Functional Sugars

Sucralose

• You've probably heard of sucralose but by a different name: Splenda. Sucralose is a very popular artificial sweetener that's made from sucrose (sugar). Unlike sucrose, though, it has 0 calories.
• Huh? How can it have no calories if it's made from the same ingredient as sugar? A chemical process replaces hydrogen-oxygen groups with chlorine atoms, eliminating its calories.
• Despite being 600 times sweeter than sugar, sucralose and sugar taste very similar. You can find sucralose in a range of different foods, including commercially prepared baked goods, dairy products, and drinks.
• You can use sucralose in your own baked goods, too, at a ratio of 1:1 for regular sugar — but it might make things bake faster, so check them for doneness a little earlier than the recipe indicates.

Saccharin

• First discovered in 1879, saccharin was the first artificial sweetener to be commercialized. It's now used to make popular brand name products like Sweet Twin®, Sweet'N Low®, and Necta Sweet®. Saccharin is a zero-calorie sweetener that's 200-700 times sweeter than sugar.
• You're likely to find it in beverages, processed foods, and certain medicines, like chewable aspirin. It's stable at cooking temperature so you can use it in baked goods, but be careful about how much saccharin you add when cooking. It's known for having a bitter, metallic aftertaste when used in large amounts.

Aspartame

• You'll find aspartame in desserts, dairy products, breakfast cereals, and diet drinks like Diet Snapple, Coke Zero, and Minute Maid Light.
• You won't find this artificial sweetener in any baked goods, though, since it loses its sweetness when heated. Still, you can feel free to use smaller quantities to taste in un-heated recipes like lemonade, iced tea, or even pudding.
• Like sugar, aspartame has 4 calories per gram. (It's the only FDA-approved high-intensity sweetener that adds calories to your food.) However, it's still considered to be a low-calorie sweetener, given how little of it is required to sweeten food.

Advantame

• Advantame is a fairly new artificial sweetener that's derived from aspartame. However, it's 70-120 times sweeter than aspartame and — get ready for it — around 20,000 times sweeter than sugar, making it one of the highest-intensity artificial sweeteners you can find.
• Unlike aspartame, advantame can be heated and used in cakes, cookies, and other baked goods. In fact, it can be found in any type of food product except meat and poultry. Unlike other artificial sweeteners, it's not sold as a brand name product, so you can't experiment with it at home.

Acesulfame Potassium

• Acesulfame potassium is the artificial sweetener used to make Sunett® and Sweet One®. But on nutrition labels, you might see it listed as acesulfame K or Ace-K.
• This artificial sweetener is 200 times sweeter than sugar. It has a strong, bitter flavor like saccharin, so you're unlikely to find it used on its own. It's usually combined with sweeteners like sucralose and aspartame. Because of this bitter aftertaste, you also can't use it 1:1 for regular sugar in baking.
• You can find acesulfame potassium in lots of different foods and beverages, including Coke Zero, Fanta Zero, Minute Maid Light, Pedialyte, and Yoplait Light. You're also likely to find it in candies, baked goods (since it doesn't lose sweetness when heated), and frozen desserts.

Neotame
Commonly known as Newtame, neotame is 7,000-13,000 times sweeter than sugar. This zero-calorie sweetener is good at masking bitter flavors. It's often used alongside other popular artificial sweeteners, like sucralose, aspartame, and acesulfame potassium.
Neotame is commonly used in supermarket-brand chewing gums, dairy products, and baked goods. But it's not easy to come by for home use.

Stevia

• Stevia sweeteners come from the leaves of the stevia plant, Stevia rebaudiana, which is native to South America. However, the FDA doesn't allow stevia leaves or “crude” extracts to be sold as sweeteners. (In animal studies, high dosages led to fertility problems.)
• Only high-purity isolates of the stevia plant, known as steviol glycosides, can be integrated into your food.
• There are several different types of steviol glycosides, including Rebaudioside A, Rebaudioside D, and Stevioside. However, most nutrition labels only state the words stevia leaf extract, stevia powder, or stevia liquid. They don't usually specify which steviol glycosides were used.
• Stevia sweeteners are around 200-400 times sweeter than sugar and have 0 calories. They're also extremely ecologically friendly compared to other natural alternative sweeteners, thanks to the plant's low carbon and water footprint.
• A 2015 study found that, compared to beet sugar (the kind usually used to make the standard granulated white crystals), stevia had an 82% lower overall carbon footprint and a 92% lower water footprint.