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• July 14, 2009 9:29 a.m.

  My father-in-law was recently diagnosed with diabetes. To celebrate his 83rd birthday, I found a cupcake recipe for diabetics that calls for 1/2 c. "fructose". What is that & where do I find it??? OR, is there something better (equivalent) I can use in the recipe?

  - Ann

• March 14, 2009 12:47 p.m.

  No matter what I read about any vitamin or dietary concern of any kind, one thing is apparent. Eat in moderation. Do not eat too much. Do not eat too little. No need for supplements and no need for "diets" Just keep it as moderate as you can.

  - Frank

• February 4, 2009 12:38 p.m.

  What is wrong with cane or beet sugar? What is wrong with honey? Not enough calories to make a mad difference in a balanced diet. Our preoccupation with shelf life and caloric intake, coupled with a demented appetite for processed foods, is the problem. Our eating HABITS. It's not a matter of substitution; it's a matter of eating properly for a level of activity. Diabetics have different restrictions in sweetener use, needing to follow a certain overall diet. Still, processed sweeteners are not a solution to their primary problem. For the rest of us, it's just a matter of eating too damn much and indulging cravings that would be more readily satisfied with a piece of fruit. How many of us order a Diet Coke to go with that cheeseburger and french fries? Or put sugar on that processed cereal made with sugar? I like the taste of a half-teaspoon of granulated cane sugar in my coffee, but I'm well-aware that I don't NEED either the coffee or the sugar. Nor the supermarket Boston cream pie made with the super-sweet high-fructose corn syrup and oil posing as "cream". To each their own, but I personally would rather have a food from as close to the source as I can get and do the processing myself!

  - Anne0206

• January 21, 2009 4:52 p.m.

  I used aspartame in a mix for many years. I switched from Equal to Nutra Taste because of price. I tried splenda and shortly thereafter had a bad spasm of back/hip/leg pain. It may not have been caused by the artificial sweetners but I stopped and have been using stevia to sweeten some foods. I do believe that one cannot say this or that substance will cause this or that malady for all people. One must try, test, evaluate.

  - Ted Greeenwood

• January 20, 2009 9:32 p.m.

  I recently (about 2 months) stopped using Splenda because I suspected something in my diet was causing extreme arthritic/joint problems for me. I had a 'lightbulb' moment while adding Splenda to my morning coffee and decided to check the internet for 'Splenda side effects' and found many references to arthritic/joint problems that people felt were caused by Splenda. I immediately stopped using it and started noticing improvement within a few weeks. Now that about 2 months have gone by, the improvement in my knees is dramatic!! My entire body feels better and the pain that I thought 'must' be just regular arthritic/aging pain is no longer there and, when I do have a pain anywhere it is different. On Splenda, I can only describe the pain as being somewhat 'crystaline' in nature...my joints felt like there were tiny pinpricks of crystal formation. I imagine that Gout might feel like what I felt before (while using Splenda). I have always had 'bad' knees but they didn't cause me huge problems unless I wasn't careful. However, the last few years (using Splenda), my knees changed and I 'knew' something was different. The trouble was that I never suspected something I 'thought' was safe to use...was NOT! I feel confident that Splenda caused my increased pain and increased arthritic symptoms...and I won't be using Stevia either!!

  - Virginia

• January 9, 2009 9:55 a.m.

  What about diabetics? Obviously a need to limit sugars in any form but not addressed in your article.

  - Christine

• January 5, 2009 5:50 p.m.

  aspartame ruin about six months of my life.I had bad headaches vomiting memory lost.I wrote down what I ate after each spell.Jan's First Magazine had a wonderful article on artifal sweeteners

  - LeeAnne

• December 23, 2008 10:57 a.m.

  What is natural? I see postings that persons use sugar because it is natural. I live where sugar beets are raised. IF you want natural you need to get a beet (or a stock of cane) and cut it up to use as sweetener. And even honey is "manufactured" by honey bees. /So to me the key is moderation in all things, including substitute (I don't like the word articifical) sweeteners!

  - Betty

• November 21, 2008 5:21 p.m.

