Sweet nothings:
are artificial
sweeteners really healthier
than sugar?
UQ Mythbusters
It’s the perennial health topic – few subjects in the world of nutrition garner as much attention, debate and dispute as the sweeteners in our food and drink.
From blockbuster documentaries and bestselling books to viral diets and TikTok advice, it’s hard to know where to begin when it comes to cutting through the nonsense and understanding the science around sugar intake.
To tackle this one, we’ve called in an expert who certainly knows her glucose from her fructose: Professor Sarah McNaughton, Discipline Lead for Nutrition and Dietetics in the UQ School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences.
She has over 20 years’ expertise in nutrition and dietetics, has published over 220 peer-reviewed papers and is currently Chair of the Expert Committee for the review of the Australian Dietary Guidelines.
Let’s get into the sweet stuff!
Key points
- 46% of Australians are consuming too much sugar.
- The real culprits are what nutritionists call ‘free sugars’.
- Non-alcoholic beverages are the single biggest category contributing to sugar intake.
- Sugar alternatives are not necessarily the answer to all our prayers.
- Sometimes it’s important to just enjoy food – treats are an important part of our social and cultural world.
It’s the perennial health topic – few subjects in the world of nutrition garner as much attention, debate and dispute as the sweeteners in our food and drink.
From blockbuster documentaries and bestselling books to viral diets and TikTok advice, it’s hard to know where to begin when it comes to cutting through the nonsense and understanding the science around sugar intake.
To tackle this one, we’ve called in an expert who certainly knows her glucose from her fructose: Professor Sarah McNaughton, Discipline Lead for Nutrition and Dietetics in the UQ School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences.
She has over 20 years’ expertise in nutrition and dietetics, has published over 220 peer-reviewed papers and is currently chairing the review of Australia’s dietary guidelines.
Let’s get into the sweet stuff!
Key points
- 46% of Australians are consuming too much sugar.
- The real culprits are what nutritionists call ‘free sugars’.
- Non-alcoholic beverages are the single biggest category contributing to sugar intake.
- Sugar alternatives are not necessarily the answer to all our prayers.
- Sometimes it’s important to just indulge – treats are an important part of our social and cultural world.
What is the number one myth that needs to be busted around how we consume sugar?
The biggest confusion around sugar is that, while we need to limit how much we eat, we really need to focus on what we call ‘free sugars’.
Quite often, sugar in whole foods like fruit and milk gets bundled up with foods like soft drinks and confectionary, but they're not really equal in the role they play in our diets.
Whole foods come with many other beneficial components such as vitamins, minerals, fibre (in fruit) and various phytochemicals.
Also, when you eat these whole foods, the amount of sugar consumed is usually much lower – particularly in the case of fruit, as we are unlikely to eat multiple pieces of whole fruit in one meal.
The other big area of confusion is around different names for sugars.
First, when looking at food labels, sugar can appear in many forms. Some of other names for sugars that you may see on the food labels are sucrose, glucose, dextrose, fructose, corn syrup, maltose, sucrose, lactose, caster sugar, honey, golden syrup, maple syrup, molasses raw sugar, cane sugar, brown sugar, malt extract and fruit juice concentrate.
You may also hear terms like ‘added sugars’ and ‘free sugars’ which are ways of categorising sugar based on its source, whether it’s naturally occurring in foods or has been added.
Free sugars include sugars added to foods and beverages by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, and sugars present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates.
Added sugars are a subset of these and refer to added forms of dextrous, fructose, sucrose, lactose, sugar syrups and fruit syrups.
Set us straight: How much sugar per day?
It's true that many Australians are eating too much sugar. Data from our national surveys shows that 46% of the population is consuming more than recommended, and for children and adolescents aged 2-18 years, that number rises to 61%.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends adults and children limit their intake of free sugars to less than 10% of their total energy intake to prevent unhealthy weight gain and dental cavities.
For an average adult, that is about 12 teaspoons (or 50 grams) per day.
However, it’s important to remember where sugar comes from in the foods we eat, as that limit refers to the sugars across all foods sources, not just sugar we add ourselves.
While non-alcoholic beverages (soft drinks, energy/electrolyte drinks, cordial and fruit juice/drinks in particular) are the largest single category contributing to intake, discretionary foods and beverages that are energy-dense and nutrient-poor contribute 81% of free sugars in Australia.
There's been lots of chat on social media lately about glucose. What is glucose? And what do we need to know about its role in healthy nutrition?
Glucose is the building block of all sugars, and carbohydrates. We don't tend to eat pure glucose although it can be added in food production.
For example, the most commonly used sugar at home is table sugar. Table sugar is sucrose and is a mixture of one part glucose and one part fructose.
All sugars and carbohydrates are broken down and converted in the body into glucose and that is what the body uses for energy and other functions.
Are certain types of sugar healthier than others? Are natural alternatives like honey and dates really healthier than processed sugar?
As mentioned previously, sugar can appear in many different forms and sugar added to foods and drink can have different names depending on where it comes from. These different types of free and added sugars have no different health benefits.
They might have slightly different flavours and different impacts for cooking and processing when added to products in terms of texture or colour, but all sugar in the body is converted to glucose and treated the same.
The difference is when sugar occurs in whole foods such as fruit, you are less likely to overconsume, and the foods may bring other components that provide some benefits such as fibre, and minerals such as potassium, in fruits.
Give us the 411 on artificial sweeteners versus cane sugar. For example, are zero-sugar soft drinks actually better for us? Is Coke Zero bad for you?
Artificial sweeteners are food additives used in small amounts in food and beverages and have a sweetness level many times that of sugar.
Their use is regulated in Australia by the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code and there are a range of artificial sweeteners that have been approved for use, including acesulfame potassium (Ace K), aspartame, saccharin, sucralose and steviol glycosides.
While this may be one way to reduce sugar consumption, concerns have been raised.
The WHO concluded last year that there is no evidence of long-term benefit for weight reduction. Also in 2023, the International Agency for Research on Cancer rated one sweetener, aspartame, as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” although other European agencies suggested that daily consumption of 40 mg/kg body weight was safe (which equates to about more than 9–14 cans per day for the average adult.)
There is also growing research on the impact of different artificial sweeteners to suggest they may impact metabolism and the microbiome, but more research is needed.
Finally, using artificial sweeteners does not really help consumers change their taste preferences for sweetness, and therefore does not support changes in behaviours and overall dietary patterns needed to move towards diets that provide long-term health benefits.
Is a focus on sugar intake a good thing if it keeps us healthier? Or is it another manifestation of toxic diet culture that we should shake off and just enjoy the cupcake?
Focusing too much on any one aspect of your diet is probably not a recipe for success or a way to live a happy life.
It’s important to focus on whole foods and your overall dietary pattern and the great range of healthy foods that can be consumed rather than what you can’t have.
When thinking about your sugar intake, focus on reducing discretionary foods which may be high in sugar and other components that we should limit.
National data shows that Australians are eating too much of these foods in their daily lives.
As for the cake? Celebrations are important and food plays a significant part in our social and cultural lives, it's all about looking for balance.
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