Many of us looking to cut back on calories have replaced sugar with artificial sweeteners. In fact, The Los Angeles Times reports that one such substance, sucralose, has lead a 10 percent rise in the sales of artificial sweeteners in the last 10 months.
The story quotes people who rave about the sweeteners. One mother says they helped her and her daughter lose weight and enabled her daughter to control her diabetes. But the story also quotes health experts who say the sweeteners can cause people to gain weight because they eat more dessert. For instance, some people think extra dessert is OK because they wash it down with a diet soft drink, the experts say.
Marion Nestle, who heads the department of nutrition and food studies at New York University, says, "There is no evidence that artificial sweeteners have had any impact at all either on sugar or consumption."
And, the story says the rise in popularity of artificial sweeteners has stirred new debate about plain, old sugar. Even the American Diabetes Association has changed its position and now says some sugar is OK for people with the disease. The association's Web site has general information about diabetes. MSNBC examines the myths surrounding sugar and its substitutes.
The Food and Drug Administration examines America's love affair with all things sweet and the debate over artificial sweeteners. And Atlanta's Emory University traces the history of sugar substitutes.
