What Sugar-Free Foods Are Actually Sugar Free?

The label says sugar free but is it really? Sugar is often replaced in packaged foods by sugar alcohols such as sorbitol, Sucralose sweeteners or non-nutritive sweeteners such as saccharine or aspartame. Consumption of sugar-free foods has become popular because of concerns over obesity and diabetes. Foods with sugar alcohols are still high in carbohydrates, and many people fear that saccharine and aspartame pose carcinogenic dangers. To address these concerns, natural, non-carbohydrate sweeteners such as stevia are used in some foods instead of sugar.

Sneaky Sugar

• The pretty blue bag says sugar-free chocolate cookies. This seems just too good to be true and it is. The cookie company can get away with calling its cookies sugar free because the Food and Drug Administration defines sugar to be sucrose. Look at the nutrition information on the back and you might see that it contains 7 grams of sugar alcohols per two cookies and 16 grams of carbohydrate. This bag of cookies, like many other foods sold at the supermarket, uses sugar alcohols such as sorbitol and maltitol as sweeteners. These products are carbohydrates derived from natural starches or corn syrup. The label may say sugar free but the product is not carbohydrate free. Your body treats these simple carbohydrates just as it would sugar.

Sucralose

• Sucralose is a form of chlorinated sugar that is marketed as Splenda. Splenda is sugar that has been chemically treated to replace three oxygen-hydrogen molecules with three chlorine molecules. Splenda can be found in sodas, juices and processed food items. Splenda can also be bought as a packaged sweetener to use in baking or for beverages. There has been some controversy over the use of chlorinated sugar. For more information on Splenda, log on to thetruthaboutsplenda.com to view a study of Splenda conducted by Duke University.

Non-Nutritive Sweeteners

• Some sugar-free foods contain saccharine or aspartame. Saccharine is marketed as Sweet & Low and aspartame as Equal and NutraSweet. Foods containing these products are truly sugar free because both products are chemically synthesized and only simulate the taste of sugar. Many people question the safety of saccharine and aspartame but the Food and Drug Administration lists both as safe for human consumption.

Stevia

• Stevia was accepted for use as a sweetener by the Food and Drug Administration in 2008. Stevia is a natural sweetener made from the leaves of the candy leaf plant. This plant grows in South America. Food products containing stevia as a sweetener have zero calories and no carbohydrates. The major soft drink manufacturers were quick to begin using stevia as a sweetener. Coca-Cola uses stevia in Sprite Green and Pepsi uses it in bottled waters and energy drinks.