Peanut butter is a popular spread that people use in many meals and snacks. It contains no cholesterol and is a nutritious option packed with protein and healthful fats.

Peanut butter also contains many nutrients, including vitamins and minerals, which can be beneficial to a persons health. However, there is conflicting information around whether it is a healthful foodstuff.

This article explores how peanut butter can affect a persons cholesterol, along with its health benefits and possible health risks.

Peanuts naturally contain protein, fats, and fiber. They also include a type of fat known as unsaturated fat, which health experts generally consider an important part of a balanced diet in moderation.

Peanut butter contains two types of unsaturated fat:

Monounsaturated fat: According to the American Diabetes Association, monounsaturated fats may reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. High levels of LDL cholesterol can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Polyunsaturated fat: As with monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats may also help reduce LDL cholesterol levels in a persons body.

Additionally, peanut butter itself does not contain any cholesterol.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), peanut butter contains fats in the following quantities:

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommend people get around 56% of their daily calories from saturated fat. Based on this guideline, a person who eats 2,000 calories per day may have approximately 13 grams (g) of saturated fat in their diet.

The AHA also recommend 2 tablespoons of peanut butter as a serving size.

When eating peanut butter in moderation and as part of a balanced diet, there is little risk to a persons health. People aiming to follow a healthful diet may wish to eat pure peanut butter, which contains no other ingredients.

Flavored peanut butter products can contain added sugar. Although foods with added sugar can be part of a healthful diet, it is best to limit the intake of this substance as much as possible for optimal health. Those who need to follow a low sodium diet should choose unsalted peanut butter when possible.

Learn more about the health risks of eating too much salt here.

Additionally, a 2-tablespoon serving of peanut butter has around 188 calories. For a person consuming 2,000 calories per day, this much peanut butter would be 9.4% of their daily calorie intake.

Those who eat more calories than they burn are likely to gain weight, which may lead to some people having overweight or obesity, potentially causing other health issues. It is important for a person to be mindful of what they eat and try to stick to a healthful, balanced diet.

When eaten in moderation as part of a balanced diet, peanut butter can provide many benefits.

According to the USDA, a 45 g serving of peanut butter contains 10 g of protein. It can be a suitable protein source for those following a plant-based diet, such as vegans or vegetarians.

Research shows a link between consuming nuts and peanut butter and a lower risk of certain cancers. For example, a 2017 study found that women who consumed more nuts and peanut butter had a reduced risk of certain types of breast cancer.

Peanut butter contains many vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that are important for the body to function correctly.

Peanut butter is a good source of:

Due to its high amount of unsaturated fats, peanut butter may help reduce a persons LDL cholesterol levels. Having optimal LDL levels is linked with a lower risk of heart disease.

A 2015 study found that people who had a high intake of nuts may have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease mortality. The researchers also recommended peanuts as a cost-effective way to boost heart health.

Some research suggests that people consuming a meal with peanut butter had a lower blood glucose level than when they had the same meal without it. These results suggest that peanut butter may help improve blood sugar control, which is important for optimal health and disease prevention.

Peanut butter is full of fiber, fat, and protein, which can help make a person feel fuller for longer. This feeling of fullness could reduce a persons chances of snacking on less healthful foods.

A 2014 study found that people with type 2 diabetes who ate 46 g around 3 tablespoons of peanuts, peanut butter, or both, per day had:

A further study from 2019 discovered that people who had a higher intake of nuts had a reduced chance of having overweight or obese. The results suggest that nuts, although dense themselves, replaced other less healthful foods in the participants diet.

Although peanut butter contains both saturated and unsaturated fats, when eaten in moderation, it can have a positive impact on a persons cholesterol levels.

Peanut butter is high in calories and fats, and therefore if possible, a person should always eat it as part of a balanced and healthful diet. When people consume it in healthful proportions, peanut butter can offer many health benefits.

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Peanut butter and cholesterol: Is it healthful or unhealthful? - Medical News Today

Especially for teens, I feel that it is very hard to eat healthy. When we are with friends, its never lets go get a salad or maybe we should cut back on our calories. Its always what fast food place sounds the best right now; and that place is usually Chick-fil-A. But, as the pandemic rolled around, I wasnt able to see my friends hardly at all. Meaning I had more control over every meal I had. With a combination of my dads teaching and a strong desire to get shredded for the summer, I ate one of the healthiest diets imaginable.

Most people can agree that they want to eat healthy and get in shape. Well, now is the time to do so. You have so much control over what you eat right now and what you do during the day. With school being only a few hours long and sports being cancelled, now is the time to eat healthy and focus on getting in shape.

Jack, Desmond

At the start of quarantine everything was closed. Because gyms and other places to work out were closed, it was my responsibility to get myself moving each day. If you dont know, exercise creates happy chemicals in your brain, causing your mood (and health) to improve. When I wasnt working out as consistently, there was a steep decline in my mental health. I was just kind of sad all of the time and I felt drained. And so, I reached for food as a way to help me cope. It was nothing too extreme, I didnt have an eating disorder or anything, but that was my way of coping with what was going on. That cycle of not feeling great, then reaching for food, and then feeling worse, continued for a few weeks.

