Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Some of you may recall, many years ago, we all went through the fat-free craze. That's
when America just went nuts over fat-free foods. The thing we didn't know at that time
was that all of these foods were loaded up with sugar, and we simply didn't know at that
time that sugar was the primary cause of our weight gain. We were all consuming mass amounts
of food that were touted at fat-free. We thought they were good for us, and they were really
just making us fatter. Well, now we're smarter, and we know that sugar and processed foods
are the primary cause of our weight gain, but maybe now we've swung the other way. We
consume mass amounts of sweeteners that are touted as no-calorie or low-calorie. We've
got aspartame, saccharine, sugar alcohols, sucralose, stevia, and a whole bunch of others
that I've never even heard of before. Some of them are artificial, some of them are made
from natural ingredients. All of them go through some sort of a manufacturing process to come
up with the final product. Most of the manufacturers that come up with these products, they tout
that all of these low-calorie or no-calorie sweeteners will help you to lose weight. So
today we're going to work through the maze of no-calorie sweeteners or low-calorie sweeteners.
Let's find out what they're all about. For simplicity's sake, we're going to categorize
these no-calorie or low-calorie sweeteners into three categories: artificial sweeteners
(they're made in a lab), sugar alcohols (they come from plant products and do occur naturally),
and stevia (we're going to put that in its own category). So let's start with artificial
sweeteners. There are like a billion (slight exaggeration) artificial sweeteners out there
and they all claim they're great substitutes for sugar. The most common artificial sweeteners
that we hear about are aspartame, saccharine, and sucralose. And, while each of these artificial
sweeteners are unique in their own way, I'm going to lump them all into the same category
for one particular reason: that's because if you look at the common products that are
made with these artificial sweeteners, such as NutraSweet, Equal (both made with aspartame),
Sweet'N Low (made with saccharine), and Splenda (made with sucralose), I'm going to bet you
didn't know that all of those sweeteners have added what they call "bulking agents," and
these bulking agents are made of products that act just like sugar. Just check out the
packets of Equal. They contain dextrose, maltodextrin, and then aspartame. Dextrose, in itself, can
spike your insulin. It has a high glycemic index. So let's look at Splenda: dextrose,
maltodextrin, sucralose. These sweeteners are advertised as no-calorie, but they're
really not no-calorie. Each of these sweeteners has about four calories, or almost one gram
of carbohydrates, per packet. Now, I know that doesn't seem like a lot, but when you're
drinking coffee throughout the day, and I know a lot of you are big coffee drinkers,
if you're adding maybe 10 or 15 Splenda packets throughout the day for your coffee, that can
add another 40 calories a day to your diet. When you add that up throughout the weeks,
every little bit makes a difference. Plus, with a high GI, these actually can increase
your insulin when you don't want it, when you don't need it. The regulators allow the
companies to call these no-calorie sweeteners because they have less than five calories
per serving, but they're not really no-calorie sweeteners so don't be deceived by that. Artificial
sweeteners are 16 to 3,000 times as sweet as sugar, so you really only need a little
bit to go a long way. Plus, the body doesn't fully absorb them. That's one of the reasons
why they don't add a whole lot of calories when you consume them. One thing that freaks
a lot of people out is that artificial sweeteners are created by chemists. Candidly, I wouldn't
let that freak you out too much because a whole lot of our foodstuff is created by chemists.
60 Minutes did a great piece on that. I encourage you to check it out. Now, out of the artificial
sweeteners saccharine is one of those ones that's been highly controversial. Saccharine
was actually approved by the FDA way back when, and then it was actually pulled off
the market because of a study that found that it causes certain kind of cancer in rats.
But then the FDA came back and approved it again, and they put it back on the market
again. Who even eats saccharine anymore? It has a terrible aftertaste. So we're not even
going to talk about that particular sweetener. Now, let's move on to sugar alcohols. Sugar
alcohols are generally not used in the home as additives to your food. Typically, they're
used in the goods that we buy at the store every day: sugar-free gum, protein bars, sugar-free
candy. A bunch of these use sugar alcohols as their primary sweetener. Now, sugar alcohols
do come from plant products. They do occur naturally. They're lower in calories than
normal sugar, but they still do contain carbs. And because the body really can't process
it very properly, they can cause a whole lot of digestive problems. Gas and bloating are
just the start. I'll let you figure out what the rest is. Not very pleasant. Now let's
move on to stevia. stevia is a plant native to South America, but now it's grown all over
the world. South Americans have been using this plant as a sweetener for hundreds of
years. stevia is being marketed as part of no-calorie sweeteners, just like the artificial
sweeteners that we talked about. Truvia is a great example, but, again, you've got to
watch out for those ingredients. It has erythritol, and then the stevia leaf extract. Erythritol
is a sugar alcohol, so once again this is not a pure no-calorie sweetener in that form
as Trivia powder. But the cool thing about stevia is you can get it now in almost its
pure form as a liquid extract with no added bulking agents, and no other sugar alcohols,
or other sugars like dextrose that we saw in Equal and Splenda. And the liquid stevia,
if we look at the label there, they have absolutely zero carbs, zero calories, and zero effect
on the glycemic index, and it only takes a couple of drops to really sweeten your coffee
or water. it's a very powerful, all-natural sweetener. Now that we've gone through, very
simplistically, the three types of no-calorie sweetener, so what can we conclude from all
of this information? Well, bottom line is, no matter who you are, you really should limit
the amount of sugar alcohols that you're taking in. I mean, really, if you're trying to get
into shape you should be taking out processed foods anyway, and that includes protein bars.
You don't really want all those sugar alcohols in your diet anyway because it's going to
cause a whole bunch of problems really you don't want. When it comes to artificial sweeteners,
if you're just trying to get into generally good shape, you can have artificial sweeteners
in your diet. Just make sure that you do count those calories and those carbs because they
are real. But if you're somebody that wants to get into amazing, phenomenal, incredible
shape, then you really have to limit those artificial sweeteners, and that's where I
recommend stevia in the liquid form. From what I've seen, this is the absolute best
no-calorie sweetener available today. I use it sparingly sometimes in my coffee, in my
water, even on my oatmeal. It's great added flavor, no calories, almost zero glycemic
index impact, all-natural, and a little tiny bit goes a long way. My favorite right now
is SweetLeaf Sweet Drops. I am not paid by the company to endorse this. I absolutely
love it. It comes in amazing flavors. It comes in a little bottle with a dropper, and, I'm
telling you, this stuff goes a long, long way. And SweetLeaf Sweet Drops in particular
is also my favorite because they don't have a lot of other agents in them. Watch out for
those. There's other liquid stevia out there that have alcohols. They have all sorts of
strange ingredients in there. Just be careful and watch those labels before you consume.
So that's the bottom line on no-calorie sweeteners. I hope you learn something new today, and,
if you did, go ahead and hit that "Like" button below because that tells other people that
this video is valuable. And if you want to see more episodes of FABulously Fit Friday,
hit that "Subscribe" button too (and I don't know where the heck it is because YouTube
keeps, like, moving it around) because when you do subscribe you'll be notified of each
episode as it's released. I'm Kristin Shaffer, founder of Figure & Bikini. I thank you for
watching today, and I hope to see you at the next FABulously Fit Friday. Hey, gals. FAB
University is open. Head to FigureAndBikini.org to check it out.