Sugar and Sweeteners: What You Need to Know

Updated July 2026

A World Health Organization committee has flagged aspartame — the sweetener in diet soda, gum, and many yogurts — as "possibly carcinogenic to humans," while the FDA maintains it's safe. My take: whether or not aspartame turns out to cause cancer, it isn't good for you. And there's very little reason to consume much of any added sweetener, real or fake, calories or not.

Why are added sweeteners bad for you, even calorie-free ones?

Because they all raise insulin, and insulin is the problem. Insulin, though important for blood sugar control, also drives HMG CoA reductase, causing it to produce more LDL. So higher circulating insulin means higher LDL. Added sugar does this directly by stimulating insulin release. Artificial sweeteners do it indirectly, by blunting the gut microbiome's production of GLP-1, the hormone that curbs appetite and sharpens insulin sensitivity. When GLP-1 falls, the body has to pour out more insulin after every meal — which is why diet-soda drinkers develop type 2 diabetes at the same rate as regular-soda drinkers.

Is the sugar in fruit bad for you?

No — the sugar naturally present in whole fruits and vegetables is the one kind you never have to worry about. Nature packages it perfectly, and no food company has been able to out-package it. A whole orange carries just enough fiber, in the pith and pulp, to slow digestion and blunt the insulin response. But the moment you tinker with that orange — even just squeezing it into juice — those built-in benefits disappear.

How much added sugar is safe per day?

The most reliable way to satisfy a sweet tooth is whole fruit, but guidelines do allow a small amount of added sugar. The WHO advises no more than about 50 grams (12 teaspoons) a day, with added benefit below 25 grams. For perspective, a single "fruit on the bottom" yogurt can eat up much of that — while two whole oranges, a bowl of pineapple, and a cup of dates leave that budget completely untouched.

Why can't you trust the sugar line on a nutrition label?

Because the total-sugar number tells you nothing about where the sugar comes from, and a "low sugar" product can be loaded with non-nutritive sweeteners instead. Added sugars now get their own line on the panel, which helps — but non-nutritive sweeteners like aspartame, saccharin, and sucralose get no itemization at all, and sugar alcohols like xylitol and erythritol aren't counted as sugar even though they're added for sweetness and still disturb metabolism. That's how a product can shout "no added sugar" and still work against you.

What are the hidden names for added sugar?

Added sugar hides under a long list of aliases: barley malt, cane juice crystals, crystalline fructose, galactose, malt powder, carob syrup, golden syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, agave nectar, malt syrup, maple syrup, oat syrup, rice bran syrup, and brown rice syrup, among others. They all count. For a full walkthrough of decoding a label, see my guide to food labels.

So how do I handle sugar on a label?

I ignore the sugar line. Instead I read the ingredient list, and I put the product back if I see a string of individually listed sugars or syrups — and I'm doubly suspicious of anything that brags about having no added sugar. At Step One Foods, we don't play those games: our sweetness comes almost exclusively from whole-food ingredients wrapped in fiber, and rather than engineering a label to look good, we've objectively demonstrated that our foods measurably improve health. Because that's what actually counts.

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