07 Mar The Washington Post: How Fake Sugars Sneak Into Foods and Disrupt Metabolic Health
Sugar substitutes can be found in ingredient lists on food packages, often with names that many consumers don’t recognize, like adventame, neotame and acesulfame potassium. Foods that claim “no artificial sweeteners” often are sweetened with stevia and other so-called “natural” sugar substitutes.
A variety of these sweeteners are turning up in cereals, juices and other packaged foods marketed to kids — even though public health groups have discouraged their use among children.
“When I started thirty-something years ago I never saw low-calorie sweeteners in pediatric products,” said Julie Mennella, a developmental biopsychologist who studies children’s taste preferences at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. “Now, they’re everywhere.”
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