My father loves chocolates and sweets. But now he is under sugar treatment. He never drinks tea without sugar. So we started using sugar-free tablets in the tea/coffee that we give him. But recently, I came across an article on diet for sugar patients. In that article I saw a point highlighting the negative impacts of using sugar-free tablets. So what do you all think? Are sugar- free tablet good or bad?
Depends on who you askā¦ There are many who feel that there are metabolic problems caused by most of the artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, sucralose, sacchyrine, etc.There are many who feel that they are safe in moderate quantities. I have been avoiding them for the last 7-8 months, in part as an āexperimentā to see if that makes much of a difference for me, but also because, though I miss diet soda, I otherwise find I donāt really need them.
There are a few āsugar-freeā sweeteners that are considered āsafeā by most professionals. These are Stevia, Monk fruit extract, and erythritol. The first two are sweet plant extracts that have no impact on blood glucose for most people, the latter is a sugar alcohol they most people do well with. Some people find that Stevia has a bitter aftertaste, but the only way to know that is to try it. BE careful with Stevia products - many of them are packaged as a mixture of sugar and stevia ā read the labels!
There is an argument that sugar actually affects your brain by giving you pleasure. And that is why we crave sweet things. So changing to a sugar-free sweeteners can still feed that craving essentially feeding the addiction without the bad effect on blood sugars. Maybe that alone is not a bad thing, but the cravings are really about carbohydrates. So my feeling is that feeding a strong addiction runs the risk of you craving things with carbs even if the technically donāt contain sugar.
Personally I have given up all sweeteners and donāt really crave the at all anymore. And I largely donāt crave carbs. That is my own personal theory.
ps. I would agree with @Thas that most healthcare professionals think artificial sweeteners are safe (i.e. they are not toxic), but there is still not an agreement too much use of these sweeteners is good.
As long as I can remember I have used artificial sweeteners almost exclusively. My mom was a type 1 so I grew up drinking diet cola with saccharin, aspartame, you name it I have used it. My current favorite is Turvia, I do not care for the store brand of this sweetener, but I am a fan of Truvia.
Sorbitol (or any with TOL) at the are not really good sweeteners for use by people with diabetes. I suggest you try a few, see what works and be sure and look at the negative aspects of each.
There are compelling arguments on each side of this. So it comes down to an individual choice.
Erythritol, a newer sweetener, and xylitol, are both actually quite good from the BG perspective and are sugar alcohols (thus ending in -tol): neither will raise blood glucose in most (or any) diabetics. They act more like a fiber, and are fermented in the lower intestine rather than digested. On the other hand, this fermentation can cause some people to experience gas or other GI tract issues. Sorbitol raises my BG, so I avoid it (and many āsugar-freeā products are loaded with sorbitol).
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I will stand corrected. Sorry for the misinformation.