ABSTRACT
Consumer preference for sweetness in a diet with reduced calories has created a marketplace for sweeteners with few or no calories. Sweeteners are broadly classified as providing energy (nutritive) or not providing energy (nonnutritive). Nutritive sweeteners (e.g., sucrose, fructose) are generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Code of Federal Regulations states that nonnutritive sweeteners are “substances having less than 2 percent of the calorie value of sucrose per equivalent unit of sweetening capacity” (1,2). By increasing the palatability of nutrient dense foods and beverages, sweeteners can promote health. Scientific evidence supports neither that intake of nutritive sweeteners by themselves increase the risk of obesity, nor that nutritive or nonnutritive sweeteners cause behavioral disorders. However, nutritive sweeteners
increase risk of dental caries. High fructose intakes may cause hypertriglyceridemia and gastrointestinal symptoms in susceptible individuals (1,2).
