Artificial sweeteners, also called sugar substitutes, have their place in today’s society with many people having diabetes or trying to lose weight.

At zero calories per gram, they allow people to have a wider range of foods than they would otherwise be able to eat when on a sugar/calorie-restricted diet. Actually, there are a few artificial sweeteners that seem safe to eat:

Stevia

Made from the leaves of the stevia plant, it is recognized as the safest artificial alternative to real sugar. Japan has used Stevia as a sweetener for over 30 years, but because it is not FDA -approved in the U.S, you’ll find it listed as a dietary supplement and not a sweetener. Continue reading →

Diet drinks seem like a simple alternative to drinking sodas containing real sugar, but they can cause a set of health issues of their own, namely:

Kidney Problems

According to a research done by Harvard Medical School, diet soda may be bad for your kidneys. In their study of more than 3,000 women over the course of 11 years, many exhibited twice the risk of kidney decline as those who did not drink diet soda or soda containing real sugar.

Overworked Metabolism

Drinking one diet soda per day increases your risk by 34% for a condition called metabolic syndrome. That was the result found by a University of Minnesota study of 10,000 adults. Metabolic syndrome is a group of symptoms that include increased belly fat and high cholesterol that increases your risk of heart disease. Continue reading →