What You Should Know About Sugar Substitutes

By Jill Melton, M.S., R.D.

Thanks to low-calorie sweeteners, it's a lot easier today to have diabetes and still satisfy your sweet tooth -- but it's also a little confusing. To answer your questions about cooking with sugar substitutes, our Test Kitchen shares how best to use some of the more popular options.

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Sugar Substitutes

With more than 10,000 reduced-calorie food products on the market, cookies, cakes, and soft drinks may fit your diabetes eating plan better than ever. And if that's not enough, you'll also find an array of sugar substitutes and sugar-substitute blends you can use in cooking and baking.

How big a role should these sugar substitutes play in your diet? What do they cost? Can you use them to bake a great cake?

While it's good to know you have sweet alternatives to sugar, figuring out how to use them can be complicated. That's where our Test Kitchen stepped in to help.

Next: The Science of Sugar

anonymous says:

Stevia is the only safe, non-caloric, non-chemical sugar substitute there is. Everything else does ......

Comments

Comments ( 5 )

anonymous wrote:

Stevia is the only safe, non-caloric, non-chemical sugar substitute there is. Everything else does so much harm to all of us

1/26/2010 11:46:50 AM Report Abuse

ponysu7 wrote:

I use NuNaturals More Fiber baking blend, it is the stevia baking blend. So far I only use 1/2 Nustevia baking blend and 1/2 sugar and cakes, brownies even homemade ice cream taste great. I plan to try using only the stevia baking blend next week.www.nunaturals.com

11/29/2009 10:49:24 PM Report Abuse

cindym172273 wrote:

I also would like recipes using stevia. I found one box of stevia that said it could be used for baking, the rest said nothing.

11/25/2009 03:10:52 PM Report Abuse

jwpower1545332 wrote:

I am planning on using Spenda for my cranberry sause. Will this leave an aftertaste? Is it the same formula as for sugar or less? Thank you. hopeful

11/24/2009 12:57:00 PM Report Abuse

dcec6565 wrote:

Please give us recipes using Stevia! I am looking for a natural alternative to sugar in my recipes, not artifical or chemical!!

11/16/2009 10:03:51 AM Report Abuse