How to Sweeten That Meal Healthily - written by Phil Tucker

We love our sugar rush. We love to sprinkle a little sugar over our cereal, to plunge a tablespoon of the white stuff into our coffee, to bake cinnamon rolls drenched in it, to throw it in just about anything and everything. And if not sugar, then it's added sugar, which is what the industry calls any sweetener they add to processed food. Honey, agave, high-fructose corn syrup-there are sweeteners just about everywhere, and it turns out that we are eating far too much of it for our own good. Obesity rates and diabetes are on the rise, and it's been calculated that we eat on average 165lbs of sugar every year. Just stop and think about that, and then go take a look in the mirror. So what are we to do? What is healthy, what is not, how to sweeten your meal in a natural and good way? In today's article we take a look at three different sweeteners, examine the pros and cons, and help you figure out exactly what you should be sprinkling or pouring on your food.

Let's kick it off with table sugar, that white crystalline miracle known as sucrose. It has about 16 calories per teaspoon, and absolutely no nutritional benefits. Sure it will give you an energy kick, and it's hard to avoid: you can find it fruit, and it's added to just about everything these days. Did you know that added sugar makes up about 10% of your diet if you're an average American? That's about 12 teaspoons every day if you're on a 2,000 calorie diet. Ouch.

Next we have Acesulfame potassium, or Sweet One as it is more commonly known. These are usually found in light blue paper packets, or hidden in your chewing gum, your soft drinks or frozen desserts. Does it have greater nutritional benefit than sucrose? Nope. It does not. However, it has been around for 22 years, and nobody has reported any health concerns yet beyond it being empty calories. There were some initial tests that linked it to animal cancer, but nobody looked into it. Probably safe, right?

If you're like me you like your breakfast accompanied by a nice jug of coffee that's as sweet as it is black, a smack across the face to get you started on your day, lighting you up so that you hit the ground running and never look back. Yet you can't help but notice that sugar intake has increased across the nation to such a point that obesity rates and diabetes has shot through the roof, while our diets have been measured to include 10% sugar. It's been calculated by very intelligent people in lab coats that we consume on average about 165lbs of sugar each day, and if that's the case, no wonder our life expectancy is going down instead of up. So what should we add to that pot of coffee? What can we substitute for sugar? In today's article we're going to look at four different sweeteners and see what we find, checking if any of them are actually better than sucrose itself.

Finally we have the health darling of the moment, agave nectar. With more calories per teaspoon than even straight sugar, it's drizzled on everything out of a belief that it's actually healthy. Is it? Looking and tasting just like honey, it's derived from the heart of agave cactus plants, and while it doesn't contain any antioxidants like honey, it does have about the same amount of calories.