TOOTH–FRIENDLY SWEETENER

On my quest to discover all tooth-friendly sweeteners in stores across the United States,

I found hundreds of noncariogenic options. Some are cariostatic.

They are listed here in two groups:

ZERO CALORIE & TOOTH FRIENDLY

< 5 cal per serving.

0 to 100 cal per cup.

Sugar Free.

High Intensity Sweetener

Zero Calories

Reduced Calories

Stevia | Pure Extract

Stevia leaf extracts are food ingredients with GRAS status. The leaf extracts go through a great deal of processing and purification until they become palatable and free of impurities. They provides zero calories and are 200 to 400 times sweeter than table sugar. Find here brands of pure stevia leaf extract, with no fillers or additives.

Stevia | Liquid

Stevia leaf extracts are food ingredients with GRAS status. The leaf extracts go through a great deal of processing and purification until they become palatable and free of impurities. They provides zero calories and are 200 to 400 times sweeter than table sugar. Find here brands of liquid stevia. The most common carriers include glycerine, erythitol, alcohol, and cellulose. Some are sold as dietary supplements and allow health claims on labels.

Stevia | with Erythritol

Stevia leaf extracts are food ingredients with GRAS status. The leaf extracts go through a great deal of processing and purification until they become palatable and free of impurities. They provides zero calories and are 200 to 400 times sweeter than table sugar. Find here a variety of brands of stevia-erythritol blend.

Stevia | with Inulin

Stevia leaf extracts are food ingredients with GRAS status. The leaf extracts go through a great deal of processing and purification until they become palatable and free of impurities. They provides zero calories and are 200 to 400 times sweeter than table sugar. Find here a variety of brands of stevia-inulin blend.

Stevia | with Xylitol

Stevia | with Rare Sugars

Allulose and Tagatose

Stevia | Cubes & Tablets

Stevia cubes and tablets contain stevia leaf extract plus other ingredients such as erythritol, glucose, or cellulose. Each cube or tablet is as sweet as one teaspoon of table sugar.

Stevia | Dried Leaf

The whole-leaf Stevia is dried, cut, and turn into a green powder. It has a very mild sweet taste and does not dissolve well. Extracts (highly refined with > or = 95% purity) from the leaf are approved by the FDA but the leaves itself are not due to inadequate toxicological information.

Stevia | Brown & Powdered

Brown Sugar Replacement | Powdered Sugar Replacement

Stevia | Monk Fruit Blend

Monk fruit, also called luo han guo fruit, is a small green fruit of the Chinese plant Siraitia grosvenorii Swingle. The sweet components in the fruit, referred to as mogrosides, are 230 to 425 times sweeter than table sugar.

Monk Fruit | Pure Extract

Monk Fruit | Liquid

Monk fruit, also called luo han guo fruit, is a small green fruit of the Chinese plant Siraitia grosvenorii Swingle. The sweet components in the fruit, referred to as mogrosides, are 230 to 425 times sweeter than table sugar.

Monk Fruit | with Erythritol

Monk fruit, also called luo han guo fruit, is a small green fruit of the Chinese plant Siraitia grosvenorii Swingle. The sweet components in the fruit, referred to as mogrosides, are 230 to 425 times sweeter than table sugar.

Monk Fruit | with Inulin

Monk fruit, also called luo han guo fruit, is a small green fruit of the Chinese plant Siraitia grosvenorii Swingle. The sweet components in the fruit, referred to as mogrosides, are 230 to 425 times sweeter than table sugar.

Monk Fruit | with Rare Sugars

Monk Fruit | Powdered and Golden

Miracle Fruit extract (or Miraculin) is a protein extracted from the African berry, Synsepalum dulcificum (or Richardella dulcifica). It does not taste sweet but is able to transform acidic flavors into sweet. It can enhance the sweetness of low pH (acid) foods and beverages to become 200 to 800 times sweeter than table sugar. Not approved as a food ingredients by the FDA, but the extract is sold in tablets or you can buy the frozen fruit.

Natural Sweetener | Liquid

Artificial Sweetener | Liquid

Aspartame

Aspartame is a high intensity sweetener that, being a protein, provides 4 Calories/g. But since it can be up to 400 times sweeter than table sugar, it is used in such small amounts that contributes few to no calories (200g or ~ 1 cup of table sugar can be replaced by 1g of aspartame). It is approved by the FDA as a nutritive sweetener.

Saccharin

Saccharin is a salt around 200 to 700 times sweeter than table sugar. It provides no calories as it is not metabolized and is excreted in urine. It has noe effect on bood glucose. It may be combined with other sweeteners (such as glucose) or bulking agents (such as maltodextrin) in commercial tabletop sweeteners.

Sucralose

Sucralose is made from table sugar in a process that changes its configuration into a compound around 600 times sweeter with no calories.

1:1 Sugar Replacement

1:1 Sugar Replacement Sweeteners are as sweet as table sugar and so, measure like it on a 1 to 1 ratio. One teaspoon of these sweeteners is equal in sweetness to one teaspoon of table sugar.

Reduced Calorie Sweeteners

REDUCED CALORIE & TOOTH FRIENDLY

Low-digestible carbohydrates.

