If you have been reading this blog for a while, you probably know that I’m not a big fan of sugar, artificial sweeteners, or sugar substitutes. But both Stevia and Xylitol actually do have some benefits. So, let me sit on the fence a bit and give you the pros and cons and see if you think you should include them in your diet.

Good Sweets?

First a little background:

• What is Stevia? Stevia is an herb native to Paraguay that has an incredible sweet taste. In fact, it is 300 times sweeter than sugar. It has been used for thousands of years as a sweetener and it appears to mproves insulin sensitivity, may reduce hypertension, and even help fight obesity.

• What is Xylitol? Xylitol is a sugar that is found in fruits and some vegetables and is used as a common sugar substitute. It is about as sweet as sugar, but only 1/3 of the calories. It is used mainly as a sugar in chewing gums, because it supposedly produces fewer cavities than sugar gum and reduces plaques. Xylitol may help control yeast, such as thrush and has less of an impact on blood sugar.

Good for You?

Okay, here is the reason why I’ve been avoiding this subject:

Are these sugars good really for you?

Yes, the sugars are better for you than eating artificial sweeteners and sugars like high fructose corn syrup or cane sugar. They have less of an impact on your blood sugar and, actually can help with blood sugar problems. Stevia turns to better for you than Xylitol because Xylitol is still a sugar. But the question remains: does that mean you should be eating these sugars?

I would say it is okay to eat these sugars as long as you understand where they are in your diet and I would say it also depends on what kind of dietary plan you are on. If you are following the diet plans outlined in Sugarettes, then these sugars are okay if you are working to still eat sugars and trying to balance your blood sugar (Plan #3), but probably not okay if you are on Plan #2 where you are trying to avoid all grains and sugars.

The problem with these sweet substances is that they are still training your tastes buds to highly sweet tastes and this will eventually lead to craving real sugars again. And once you fall off the wagon, you are back on the sugar roller coaster.

I would also suggest that if you are going to use Stevia, watch out that you take the whole plant and not just the extracts and isolated compounds like steviosides (these are concentrated, purified substances similar to white sugar).

There you go, xylitol and Stevia are a mixed bag: much better than most sugars, but maybe not the choice you want to make if you want to break free of the sugar madness that has a grip on you.

Is Everything That Tastes Good Bad for Me?

The short answer to this question is: yes. But before you click off this page, let me explain why our taste buds have been led astray, and then give you some hope about how that can change.

It All Started a Long Time Ago

While you might assume that the foods that we eat are the foods that people have been eating for a long time, this is simply not true. The foods that you appear on your plate are very different from the foods that humans have traditionally eaten. We have slowly, over time, replaced foods eaten directly from the earth with foods that have been somehow processed before they enter your mouth.

If you go back in time, you find that we went from eating literally no grains or sugars to; now, the bulk of the food that most people eat coming from those two sources. You can track dramatic shifts in the foods we eat. It all started around 7,000 years ago when we first began planting grains, the next big changes in our diet occurred with the exploration of the new worlds and the “discovery” of corn and potatoes, The final changes occurred with the mechanization of food production and processing. By far, the most severe changes to our diets have been in the last 60 years or so, where almost everything that we eat has been processed and changed in some way.

The reason why everything that tastes good is bad for you is that manufactures have learned what your taste buds like and feed you just that. Imagine for a moment that you are a junkie and everything around you is enticing you to use your drug of choice, in this case your drug of choice is food. Have you noticed how much advertising you see every day that deals with food or food-like substances?

So, yes, everything that tastes good is bad for you because your tastes are being manipulated by the very people who supply you with most of your food.

Ray of Hope

What you have to realize about the foods that you eat is that they are like drinking vodka as compared to drinking water; if you are used to drinking vodka, then water tastes bland. This is why we think carrots, apples, broccoli and other foods are so hard to eat. Our taste buds are used to an explosion of taste; when we eat normal foods, they are board.

The hope on the horizon is that the more you move to a natural way of eating, the more these fresh foods come alive.

For people who shun processed foods, carbohydrates and sugars, an apple is super sweet, carrots are a delight, and they crave broccoli. The more good foods that you eat, the more your cravings balance themselves and you start craving what your body really needs instead of what the food manufactures want you to crave.

Declare you independence from the food pushers and start eating the way your body wants you to eat.