Natural sugar substitutes
- Brazzein — Protein, 800× sweetness of sucrose (by weight)
- Curculin — Protein, 550× sweetness (by weight)
- Erythritol — 0.7× sweetness (by weight), 14× sweetness of sucrose (by food energy), 0.05× energy density of sucrose
- Glycyrrhizin — 50× sweetness (by weight)
- Glycerol — 0.6× sweetness (by weight), 0.55× sweetness (by food energy), 1.075× energy density, E422
- Hydrogenated starch hydrolysates — 0.4×–0.9× sweetness (by weight), 0.5×–1.2× sweetness (by food energy), 0.75× energy density
- Inulin
- Isomalt — 0.45×–0.65× sweetness (by weight), 0.9×–1.3× sweetness (by food energy), 0.5× energy density, E953
- Lactitol — 0.4× sweetness (by weight), 0.8× sweetness (by food energy), 0.5× energy density, E966
- Lo Han Guo - 300× sweetness (by weight)
- Mabinlin — Protein, 100× sweetness (by weight)
- Maltitol — 0.9× sweetness (by weight), 1.7× sweetness (by food energy), 0.525× energy density, E965
- Maltooligosaccharide
- Mannitol — 0.5× sweetness (by weight), 1.2× sweetness (by food energy), 0.4× energy density, E421
- Miraculin — Protein, does not taste sweet by itself, but modifies taste receptors to make sour things taste sweet temporarily
- Monatin — naturally-occurring sweetener isolated from the plant Sclerochiton ilicifolius
- Monellin — Protein, 3,000× sweetness (by weight)
- Pentadin — Protein, 500× sweetness (by weight)
- Sorbitol — 0.6× sweetness (by weight), 0.9× sweetness (by food energy), 0.65× energy density, E420
- Stevia — 250× sweetness (by weight) - extracts known as rebiana, Truvia, PureVia; mainly containing rebaudioside A, a steviol glycoside
- Tagatose — 0.92× sweetness (by weight), 2.4× sweetness (by food energy), 0.38× energy density
- Thaumatin — Protein, 2,000× sweetness (by weight), E957
- Xylitol — 1.0× sweetness (by weight), 1.7× sweetness (by food energy), 0.6× energy density, E967
Artificial sugar substitutes
Note that because many of these have little or no food energy, comparison of sweetness based on energy content is not meaningful.
- Acesulfame potassium — 200× sweetness (by weight), Nutrinova, E950, FDA Approved 1988
- Alitame — 2,000× sweetness (by weight), Pfizer, Pending FDA Approval
- Aspartame — 160–200× sweetness (by weight), NutraSweet, E951, FDA Approved 1981
- Salt of aspartame-acesulfame — 350× sweetness (by weight), Twinsweet, E962
- Cyclamate — 30× sweetness (by weight), Abbott, E952, FDA Banned 1969, pending re-approval
- Dulcin — 250× sweetness (by weight), FDA Banned 1950
- Glucin — 300× sweetness (by weight)
- Neohesperidin dihydrochalcone — 1,500× sweetness (by weight), E959
- Neotame — 8,000× sweetness (by weight), NutraSweet, FDA Approved 2002
- P-4000 — 4,000× sweetness (by weight), FDA Banned 1950
- Saccharin — 300× sweetness (by weight), E954, FDA Approved 1958
- Sucralose — 600× sweetness (by weight), Splenda, Tate & Lyle, E955, FDA Approved 1998
Hi Blake,
ReplyDeleteThe ones I use the most are 1. Xyletol. HEB sells this (it is primarily Xyletol with a tiny bit of sucrolose added in for x-tra sweetness-- a yellow/white bag)and it is a 1 to 1 correspondance to sugar. That's the main reason I love it to bake with, because I'm a lousy baker to begin with. I've also used inulin, also known as chicory root, in the form of "Better than Sugar" which is in a green cylinder at Sun Harvest. It works well for a "powered sugar" effect on things, but it seems to lose all its sweetness when you bake with it. Stevia mixes are available at HEB-- I don't know of any controversy and I know of many people who use it just fine-- they have it grown in the states. It's SUPER sweet and has a slightly bitter aftertaste, though, so most commercial packages mix it with other things, often inulin or maltodextrin, which is a carb, but not one that feeds yeast, so I do use that to sweeten tea, for example. I save the xyletol for baking only because it's expensive. I use brown rice flour (superfine) because it is the only grain my diet uses (otehr than quinoea and aramanth, which I don't care for)and I can make