If, when you think of sweeteners, immediately you start humming “Pour Some Sugar On Me”, you’re not alone.

Generally speaking, there are two types of sweeteners, nutritive and non-nutritive. Among the nutritive are sugar alcohols, honey, fruits, and syrups (including maple, sugar beet, corn, cane, golden, barley malt, Molasses, brown rice, and agave).

Non-nutritive sweeteners include Acesulfame potassium (also known as Sunett), Alitame (also known as Aclame), Aspartame (also known as Equal or Nutrasweet), Saccharin (also known as Sweet ‘n’ Low), and Sucralose (also known as SucraPlus and Splenda).

The rule of thumb is that natural is always better than synthetic sugar, however, white refined sugar has been linked to obesity, diabetes and tooth decay.

Over the years, I’ve gone from using the blue packet, to the yellow, and, finally, I’ve landed on Stevia, or “sweetleaf,” an herb that has no calories and provides a natural sweetener that’s concentrated (It’s about 30 times sweeter than sugar!).

I get mine at my local Co-Op, where it’s sold in a tincture bottle. It’s convenient enough that I bring it with me when I’m dining out to sweeten tea and coffee. I’ve even used a drop or two in recipes in the past, but I don’t recommend baking with it, as baking recipes need the bulk granulated sugar provides.  

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