is heat stable.
27:28
So even when you like bake with it, which is a common use, you've probably seen, again, like in the US, like those bags of baking Splenda, you can get.
It's like one for one ratio of sugar to sucralose or Splenda.
And it does do well with baking and some other ones do too, which I'll list.
27:47
The ADI is a little bit lower than Ascertain, but again, it's super, super sweet so you don't need it. 100 times exactly 600 like that's that's.
Huge, like if you had like if you like licked a little thing of sugar off your hand, imagine it being 600 times sweeter than that little lick that you just took.
28:08
And that's.
So they're like not using.
You'd have to eat a lot and you probably wouldn't like that much.
No, if you're.
Disgusting.
Craving something?
If you're having the equivalent of like a lick of sugar of sucralose, I question your mental status.
28:28
Yeah, or maybe it's the pregnancy craving that's the one thing.
That's true, I've never heard of someone like craving like a sweetener like this.
That'd be hilarious.
Let us know.
Let us know the ADI didn't spit it out.
The ADI is 5 milligrams per kilogram and ADI for aspartame was 50 by the way.
28:45
So again, quite a lot less, but way sweeter.
Our next one, I don't want to say this first word.
Azulfame potassium.
You did it.
Is that actually it?
Oh my gosh.
That's how I say it.
Or Ace Ki don't really see this one talked about that much honestly.
29:05
I mean, maybe now we're bringing light to it and it will be get talked about.
Yeah, it's usually used with other stuff.
It's it's typically not the sole substitute sweetener in a product.
It's usually gonna be like with sucrose or something like that.
So it's sort of like the the afterthought sweetener, honestly.
29:22
OK, fast facts.
Ace K is blank times sweeter than sugar.
Let's say less than sucralose.
Less than sucralose.
Yeah, We'll give you a little bit of like an idea each time, OK?
Is actually the exact same as aspartame, 200 times sweeter than sugar.
29:41
And like sucralose, ace K is heat stable.
So again, it can be used in baking and such.
You will see it on the ingredient list.
A few different things that sometimes will just be called ace K, Sometimes it'll be the aceulfame KA sulfate, potassium, but they all mean the same thing.
29:59
And the ADI is between sucralose and aspartame at 15 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. 200 times is still a lot.
Like I know sucralose still blows me away every time but like 200 times is still quite.
Wait till we get to adventam.
30:14
You are going to poop your pants.
I'm not going to look.
I just almost spoiled everybody.
So yeah, I kind of want you to guess actually.
All right, I will not.
Let's go to the next one.
I'm not going to Scroll down Saccharine.
I feel like saccharine kind of gets good vibes I don't really like.
30:30
As a reader, I always see like saccharine sweet smiles like that kind of verb.
It just.
Used a lot.
People are cool with saccharine.
Yeah.
I don't know why.
Maybe it's like the name.
It kind of looks like like an herb.
I guess it's like, so maybe like you're like, oh, it's natural, it's from the earth.
30:51
You're right, although in the 70s there was some discourse around saccharine, it was linked with the development of bladder cancer in Lab Rats.
But those were Lab Rats, and you're probably a human listening to this.
And since then, more than 30 human studies have demonstrated that the results found in the rats were irrelevant to humans and the saccharine at the ADI is safe for human consumption.
31:15
Yeah, just don't feed your pet rats saccharine.
That are probably already predisposed to getting bladder cancer.
Or just already have cancer.
Yeah, exactly.
OK, fast facts.
Let's do our sweetness comparison.
31:32
So saccharine is a range.
So it's between.
You know what?
No, you're going to have to go on blind this time.
It's a little confusing.
If I give you a range, Saccharine is blank.
Times sweeter than sugar.
Lock in your gas, OK?
31:48
Saccharin is at 200 to 700 times sweeter than sugar, so as low as aspartame, as high as sucralose, and actually higher in some cases.
You see, the brand's already.
Oh no I didn't, sorry.
Saccharin is sweet and low is the main brand that we heard of.
32:05
So those pink packets also sometimes called sweet twin.
Why do I have sweet and low twice?
I don't know why I did that or step to.
Sweet.
Oh, I wonder if those are two different things.
I forget.
Maybe they wanted both of those copyrighted sweet and low and sweet and low.
32:23
Yeah, that's what the FDA has on their site is all these listed.
Have you heard of Necta Sweet?
No, me neither.
I also like don't really use.
