Cooking With Low-Calorie Sweeteners

With the increased focus on reducing carbs and calories in our diets, low-calorie sweeteners are at the forefront. This is especially the case for persons with diabetes.

There are many reduced-calorie or low-calorie sweeteners currently available on the market. If you choose to cook with these sweeteners, keep these key things in mind:

* some low-calorie sweeteners lose
their sweetness when cooked at high
temperatures, or for long period of
time
* the sweetness equivalency to sugar
varies between low-cal sweeteners
* foods made with low-cal sweeteners
don't brown like those made with sugar
* low-cal sweeteners work best in
recipes where they only provide a
sweet taste, rather than bulk or
texture
* results can vary from sweetener to
sweetener, to check out the
individual product prior to including
it in your baking

When replacing sugar with a low-cal sweetener, the exchange is as follows:

Sweet One – 12 packets = 1 cup sugar
Equal – 24 packets = 1 cup sugar
Splenda – 1 cup = 1 cup sugar
Sweet N Low – 12 packets = 1 cup
sugar
Brown Sweet N Low – 4 tsps = 1 cup
brown sugar

Remember that this exchange is for the level of sweetness, not to replace bulk or add texture that you would normally get with sugar.

Talk to your nutritionist or registered dietitian about using low-calorie sweeteners for cooking.