some pretty good stuff with those. I also use the xyletol in my "minute muffins" which has only ground flax seed as the "flour" and these are really very good when fresh. My friend has a child who is on a VERY low carb diet for seizures and she uses liquid stevia for his baked stuff, but I found it very...uh, strong. I gave my bottle to her, but that was before the diet. I would've made it work now. The stevia, even in mixes, you only need a tiny fraction of the amount you need with anything else. If you want the pure stevia, you'll have to go to a health food store; HEB has the mixes of it right there in the mixing aisle. Agave necter is what my doctor uses-- make sure you get the USDA certified kind, not the kind from Mexico. That is the stuff you've heard warnings about. THe stuff from here is just fine and very tasty and much less rough on the blood sugar levels than honey. I'm not allowed it yet, but will be able to use it some after 6 months on my diet. I'll make a separate post on artificial sweetners. All of the ones I have mentioned are considered natural.
Okay, now on to artificial: I don't buy any of them to bake/cook with because of the controversy around them...however, I did start drinking sugar free Rock Star when I was in serious need of staying awake during a bad sleep time in the house and I found I really, really liked how sweet it was. It met my sugar-craving and didn't have the bitter "diet drink" aftertaste I had always looked down my nose at. However, it's been a slippery slope. It went from "I need caffeine to stop this headache" to "I might be getting a headache" to "I'd better make sure I don't get a headache and drink this Rock Star." Then I saw how much caffeine is in there and thought, "Holy Mackeral!" So then after I saw my neurologist drinking Diet Caffeine Free Dr. Pepper, I decided that a little bit of aspertame won't actually cause cancer and if my doctor will drink it, I will, too. However, I do of several people who have gotten weird effects from drinking it, from weird balance issues to bladder infections and so on. I really think I should avoid drinking them, but MAN I just crave the sweetness. But I don't intentionally go out and buy it to cook with. I only buy it pre-put-in-there because I am weak! I haven't done my own research yet on the dangers of aspertame. A friend pointed out to me that ANYTHING in excess will kill you, to include water, so I found myself wondering about what levels of aspertame were used in the studies showing a correlation to cancer. I'll let you know I find out.
ReplyDeleteOh, and my crunchy friends also do not use sugar-free Maple syrup because of the Splenda (sucrolose) but I found Maple Hill Farms sugar free syrup is mighty darn tasty. I only allow myself two of our gluten free pancakes, but that stuff could still be used on minute muffins and a lot of other stuff.
You have a very big list there and I am not familiar with most of them. But check out HEB's sugar aisle first and see what you think and then move onto Good STuff or Sun Harvest if you want more pure Stevia withotu any carbs in it at all.
Hope this helped some (Blake asked for my comments, for those of you wondering "Why is she going on and on?" I'm just a thorough reporter, can't help it.
By the way, sorry I kept misspelling Xylitol. :)
ReplyDeleteBy the way, check out all the ads you're getting..."Steve in the Raw" is at HEB.
ReplyDeleteAmy, thanks for your experiences. That list because it is easy to copy paste from wikipedia :)
ReplyDeleteI posted them all so they would all be in one place for me to check them out as I need/want to.
Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out what "my diet" will allow and won't. It really is my rules... nobody is making me do this. But at the same time I don't want to be a weirdo that says I'm doing sugar-free then... don't.
I definately am not doing refined sugar and white starch. For now I'm eating some fruits as listed on this page: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art4474.asp