Hi, everyone, real quick before we get into today's episode. This podcast is a labor of love,

and I do it for free. I spend hours each week researching to create these episodes, all with the

goal of spreading science-based fitness information. And I want to continue releasing episodes

one to two times per week, but I need your help to grow it. So if you could do me a huge favor

and leave me a rating and review, if you haven't already, share it with a friend. I would also love

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this audience for the podcast that I've been able to go on thus far. And going on other

podcasts also helps me spread these messages further and wider. All right, that's it. Let's get into

today's episode. This is our limited series Ask anRD inside the Dr. Shannon show, where we ask

registered dietitians some of your most pressing nutritional questions. I'm Dr. Shannon.

Welcome to the show. Hello, everyone. Today we've got Hope Brand. She's a registered dietitian

back for another ask-n-R-D. Today, we are talking about the difference between table sugar and

sugar alternatives like Splenda versus monk fruit. What are the differences? And how do these different sugars affect our

bodies? Okay. This is such a hefty topic. But I think it's so important because there's so much

information flying around about all of these different options. And first and foremost, I think it really does come down

to knowing that a lot of it is personal preference based on what your priorities are and what your

goals are. So let's just start there. There is no like evil wrong answer. There is no

superior right answer. We can just look at them in the context of our

diet, our goals, and our preferences. Another overarching theme is just kind of reduction of the

intake of all of these items, regardless of if it is a natural sweetener,

a nutritive sweetener, a non-nutrative sweetener, an artificial sweetener, we kind of just

want to look at the reduction of these items in our diet anyway. They shouldn't be a huge

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