Calorie watch: Youngsters choose artificial sweeteners over sugar to stay slim

Animesh Ganguly loved sweets but ever since the 60-year-old was diagnosed with diabetes a few years ago, he had to give them up. These days, however, Ganguly is back to enjoying a sweet cuppa in the morning, thanks to the artificial sweetener his daughter brought for him. Apart from tea, the sugar substitute has also enabled Ganguly to have his favourite payesh and halwa.

India has one of the largest diabetic populations in the world. Not surprisingly, makers of artificial sweeteners have launched an aggressive marketing campaign in the country. Artificial sweeteners, also called sugar substitutes, are substances that are used instead of sucrose (table sugar) to sweeten foods and beverages.

There are two types of sweeteners, nutritive and non-nutritive. Nutritive sweeteners such as fructose, maltose, lactose and honey provide the same or fewer calories than sugar does. Non-nutritive sweeteners such as saccharin, aspartame and sucralose provide negligible calories. They are also known as high-intensity sweeteners as a minute quantity provides the sweetness of a teaspoon of sugar.

Though diabetics were the original target group of artificial sweeteners, manufacturers are now focusing their attention on a new group of consumers. Health-conscious youngsters who want to stay trim are choosing artificial sweeteners over sugar owing to their low calorie content.

Saccharin was the first artificial sweetener to be manufactured. In 1951, another product named aspartame (a protein derivative) was developed. The Indian market is dominated by two brands of artificial sweeteners. One is sold variously as a bottled powder, in single-use sachets, and as a dissolving tablet for use in beverages such as tea and coffee. It contains aspartame, dextrose and maltodextrin. Another brand has two types of artificial sweeteners — one that contains aspartame and lactose and another that contains dextrose, maltodextrin and sucralose. The one with sucralose claims that though it is made from sugar it has no calories. One sachet is equivalent to two teaspoons of sugar in sweetness and gives negligible calories (four) instead of the 40 calories provided by two teaspoons of sugar.

Today, artificial sweeteners are doing brisk business in India. Says Vishal Shah, regional director, south east Asia, Merisant (a global corporation that markets Equal, a popular artificial sweetener), “The brand has been growing at an annual rate of 22 per cent. The ‘need to use’ diabetes segment has contributed significantly towards this growth. We have also come up with specific offerings for the ‘choose to use’ segment and we have been successful here as well.”

There’s no doubt that artificial sweeteners add sweetness to a diabetic’s life. But experts point out that they may not be free of side effects. Take aspartame, for example. Some scientists have been arguing that it might induce cancer if consumed regularly over a long period. However, they have not been able to come up with any clinching evidence as yet.

Dr Soffritti of the Ramazzini Foundation in Italy, which has conducted tests on the harmful effects of aspartame, says, “Experiments performed on rodents have shown that aspartame induces several types of tumours. The majority of the international scientific community recognises the evidence that chemical agents that induce cancer in animals must be considered potential carcinogenic agents in humans too.”

The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) and World Health Organisation (WHO), however, have approved a brand that claims to be India’s No.1 artificial sweetener and contains aspartame. This brand is available in the form of pellets, powder concentrate and sachets. A bottle of 500 pellets comes for Rs 165, a 100gm pack of powder costs Rs 90 and a 100-sachet pack Rs 85. A kilogram of sugar, on the other hand, costs around Rs 20.

“The USFDA has set the acceptable daily intake (ADI) for aspartame at 50mg per kg of body weight a day. The ADI for aspartame is the equivalent of a 70kg person consuming about 20 cans of aspartame sweetened beverage or about 100 sachets of tabletop sweetener with aspartame a day,” says Shweta Khandelwal, nutritionist, Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi.

In our country, the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act states, “Aspartame may be marketed as a tabletop sweetener in tablet or granular form in moisture-proof package and the concentration of aspartame shall not exceed 18mg per 100mg of tablet or granule.” However, leading sweetener brands in India do not indicate the amount of aspartame in their products. Hence consumers have no idea how much aspartame they are taking in. Moreover, experts say that a common fallacy is that artificial sweeteners help one to lose weight. “Artificial sweeteners only help reduce or eliminate the amount of calories obtained from sugar. If suitable modifications are not made in the amount of fat (butter, ghee, margarine or vanaspati) and starch used in a recipe, the dish may still be rich in calories,” says Dr Sadhan Goswami, a Calcutta-based physician. Dr Goswami is actively involved with diabetes camps to spread awareness about the disease.

Adds Preeti Shah, director of the Ahmedabad-based consumer group Consumer Education and Research Centre (CERC), “Advertisements for artificial sweeteners can mislead a consumer into believing that he can eat any amount of sweet dishes without piling on the calories if he uses one of these products. There is one ad where a famous chef goes on rustling up sweet dishes and advises consumers that they can satisfy their sweet tooth as the specific brand of sweetener will keep calories at bay. But that’s not true. The government should be more strict about advertisements that may present a wrong picture to consumers.”

So, use artificial sweeteners by all means. But as in everything else, moderation is the key. Gorging on artificial sweeteners will neither slim you down nor guarantee a side-effect free sugar fix.