Are Artificial Sweeteners Healthier Than Real Sugar?

Picture this: you see a news story about the harmful effects of added sugar. Found in both sweet and savory processed foods, added sugar can alter your brain, mood, teeth, organs, weight, and overall health. Like the rest of the world, you begrudgingly turn to artificial sweeteners to take care of that pesky sweet tooth and avoid these adverse consequences. 

Phew, crisis averted! Wrong. 

An article pops up in your feed and tells you how these sugar alternatives might have no calories, but the body still processes and receives information from them that could be harmful to your health. Frustrated, you decide to cut out sweeteners entirely. But how can you possibly stick to such a restrictive diet? 

Here’s the thing: you don’t have to follow such an extreme lifestyle to be healthy. Let’s take a quick look at how each affects the body so you can make an educated choice.

How Does Added Sugar Impact the Body?

The average American eats about 17 teaspoons of added sugar per day, which is far more than the maximum recommended limit of 12 teaspoons. Further research from the National Cancer Institute finds that adult men eat an average of 24 teaspoons each day. That’s 384 calories of sugar every single day. 

That doesn’t include naturally occurring sugar, like we find in fruit. These natural sources come along with fiber, vitamins, and minerals that slow sugar digestion and provide plenty of nutrition. 

Added sugar comes from processed foods. It’s especially common in soda, baked goods, candy, and sweetened dairy. However, we also find it in savory foods like bread, condiments, soups, and cured meats. The problem? Sugar contains plenty of calories but no nutrients, which wreaks havoc on the body.

Insulin Resistance

Added sugar can lead to many serious conditions, but it all starts with insulin resistance. Whenever you eat, the body produces insulin to normalize the blood sugar. However, when you consistently eat excess sugar, the insulin remains high. Over time, the body becomes resistant to its effects. 

Because insulin is a fat-storing hormone and you have a surplus of it, the body is no longer able to burn fat for energy the way it normally does. This leads to constant hunger, cravings, fatigue, skin pigmentation, belly fat, and water retention. 

Advanced Health Issues

Insulin resistance is a precursor to fatty liver disease, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Diabetes can then lead to vision loss, nerve damage, clogged arteries, and kidney failure. Additionally, excess sugar consumption has been linked to neuropathy, inflammation, cirrhosis, kidney disease, and cancer.  

How Do Artificial Sweeteners Impact the Body?

The vast majority of artificial sweeteners are made in a lab from chemicals. They contain no calories, fiber, vitamins, minerals, or antioxidants. They’re also super sweet - 200 to 600 times sweeter than regular sugar. Some artificial sweeteners are made from natural sources, like stevia and monk fruit, but they’re still incredibly sweet and contain zero nutrition.

Insulin Resistance

Just like regular sugar, there’s evidence that artificial sweeteners can induce insulin resistance. Researchers do not yet fully understand how this occurs, but they theorize that it relates to the brain. 

The tongue tastes the sweetness of the artificial sweeteners and sends a message to the brain that sugar is present - even though it’s not. The brain then signals the pancreas to release insulin. The insulin arrives to normalize the blood sugar and finds that there is no sugar or calories to absorb, so the insulin has nowhere to go. Over time, this creates insulin build-up and insulin resistance. As we discussed above insulin resistance opens the door to a variety of harmful conditions.

Increased Cravings

While we eat artificial sweeteners to get rid of sugar cravings, research shows that they may actually make cravings worse. When you eat these sweeteners, the body gets the sweet flavor it recognizes as sugar but it doesn’t get the calories it normally expects with that stimulus. Since the body isn’t getting the calories it needs, it sends more and more signals of hunger, which feel like cravings to you. 

Additionally, the intense sweetness of artificial sugar actually trains the brain to crave increasingly sweet foods. Meanwhile, the brain doesn’t get the sugar high that it normally gets with regular sugar, so it craves that as well. This leads to an ever-increasing sweet craving that cannot be satisfied. 

Changing Palates

Since artificial sweeteners are so strong, they can overstimulate your sugar receptors and completely change your palate. This is why naturally sweet foods, like fruit, may not seem sweet enough to people who eat a lot of added sugar or artificial sweeteners. They may even find normal healthy foods, like vegetables, totally unenjoyable because they’re used to the intense flavor of artificial sugar. 

Ultimately, artificial sugars increase cravings, decrease satisfaction, and make it harder to choose healthy foods. All of these factors lead to weight gain. According to one study, participants who drank 22 diet sodas or more every week were doubly likely to become overweight or obese compared to people who didn’t consume any diet soda.

What’s Better: Artificial Sweeteners or Real Sugar?

There’s no way around it - real sugar and artificial sweeteners each have their own health implications. Artificial sweeteners, in particular, are relatively new, so we simply don’t have the long-term studies to definitively say what their effects are. However, the research we do have suggests that they’re not as guilt-free as we once thought.

As with many other foods, the answer here is moderation. Artificial sweeteners can help you enjoy a lower-calorie sweet treat but aren’t meant to be eaten in bulk. You can opt for a more natural option, like stevia or monk fruit, to avoid those yet unknown side effects of chemical sweeteners. Likewise, it’s best not to eat real sugar in excess, but it can be part of a healthy diet, especially when saved for special occasions. 

A healthy diet is one that you can stick with long-term, so being incredibly restrictive isn’t the answer. Aim to limit both real sugar and artificial sweeteners where possible. Opt for healthier sweet treats, like fruit or dark chocolate, to curb your sweet tooth. At the same time, remember to enjoy your life. Sometimes you need to just eat the damn cookie! Finding a balance between the two is key to a healthy, happy life.