By Dr. Akili Muhammad @Keystro
The purpose of sugar in the body is to supply fuel for the body. If someone approached you while at the gas station and suggested that you buy their ‘artificial gas’, would you buy it? There are natural sugars in food and in nature that serve our body easy to manage sugar that we can readily use. These types of sugars are always attached or associated with other nutrients. So when eating fruits or vegetables or using honey, raw sugar (sugar from sugar cane which is not the same as white sugar with molasses called brown sugar), molasses, maple syrup or fruit derived sweeteners, the body recognizes this sugar, digests it easily and the body is supplied with nutritional substances. For those who are diabetic and overweight/obese, natural sugars in moderation are still your best choice as well!
On the other hand, Splenda (yellow packet), Sweet n Low (pink packet), Equal (blue packet) and Acesulfame K are all man-made artificial sweeteners. Most of these were surprise findings in the midst of producing some other chemical. These sweeteners are definitely hazardous to your health, foreign to the body (meaning the immune system will attack it) and lead the body to be confused. The interesting aspect that is not considered by most when it comes to artificial sweeteners is, how can the body work and function normally with an artificial substance? When we use any of these sweeteners, we confuse the body for it tastes sweetness but no calories? Calories are provided through sugar as the body
