Thinking about cutting back on sugar? You may be considering replacing your sugar intake with artificial sweeteners to cut the number of calories you take in. However, there are certain things to watch out for:

• “Sugarless” isn’t always so – A product may claim to be ‘sugarless’ or ‘no sugar added’ but that doesn’t mean that there is no sugar, it just means they didn’t add any refined sugar to it during processing. Have a look at the nutrition information to see how many carbs are in the food to get a better idea of how much sugar there is in the food.
• Sugar alcohols are a good replacement – There are certain ingredients that are described as ‘sugar alcohols’. These aren’t actually alcohol and they won’t cause intoxication. The FDA has said they don’t cause cavities, and in fact, one of them, Xylitol, actually protects teeth!
• Artificial sweeteners – The widely used and FDA-approved sweeteners (such as aspartame and sucralose) haven’t shown to be dangerous for human consumption. You do, however, need to watch out for impacting the flavor of a dish if you are using it in your own cooking. For instance, aspartame can’t be used for baked goods since it degrades at high temperatures!