  My take on artifical sweeteners? Let's face it, it is used in the "extra" food group classifications that no fat chick should be ingesting much of anyway: jams, sauces, desserts,etc. Having said that, using food items with this additive can be incorporated successfully into a weight maintenance/loss food plan. Personally? I'd rather use the real thing and get used to using less of it: small pieces of cake, 1 tsp jam, etc. Usually, the caloric savings in many of these artifically sweetened items are not that much of a caloric savior and for SURE do not taste as good!

  - Oobladee

• November 16, 2008 5:28 a.m.

  stevia seems to be the way to go if I dont have access to local honey. I find I need little honey in my tea to make it sweet enough and get the allergy immunity as well.

  - mary

• November 14, 2008 7:53 p.m.

  I have quit using aspartame because it was starting to give me migrane headaches and cravings for more food. I have also lost seven pounds since I have stopped using this sweetner. I also sleep better and am more alert without it. I also attend overeaters anonymous to help me with my compulsive eating.

  - Dee

• November 4, 2008 5:56 p.m.

  On December 1, it will be my 5th anniversary of not eating sugar unless it's 5th or lower on the ingredient label. This includes Corn Syrup, cane juice and a list of many other titles that are really refined sugars. I uses artifical sweetners sparingly but they don't set off cravings like sugar did. I've lost over 100 pounds due to watching my sugar and following a food plan. I had been obese my entire life. I'm not a big fan of ingesting chemicals, but I do use them in moderation. One sweetner I used for a time was Stevia, a natural herb. It lowers blood pressure and blood sugar which may be good for some, but I had bradycardia and hypotension so I gave it up. It would still be my sweetner of choice without my particular complications. It was easy for me to mentally give up the sugar. It has no nutritive value - total empty calories and was not worth the consequences. Truly if I can give up sugar, anyone can if you really want to.

  - LeAnne

• November 2, 2008 5:19 p.m.

  I'm a CN and have battled my own desire for sugar until 7 weeks ago. I gave up all forms of sugar and artificial sweeteners and only use real whole fruit to sweeten recipes. I am forever changed! I lost my desire for sugar in only 3 days! Even though artificial sweeteners may not raise your blood sugar they still make your body crave sugar. My opinion is to never consume sugar or artificial sweeteners. There are those people who can't just have one cookie!

  - freefromsugar

• October 30, 2008 10:33 a.m.

  It is my experience that foods that use sugar taste better than those that use a substitute. I worked for a food research company in the '60's and a person called us asking about substituting sugar with corn syrup, My boss who was a food scientist said that it takes three times as much syrup to equal sugar. When Coke came out with the New Coke we were able to get our hands on both old and new at the same time and did a comparison test. The original Coke won hands down.

  - Kristin

• October 29, 2008 11:32 a.m.

  I have taken a moderate approach to all of this. I have reduced the amount of sweeteners that I use in general, and it has resulted in my preferences for sweet food changing. I find that mixing the suger substitutes improves the flavor a bit. My logic is that the potential negative effects tend to be dose dependent, and I have essentially reduced the amount of any specific no-calorie sweetener quite a bit.

  - Will

• October 28, 2008 5:02 p.m.

  I have high tryglycerides, so I use Splenda for baking. I have used Equal as well but only in microwave cooking. Splenda has given me the ability to bake, once again.

  - maggie

• October 10, 2008 5:13 p.m.

  OK, here's my take. We have the natural substance (sugar) and yes it has calories. So why would we want to eat/drink something that's manufactured, even though we'll be eating fewer calories? Bottom line: eat natural foods as much as possible. With sugar, just limit your intake to a reasonable amount! To those of you who tend to be 'sugar-holics' you'll find that after about 2 weeks of less sugar, you'll see that your craving for it diminshes greatly. Stay away from the artificial sweetners. Your body will love you for it:)

  - CK

• September 25, 2008 5:06 p.m.