That's true.
And I use a lot of like I like, I think of like coffee and stuff like like I could not probably tell you the colors of the packets.
32:42
Yeah.
Which maybe I should know that as a dietitian, but as a.
I'm mostly just like writing blogs and stuff.
Yeah, Saccharine has good vibes.
I I think I like saccharine.
I don't really, I don't know.
I don't use those packets very often myself either, so I don't know which one I would like gravitate towards if I were like being we should do.
33:04
A test or like we'll do a like taste test comparison.
We'll eat a finger lick of Secret Loves.
I don't know what we'll get out of that, but we'll do something fun.
33:20
Probably entertainment is the biggest thing, at least for us.
Yeah, look out for that somewhere.
OK, I don't want you to peek at the adventame.
Do you want me to go?
Into I'm not, I'm not scrolling.
I can see I haven't stopped at Neo tape.
OK I will do the next two OK but our last two are Neo Tame and Adventame, both way sweeter like crazy high.
33:43
Can you see Neotame Sweetness I?
I can't.
I spoil myself there.
OK, OK.
So Neotame is sold under the brand name New Tame.
I think it's a relatively new one compared to the other guys discussed already, but As for trivia, another range here, a very big range.
34:01
This would.
Be a good trivia question, actually.
It would especially for like dietitians R DS night out.
Oh gosh.
OK, neotame is blank to blank times sweeter than sugar.
34:17
And I'll give you a hint we're in the thousands here, which is crazy crazy.
OK neotame is 7000 to 13,000 times sweeter than sugar.
That's crazy.
Like I can't like a.
34:32
Spec and you'd be like, OK, we're good.
Which this is funny, the ADI is at 0.3kg per kilogram of body weight, which as a reference it was.
What was it for?
Or aspartame 50 SO 0.3 compared.
34:48
To 50.
Because again, it's so.
Sweet.
So sweet.
Yeah, like you probably don't want all that much.
No, and it's also not used very often.
No.
OK, adventame.
A quick little fact about it before I get into Emily's guessing it.
35:06
It's also very new.
It was FDA approved in 2014.
So within the last little over a.
Decade.
Wow.
Yeah, OK.
I want you to guess the sweetness level.
It is the highest one of them all.
OK so I have a number in my head and I'm wondering if I accidentally saw it or I'm just imagining this.
35:26
I'm guessing 50,000.
Not quite.
It's 20,000.
OK.
I was like, you would be crazy.
I mean 20 is crazy, but 50 would be crazy.
I know I'm like what did they just create?
It's a monster. 20 is like, how do you even like you don't need a lot of that.
35:48
No, no.
And surprisingly so.
Like, he's pretty high, yeah.
I'm scrolling down now so I can see that one, but that's what a lot of these arguments are People online is like if you look at the studies and these amounts like you would have to eat so much of these like the 19 cans for of diet soda for the rest of your life when like you're not consuming anything, we're probably near like you wouldn't feel good.
36:19
And then also, you probably wouldn't like that much sweetness.
No, no, I didn't include this on are outlined today, but some argue, and it's mostly anecdotal, that when they consume a lot of these sweeteners it makes them less sensitive to like sugar.
36:37
Have you ever heard that claim before?
I feel like I could see that because it is you're.
It's just so sweet that things that are less sweet like.
Yeah.
You don't notice as much.
Are they saying sensitive like it's not as sweet or like sensitive?
36:53
Like so like if you have.
Side effects.
No, no, no, the first thing.
So if they're having lots of these, like let's say diet soda, suddenly regular sugar doesn't taste as sweet anymore.
I feel like I could see that potentially, but you also might be having to drink a.
Lot exactly like get there.
37:12
I have met some pretty heavy diet soda drinkers in my career and maybe that does happen for them specifically.
I've also heard that like it makes your cravings increase.
But it's all anecdotal and in a lot of cases, those who are trying to manage their blood sugar or decrease added sugar intake, choosing these sugar alternative sodas like a diet soda or 0 sugar can actually kind of help alleviate some of those cravings.
37:35
If that is what is happening like Emily sort of hinted at.
Our last three are sort of, well I would say two of them are sort of like the more natural like health Halo versions of these sweeteners.
The 1st 2 being stevia and monk fruit.
Yeah, people are OK with these.
37:54
It's kind of funny because they come from plants, people feel more comfortable with them so.
Which are poisonous plants, so.
