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Comment by Gatsky | Hacker News Reader

Well that leaves aspartame and stevia as the cleanest sweeteners, at least using human data. Thaumatin is another one that should be benign (it’s a large protein, unlike the others), but largely untested.

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You still need to read the labels carefully. I had a box of stevia packets and when I looked at the label they also contained erythritol.

The worst offending 'fake' Stevia products are the ones packed with maltodextrin. The large bags sold for baking are the ones you always need to check.

Unfortunately, any product designed to be a drop-in replacement for sugar in a baking recipe needs to contain a bulking agent like maltodextrin. It makes the product take up the same volume as sugar, so that you don't need to adjust the ratios of all the other ingredients.

A recipe rewritten to use stevia in the first place won't require such hacks for backward compatibility, but there aren't many of them compared to all the legacy stuff out there.

Right that makes sense. Ideally you have to build your recipes around low carb sugars instead of the inverse. It's probably still better than alternatives and a gateway.

Xylitol is not zero calorie, but its metabolism is more like glucose than fructose, and it's beneficial to oral health, both against tooth decay and throat infections. It also has less risk of GI upset than other sugar alcohols. Its main drawback is that it kills dogs.

Is xylitol in toothpaste already? Should it?

Yes it is.

It not only kills dogs, it only takes a small amount to do so.

I keep some in the house double bagged to use in a neti pot when I’m sick (it’s also a good decongestant!), but there’s no way I’d willingly buy any food with it. It’s just too risky.

OMFG...... in small quantities it kills dogs???!!!!

I don't own a dog, but my God I hope they have warning labels on it!

Wait till you learn about chocolate and coffee.

I thought that chocolate was only mildly toxic to dogs, and had to be consumed in relatively large quantities to be dangerous. I was very freaked out to find out that this xylitol chemical can kill them in small quantities.

It would take about 10 ounces of milk chocolate to be potentially fatal for my 14 pound dog. In the same dog .7 grams of xylitol could cause hypoglycemia and 3.5 grams could cause liver failure.

That’s a pretty stark difference.

Hasn't aspartame been demonstrated to be a carcinogen?

Legit question, I stopped following these developments a few years ago and things were still pretty much in the air then.

> Reviews have found no association between aspartame and cancer.[5][8][10][27][28] This position is supported by multiple regulatory agencies like the FDA[29] and EFSA as well as scientific bodies such as the National Cancer Institute.[30] The EFSA, FDA, and US National Cancer Institute state that aspartame is safe for human consumption.[7][31]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame#Cancer

Plenty of citations there if you need to deep dive any further.

Thanks, that's good to know!

Try Allulose. It's newish and amazing. It is the closest to actual sugar of all substitutes.

100%. Allulose is the closest thing to sugar. It's also the only one that works well in simple syrup because it doesn't crystalize in storage and keeps the taste consistent for cocktails.

The only problem is its pretty expensive and you have to buy it online since it's realitive new.

Hopefully production ramps up over the next few years.

Allulose isn’t that new. We released the first commercial product with it cira 2015.

How is that not new? Especially for a class of sugar, not just a brand. The market is very immature.

You just have to go Amazon to see the availability is limited compared to Erythritol/Stevia. And almost no commercial food/drink products use it in their recipes.

Fair point!

My local Walmart (in a town of ~20,000) has liquid allulose, so it's definitely getting easier to find.

Wow lucky, I'm in Canada so we tend to get things later.

Personally I'd rather not eat something new. That's a good way not to know if it's safe or not.

It seems like "newish" is a downside, if you want to avoid dangerous things. How many sweeteners enjoyed positive coverage for a decade or two before we found out they were bad for you?

What about xylitol?

Great sweetener, maybe my only complaint is ... slight minty taste, but be damn careful with it if you or anybody you know has a dog. Even very small quantities are lethal to them.

Yikes, didn't know this. Thanks. Cats?

Also lethal to them. The big issue for dogs is that xylitol is used in several brands of peanut butter (or it was) and that's a common treat or medicine aid for dog owners

Is it lethal to cats though? https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29430681/

I mean, better to be safe than sorry, but it doesn't seem to affect them in this study. Other non-scientific sources are all over the map on the question.

1000x this. The most worried I've even been for my dog was when she got into a pack of gum sweetened with xylitol. She's fine, thankfully. Fun fact: the ASPCA poison control line has a database of products containing xylitol (and presumably tons of other stuff) and the concentration in each. Strongly recommend a call if your dog or cat gets into something dangerous (while you're driving to the vet).

I keep seeing things indicating this is good for your teeth (e.g. chewing gum with xylitol) but can't tell if it is astro-turfing or not (on my list of things to research when I retire).

Iirc it disrupts the metabolism of microbes involves in tooth decay. It seems to also protect against throat infections. From personal experience, after eating/drinking xylitol, my mouth feels fresh as if I had just brushed.

I've asked three different dentists about it and they all said it actively prevents tooth decay, in so many words. Two of them also mentioned hydration being really good during the same conversation fwiw.

Personal experience, it really helps. I credit it to having good dentist visits despite mediocre dental hygiene.

(German) wikipedia mentions it is a relatively expensive sugar replacement. Maybe that's why it is less popular. Interesting is that it is pretty common in multiple plants (it sounds more natural at least)

poisonous to dogs

more profound cooling effect than erythritol (which has some)

more expensive

really, really does not caramelize and cooks very differently

gastrointestinal effects

causes an insulin spike

> gastrointestinal effects

Yeah Xylitol always caused me problems when I was younger and suffering more from ulcerative colitis.

No problem with the other substitutes that I remember.

What about monk fruit? I've heard good things about it.

Majority of monk fruit sold online & in stores is actually mixed with Erythritol anyway.

Top 5 hits on Amazon for "monk fruit sweetener" all have Erythritol. Some mention it in the product name, some later on in description, etc. Have to read very carefully.

Exactly!

Example:

https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Sweetener-Erythritol-Sugar-Fr...

Look at the list of ingredients.

An anonymous powdered chemical in a plastic bag. Hopefully not imported drop shipped via Amazon from China by the same people that import the phone chargers that catch fire and the fake microSD cards...

What's wrong with saccharine?

Weird metallic aftertaste.

Monk Fruit!

Read the label very carefully. It is most likely a bag of Erythritol.

I haven't used it as a sweetener per se but it's used in a bunch of products I like. E.g. energy drinks or protein. Those don't list erythritol. You're right that it's tricky (impossible?) to find on its own. I suppose it needs to hang onto something to get it into crystallized form?

I find monk fruit to be utterly unpalatable.

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