25 to 50% fewer calories than table sugar.

Often less sweet than table sugar.

Offer digestive benefits and adverse effects.

Sugar Free.

Bulking Sweetener & Agents

Xylitol

Xylitol is a polyol or sugar alcohol - a type of carbohydrate that, unlike sugar, is digested slowly, having little impact on blood sugar or insulin levels. Xylitol provides about half the calories of regular sugar (sucrose). Xylitol is the sweetest of the polyols and is as sweet as sucrose.

Xylitol Blends

These sweeteners contain xylitol blended with stevia, inulin, erythritol, or sucralose. Xylitol is a polyol or sugar alcohol - a type of carbohydrate that, unlike sugar, is digested slowly, having little impact on blood sugar or insulin levels. Xylitol provides about half the calories of regular sugar (sucrose). Xylitol is the sweetest of the polyols and is as sweet as sucrose.

Sorbitol | Mannitol | Isomalt

Tabletop Sweeteners that contain carbohydrates that are slowly, partially, or not digested at all Provide 25 to 90% fewer calories than sugars Include polyols, rare sugars, and some dietary fibers.

Soluble Fibers | Inulin, FOS, IMO

May be oligossacharides or polysaccharides | Fructooligosacharides (FOS): a carbohydrate with linear chains of (< 9) fructoses. Inulin (from Jerusalem artichoke, chicory root, or agave): a carbohydrate with long chains of ( > 10) fructoses. Isomalto-oligosaccharide (IMO): a short-chain carbohydrate, produced from starch. FOS, inulin & IMO have 1/2 the calories of table sugar and are prebiotics (are minimally digested in the small intestine and stimulate the growth of healthy bacteria)

SWEETENERS & DENTAL CARIES

What Sweeteners Cause Dental Caries?

Dental caries (tooth decay) occurs when bacteria in our mouth (especially Streptococcus mutans) produce acids by fermenting sugars.
Acids produced by oral bacteria demineralize the tooth (dissolve calcium and other minerals), initiating and developing caries.
Since dental caries is initiated and developed in the presence of sugar, it is important to understand what "sugar" really means.

What Exactly is Sugar?

To most of us, the term "sugar" refers to one sweetener, table sugar, which is sucrose from sugar cane and sugar beet.
As I discussed in a blog post titled What is Sugar, Anyway?, the word "sugar" has many definitions and it can be confusing.
Sugar encompasses a wide array of sweeteners from many different sources, not only from sugar cane and sugar beet.
Honey is sugar. Maple syrup is sugar. So are date syrup and agave nectar. In fact, there are almost 100 sugars.

What Makes Sweeteners Cariogenic?

The most common cariogenic components of sweeteners include the following sugars: sucrose, glucose, and fructose. They are metabolized by bacteria in our mouth, producing acid.
The more frequent and longer the exposure of our teeth to sweeteners containing sugars, the higher the risk for dental caries. There are many other risk factors for cavities, such as the form and physical properties of the sweetener (liquid, solid, sticky).
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), we should limit sugars to < 10% of total energy intake to minimize the risk of dental caries throughout our life course. Ideally, the WHO advises limiting even further to <5%.

Noncariogenic Vs. Cariostatic Sweetener

Noncariogenic sweeteners do not promote or may reduce the risk of dental caries, as defined here by the Food and Drug Administration. Noncariogenic sweeteners act in one of two ways: (1) they are slowly broken down by our mouth bacteria to form some acid, or (2) they are not broken down at all by bacteria that cause cavities.

Cariostatic sweeteners have an anti-cavity effect by starving harmful mouth bacteria, inhibiting their growth and activity. Xylitol is the most widely known cariostatic sweetener. Learn more by visiting my xylitol page. It appears that overtime use of erythritol decreases dental plaque and the overall number of caries. Read about erythritol on this blog post >> Sweetener Review: Erythritol | Is it Really Natural and The Perfect Sweetener?

Tooth-friendly claims on food labels: The Food and Drug Administration allows sugar substitutes to carry tooth-friendly claims on their labels, such as "does not promote," "may reduce the risk of," "useful in not promoting" caries, if they contain polyols (xylitol, sorbitol, mannitol, maltitol, and isomalt) and rare sugars (tagatose). Read about those sweeteners on my polyols page and my rare sugars page.

Are all sugar-free sweeteners tooth-friendly? Not all "sugar-free" sweeteners are necessarily tooth-friendly as if they have a high content of acid (low pH), they are not.

SWEETENERS TO AVOID, LIMIT, OR REDUCE

aka Cariogenic Sweeteners

Sweeteners that increase the risk for dental caries include:

Sugars (aka Caloric Sweeteners)
Sugar Blends (Reduced-Sugar Sweeteners)
Sweeteners with fillers such as maltodextrin or glucose:

Stevia with Maltodextrin and/or Sugars

Monk Fruit with Maltodextrin and/or Sugars

Aspartame with Maltodextrin and/or Glucose

Saccharin with Maltodextrin and/or Glucose

Sucralose with Maltodextrin and/or Glucose

NOTE: Not all sugars are cariogenic. Go here to read about "rare sugars."