Currently there are various sweetening products in the market for different needs of each person, however there are some aspects that must be considered before choosing.
The synthetic sweeteners, or sweeteners, offer the advantage of sweeten without adding calories (unlike sugar), however it is not recommended that they be ingested frequently but rather only when strictly necessary.
These types of products are aimed at people who definitely cannot consume sugar, to people who suffer some suffering like diabetes or people who need to reduce their weight.
On the contrary, for healthy people without weight problems or diseases is widely recommended eat natural sugar or, failing that, a mixture of natural sugar and sweeteners.
In the case of children, for example, you have to avoid the latter, especially during the breastfeeding period, and limit sugar intake which is already present in foods such as fruits, roots and cereals.
Following, the types of sweeteners, its origin and qualities:
- Natural sweeteners:
- Sugar.- It comes from the sugar cane or beet and presents a nice flavor (and no residual flavors).
- Stevia.- Originally from the plant of the same name, sweetens 400 times more than sugar normal table without adding calories.
- Synthetic sweeteners:
- Cyclamate.- Its chemical compound is cyclohexylamine of oil and its sweetness is 30 times higher than sugar.
- Aspartame.- Comes from modified amino acids; sweetens 180 times more than sugar.
- Saccharin.- Its formula is toluene and anthranilic acid; can sweeten 300 times more than table sugar.
- Sucralose.- This compound is sugar + chlorine and is biggest sweetener of all -Both synthetic and natural-, because its sweetness is 600 greater than sugar.
Source: Good table
Image: flickr