You may have heard the expression knowledge is power.

Well, today we're going to give you more power to control your diet and lifestyle by giving

you the facts.

Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast.

I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

Today, we look at the safety of fourth generation sweeteners such as the rare sugar alulose.

First, there was sugar and hyphructose corn syrup, the original industrial sweeteners.

They were cheap, but had lots of fenty calories and contributed to diseases such as obesity,

time to diabetes, cavities, and metabolic syndrome.

So then came the second generation sweeteners, the artificial sweeteners, the colored pastel

packets, neuter sweets, blenders, sweetenable.

Practically zero calories, but adverse effects have been described.

Cautions have been raised.

For example, artificial sweeteners were found to induce glucose intolerance by altering

the gut microbiome, thereby producing the counterintuitive effect of inducing metabolic

derangements.

They also taste kind of funny.

Enter the third generation sweeteners sugar alcohol, such as sorbitol, xylitol, and

arithritol.

Low calorie sweeteners, however, their laxative effects can create difficulties, which

brings us to rare sugars like alulose, which are natural sweeteners with low or zero calories

and a sugar like taste.

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