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What Is the Sweetest Sweetener?

If you've got a sweet tooth and are trying to lose weight these days, you're in luck. There are more choices for sweeteners, artificial and otherwise, now than ever, and just as much controversy over which ones are safe. While some sweeteners haven't been available long enough to say definitively whether they have any long lasting negative effects, there is enough science to determine which one is the sweetest of them all.

  1. Simple Sugar

    • Table sugar, also known as sucrose, is a simple carbohydrate. Not only is sugar not the sweetest of the sweeteners, it's not even the sweetest natural sugar. Fructose, the sugar found in honey and fruit, is a simpler sugar than sucrose, and therefore is sweeter.

    Runners Up

    • Aspartame, also known as NutraSweet and Equal, is 200 times sweeter than sugar. It is not heat stable, and not suggested for baking. Stevia, from the Stevia rebaudiana plant, grown in Brazil, China and Paraguay, is also 200 times sweeter than sugar. While some tout the safety and benefits of Stevia, also marketed as Truvia, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the World Health Organization concluded that it should not be allowed in food until further studies could be done on it. In the meantime, the FDA has approved Stevia as a supplement (safety rules for supplements are not as stringent as those found in those for food). Health food stores sell Stevia as a natural alternative to synthetic sugar substitutes. Saccharin, also known as Sweet 'n Low, is 300 times sweeter than sugar. Saccharin is a synthetic chemical that was discovered in 1879. In 1977, the FDA tried to ban saccharin because some animal studies showed a link between the sweetener and cancer. Congress kept saccharin on the market, albeit with a warning label on it.

    Sweetest on Market

    • Sucralose, also known as Splenda, is 650 times sweeter than sugar. There has been some controversy over the safety of artificial sweeteners, like Sucralose; however, The FDA, the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the International Food Information Council say that Sucralose passed all safety tests in animals, and assert that Splenda is safe for everyone to use. Sucralose is, at this time, the sweetest of the sweeteners in our foods; however, it is not the sweetest of the sweeteners in existence.

    Sweetest of All

    • Neotame, 7,000 to 8,000 times sweeter than sugar, is indeed the sweetest of them all. Neotame, a derivation of aspartic acid and phenylalanine, was approved by FDA in July 2002 as a sweetener; however, at this time, Neotame is so new that it hasn't appeared in any popular products.

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