Sweeteners

Recommendations:

Sugar is on the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) list of safe foods. It contains 16 Calories per teaspoon and can be used in moderation. All of the various types of sugars described earlier can be used in moderation.

Aspartame has been FDA approved. The moderate safe levels recommended include, for example, 18 packets of Equal, or three 12 ounce of diet soda per day for a 130-pound person. For people with the genetic disorder phenylketonuria (PKU), aspartame is not recommended as they are unable to metabolize it.

Saccharin is not considered safe, and currently products containing saccharin must carry a warning on the label that it is hazardous to one's health.

Ace-sulfame K is also FDA approved.

The FDA provides the ADI (accepted daily intake guide), which is the amount of sweetener that can be used by a human over a lifetime and still be considered safe by a factor of at least a hundred fold. This is about 1/100 of an amount shown to have no toxic effects in animals. The ADI is reported as an amount per kilogram of body weight, which provides a large quantity of the sweetener.