Context - I've been trying to figure out if there are any downsides (besides cost) to using Monk Fruit.
The health effects are largely the same—your body doesn’t do much with these sweeteners, and they’re used in small quantities to begin with. Saccharine was thought to be unsafe after experiments in the 1970s, but the modern consensus post 2000 is that it is, in fact, safe.
Xylitol is the odd one out because it has calories, just 40% less than ordinary sugar. It’s being sold as something with all sorts of amazing health effects—fewer calories, lower glycemic index, etc. Some of these are overstated. I think most of these are overstated. IMO it is more convenient to just eat less sugar. Unlike most sweeteners, you can bake with xylitol, more or less. Some people find it irritates their stomach.
Stuff like sucralose and stevia are convenient and easy to source. YMMV, the only reason I’m having an artificial sweetener to begin with is because it’s in a factory product like soda or chewing gum, so I’m stuck with whatever the choice is off the shelf. If I’m cooking or baking, I look for recipes that use less sugar to begin with or I just eat less of the final product.
They had to take him to the vet where they fed him charcoal and pumped his stomach. =-/
I'm not talking about synthetic stevia as I haven't encountered such.
As far as taste goes, I have no complaints, but I'm also pretty easy to please. I tend to use dissolved sucralose in things that don't get mechanically mixed, and I don't mind that taste at all.
I don't think any of the ones that people still use today have any sort of health problems. Not like maltitol, the famous sugar-free gummy bear sweetener which made everyone crap (or whatever sweetener was in those fat-free chips that was the real culprit behind people's digestive trouble, not the olestra).
In general you can eat them safely, most of the studies showing their negative effects are poorly conducted inconclusive experiments (asparthame especially). The other half shows adverse reactions in mice, which have a very different digestion.
The point of sweeteners is that you do not digest them, they leave your body with the same structure they had when they entered.
I would avoid stevia though, I think it's the one more controversial and it's only pumped because it's extracted from a natural plant rather than sythesized.