  I have been drinking Aspartame sweetened soda which is flavored with real fruit flavors and is not overly sweet as most other sodas are. I have been doing this for quite a while, and I like this enough to find it helps me to avoid beer and its calories. I have never experienced anything adverse, and I therefore question most of the hype on the web. I have been visiting my local gym regularly with cardio workouts 5 days a week, and have lost 23 pounds in the last 4 months. As far as I can tell by perusing reliable information on the web there have never been any definitive studies which confirm the many "evils" attributed to this, other than the phenylketonuria effect, and anecdotal proof such as the woman with fibromyalgia, and individual cases in susceptible individuals

  - Greg

• September 23, 2008 10:46 p.m.

  I have stricken aspartame from my diet due to the claims of it aggravating fibromyalgia. I have found that any time I ingest the slightest amount of aspartame, my fibromyalgia flares up immediately, and badly.

  - Christine

• September 19, 2008 1:33 p.m.

  I have avoided the 'mainstream' artificial sweeteners as much as possible after becoming aware of the health risks associated with them, and the conflict of interest controversy over the FDA's approval of aspartame. Without reading the study mentioned the blog post, I don't know what sorts of sweeteners were used. I do recall, however, hearing that some artificial sweeteners (aspartame comes to mind), while low/no calories, actually arrest the metabolism, causing a net increase in weight gain. That's pure hearsay, though- I certainly don't have the medical background to back it up. I use a blend of stevia and erythritol (together, the blend approximates the consistency and sweetness of sugar) to sweeten my morning coffee, as I've read nothing to suggest either has negative health implications. The blend also takes the edge off of stevia's less-than-stellar aftertaste. While I can not attest to the long term effects of my stevia sweetened coffee, through diligent calorie awareness, exercise, and a diet containing a reasonable balance of fats, carbs and protein, I have managed to lose approximately 50 pounds over the last six months. The stevia, which I added in about a month and a half ago, has not slowed that weight loss as far as I can tell.

  - Ellery

• September 18, 2008 9:41 a.m.

  I've read that the ADI of Splenda is 340 mgs for my weight (150 lbs) Now how do determine how many mgs in an OZ?? So I can monitor it?

  - Suedafed@aol.com (Susan)

• September 7, 2008 1:07 p.m.

  I'm sure there are some people who react negatively to artificial sweeteners, just as there are some people who have bad reactions to tomatos or tree nuts or perfumes. Thing is, being a little conscious of what you eat -- if you'd drink one can of Coke, maybe one can of diet Coke would be enough, too -- is a huge part of living a healthy life. I know this because I've had juvenile diabetes for 44 years, and used artificial sweeteners since 1963, including cyclamates, which were banned because it was discovered they caused cancer in rats when rats were fed enormous amounts. Maybe if we could just all be reasonable about the amounts of anything we eat we wouldn't have problems?

  - Annette

• August 24, 2008 11:15 a.m.

  I think there are lots of folks suffering many symptoms caused by Splenda who don't have a clue that Splenda is the cause. When I had a really bad rash a couple of years ago, I was fortunate to be friends with someone who had been affected in the same way by Splenda. Then I discovered how many others via the web were also affected. I feel sorry for the others who may never know.

  - Kay

• August 19, 2008 8:30 p.m.

  Aren't there studies done on the harmful effects of Splenda to humans? I know several people who have had to stop using Splenda do to headaches.

  - Dianne

• June 19, 2008 9:54 p.m.

  I am a 75 yr old woman who has fought my weight all of my life. I've tried many diets and finally about 3 or 4 yrs ago tried the South Beach eating plan - lost 35 lbs. and have kept it off. I gave up sugary desserts and have no craving for them anymore. I've used sugar substitutes all my life and I'm healthy, active (walk 3 miles most days in the hills) and feel great. Most people don't believe it when they find out my age. Maybe someday I'll discover that artificial sweeteners have done something to me, but so far, I haven't had any problems. They are a blessing to me as I prefer some foods sweetened and I can have a Starbuck's coffee (and other treats) without gaining weight. I'm grateful for them. I'm 5'8" and weigh about 155 lbs. It's the easiest diet/eating plan I've ever tried.

  - Jan C