Yeah, exactly.
Don't trust all plants.
Yeah, don't eat the poison berries.
Yeah.
So stevia comes from a leaf that is native to a plant in South America.
38:16
OK, that's non nutritive even though it's not technically an artificial sweetener.
So it provides few to no calories per serving.
In terms of their sweetness level, they are 200 to 400 times sweeter than sugar.
So similar to aspartame.
And also what was the other one?
38:33
Saccharin?
I think it was Stevia is tricky because there are a few different like, like strains of it, and so it's not quite as like cut and dry as aspartame or sucralose where there's like one kind of it that can be studied.
38:50
Yeah, monk fruit.
I actually kind of like monk fruit.
I don't like intentionally get it very often, but it does taste pretty mild and not quite as chemically as some of the other ones can.
This one's also fruit based.
It comes from a plant native to southern China.
Also has 0 calories per serving and kind of like stevia, there's different strains of it, different origins, and depending on that origin it's reported to be 100 to 250 times sweeter than sugar.
39:16
That was pretty mild compared to some of the other ones.
I kind of wish there wasn't as much of A as much hype around monk fruit 'cause I feel like it's gotten quite expensive.
Yeah, because everyone's like, oh, sweet, everything with monk fruit, monk fruit.
39:32
And I'm like stop it, go stevia, let's have our monk fruit.
Also I'd like the name monk fruit.
Me too.
Sounds nice.
39:48
That and saccharine.
They have good good names, good vibes.
That helps them a lot.
Vibes and science is what we run on around here.
That probably describes us so much more accurately when people are like upset we're not evidence based solely and we like let our emotions affect us.
40:10
No.
We are vibes in science that is very true to us so.
That's our influencer reviews, yes.
Oh my gosh, we need to add that to our merch idea list.
Like going off science and vibes, that's it.
40:25
Yeah, it's literally.
I'll wear that.
OK.
Our last one is sugar alcohols.
Again, a little different than the other category of like the ascertainment, all of that.
The FDA does permit the use of these as a sugar substitute and examples include sorbitol, xylitol, lactatol, manitol, arethritol.
40:45
If it ends in OL, it's a pretty good sign that it is a sugar alcohol.
The sweetness of these is actually a little bit less than sugar.
So anywhere from like 25% to as sweet, 100% as sweet as sugar is what you can expect from these.
41:02
I'm sure you guys have seen that Instagram or not Instagram Amazon gummy bear, sugar free gummy bear posts.
These are known to cause gastrointestinal issues like gas, bloat and diarrhea when consumed in large amounts.
41:18
And so people will kind of assume like, oh, these are lower in sugar.
This product has less sugar in it, so I can consume more.
And then we have the rest of the day spent in the bathroom because we're shooting our brains out because the Aretha tall did US dirty.
Usually.
41:36
I was going to say the IBS girlies usually have to look out for these.
Are you one of those?
I don't like have to like scour but like if I start to feel weird I might check and be like Oh yeah no longer for me.
These will be on a food label, so you'll see like under the total carbohydrates, it'll list these as well the sugar alcohols if there are any in there.
41:58
So they're usually pretty obvious about it, which is good.
Yes.
So again, generally safe, they're not gonna cause any like chronic harm, but they are known to cause some upset stomach if you have too much of them.
Yeah.
So not some anything too exciting.
42:16
Actually, you guys probably could have predicted a lot of this if you've been around for a while.
But it's nice to talk about these because I don't think they're going to go anywhere and they've been around for so long.
I'm sure it's going to continue to be like as the one that came out of 2014.
There's going to be more and more as we continue to go on.
42:34
And probably for the most part, unless something new comes up that we cannot predict, our answer will be relatively the same.
Yeah.
But if they're safe.
But at the end of the day, a lot of it is personal preference and you should do what's best for you and not what some influencer says.
42:55
Yeah, I think that wraps it up quite nicely.
We'll head over to Subtech.
Guys, we're talking about Onyx Storm today.
I am giddy about this conversation.
It just came out.
We just finished it.
There will be spoilers which will give a warning over there too.
Yeah, but if you're also into into that very niche, well, not anymore.
43:13
It's not so niche, but into the romanticy book reading side of things.
We'll be discussing that today over on Sub Stack.
Yeah, we're excited to see you there.
Otherwise, we'll catch you next week and see you then.
Three years in.
43:32
Still can't outro bye.
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