Diet watch: Go easy on those sugar substitutes

Mumbai: Skip sugar to stay slim goes the belief. The empty calories that sugar molecules carry do add to your muffin tops and love handles. But is artificial sweetener the solution? The answer is not a simple yes or no.      Artificial sweeteners are one of the greyest areas of nutrition with conflicting studies coming in every day. If one gives the thumbs up to Aspartame, another suggests sucralose. There is saccharin, a favourite in the West where colas, too, come in two artificial sweetener options—with aspartame or sucralose.      In India, doctors advise caution. Endocrinologist Anoop Misra of Delhi's Fortis Hospital says non-diabetics should avoid artificial sweetners. Using substitutes makes  little difference to a person's weight, he says. "Satiety is low with artificial sweeteners. So people end up eating more and put on more weight,'' he adds.      Talk of a link with cancer—it was believed that saccharine led to bladder cancer—led to the US administration charting recommended intake of artificial sweeteners. Some brands were marked GRAS (generally recognized as safe).      "As long as people stay within daily-intake levels, there should be no worries,'' says Mumbai nutritionist Shilpa Joshi.      The problem begins, she says, when artificially-sweetened products are randomly chosen. "Instead of only two cups of tea with substitutes, people take similarly-sweetened mithais, colas and juices,'' she adds. Losing track of daily intake can lead to problems."It is when the calorie-free mindset becomes a guilt-free trip that problems begin,'' say Joshi.