Part 3: Make a Plan

Artificial sweeteners give a sweet taste without adding the calories you get with sugar. They don’t contribute to tooth decay and don’t raise blood sugar levels. However, consuming these sugar substitutes can have significant drawbacks. They may:

1. Raise your sweetness threshold. This can make it harder to break a sugar “addiction.” Artificial sweeteners are hundreds of times sweeter than regular sugar. This may cause you to crave sweeter foods.

2. Cause you to eat more. Eating and drinking sweet things signals the brain to want more. Even if the artificial sweetener doesn’t have any calories, it can lead to overeating and consuming extra foods that do.

3. Cause discomfort. This can be headaches, exhaustion, and digestive discomfort, including gas, bloating, and constipation.

4. Harm your gut bacteria. Artificial sweeteners may promote the growth of gut bacteria that store energy as fat. Gut bacteria that is not working properly also contributes to high blood sugar.

Stevia (Truvia®, Pure Via®) is a non-caloric sweetener made from an herb. It has not been studied as much as artificial sweeteners, but it is still super sweet (300 times sweeter than sugar) and may cause digestive discomfort for some people.

Sugar Alcohols (e.g., xylitol, sorbitol) are not sweeter than sugar and contain fewer calories than sugar. However, they may also cause digestive discomfort and headaches for some people.