I was probably at an all-time low and I wasnt feeling great about myself. I began to start running to get myself into shape, and started cooking more often. My family assigned my siblings and I one night to cook dinner for the family, and I thought that was fun and almost therapeutic. And so, I got really into cooking for myself and in turn, started eating healthier. I try to pay attention to the foods I eat, but I never obsess about it, because I know that can lead to toxic cycles and patterns. I try to fit in fruits and veggies when I can, but I dont always get my five a day in.

Keener, Hoggard HS Wilmington, NC

Your diet is essential for many aspects of your life whether you realize it or not. And though Covid-19 has made it more difficult for many to have access to fresh produce and healthy food options it shouldnt be an excuse to not be educated how to eat properly and make good food decisions. In fact, Covid-19 was one of the reasons I chose to become vegetarian. I wanted to have more control over my diet and cook at home more. This provided the me with the opportunity, through trial and error to see how my diet affected my body and mind. I was astonished to find that by eating more fruits and vegetables I had more energy and I actually began to enjoy learning new recipes and cooking for myself. It also made me realize just how much Id been depriving myself of a very important part of any diet, fiber. And this is why I believe that its essential for people to think more deeply about what they chose to put into their body, because you only have one.

Jason J., Glenbard West HS Glen Ellyn, IL

This year my taste has changed in food, meaning my diet looks completely different from last year. I have cut all soda from my diet and replaced it with water. I have been eating healthier foods like salads, turkey, and chicken. The most important part to me about having not only a clean input of food but a good consistent exercise routine, without working out eating healthy has little impact.

Badr Abusalah, Palestine

As an athlete, I try to maintain a healthy diet and to be cognizant of what I eat and drink. While I certainly eat fruits, vegetables, and healthy grains, I also enjoy dessert, pancakes, and more everything in moderation! However, I do think that it is important to note the harm of perpetuating diet culture, especially in teens. Eating disorders are widespread and incredibly common, and putting too much emphasis on food itself can lead to unhealthy practices. Rather than focusing on eating healthy to look a certain way, we should promote the concept of eating healthy for just that: health. To make sure that teenagers are eating according to Ms. Carons recommendations, we should recommend tasty ways to eat fruits and vegetables (for instance, a healthy smoothie) and promote healthy eating to feel better, perform better in sports, and be ones best self, rather than for physical appearance.

Sarah Faz, Mountain View, CA

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What Students Are Saying About Healthy Diets, Wild Weather and the Consequences of Social Media - The New York Times

After all, when the season kicked off with the opening of training camp in late July, we were in the middle of Covid-19 spikes around the country, and football is the very definition of a contact sport -- contact being one of the activities we've been exhorted to avoid in order to avoid getting sick and slow the spread of the virus.

Yet here we are: Super Bowl LV with the Kansas City Chiefs facing off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium in Florida; 25,000 fans in attendance, including 7,500 specially-invited (and previously vaccinated) health care workers, sitting alongside 30,000 cut outs. The fans will all get PPE kits that include KN95 masks when they get to the stadium. And yes, even the vaccinated fans will be required to wear one.

It turns out many of the lessons learned during the season-long experiment are helpful beyond the gridiron, and are applicable to society at large.

How we got here

Back in the summer, many wondered how football -- with its tackles, huddles, heavy breathing, sweat and spit spewing, packed locker and weight rooms, loud cheering from fans -- could make it through an entire season without igniting Covid-19 outbreaks left, right and center.

Experts, in both sports and public health, had their doubts.

"Think of the size of football rosters, and think of the nature of the sport with contact on every play. ... It may be unlikely that the NFL can get in a full season," veteran sportscaster Bob Costas told me and Anderson Cooper during a CNN coronavirus town hall in late July.

But bubbling up wasn't in the cards. Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL's chief medical officer since 2017, told me it was "neither practical nor appropriate" to construct a bubble like the NBA had. While the entire basketball season could be played out at a single location, with football, it just wasn't possible.

When the NFL decided to proceed with the season, Sills and other NFL officials faced the unprecedented challenge of how to make football as safe as possible for everyone, from the staff to the players and their families.

"I feel like it's the right thing to do to try to learn to live with this virus. I really do," Sills said back in July.

"This is a struggle that people are dealing with in all facets of life. Schools, businesses, places of worship. Everyone's trying to figure out, can we reopen and do some of our activities and still mitigate risk? And I think it's really important that we take the approach of trying to learn how to live with this pandemic as best we can," he said at the time.

So, in collaboration with the NFL Players Association, the CDC and other health experts and advisers, the NFL developed a plan to move forward. It included mitigation and surveillance measures in facilities and during travel and games. Those measures included mask wearing; testing on a regular basis and genetic fingerprinting of the virus for positive cases; physical distancing; proximity tracking devices that captured information about who spent how much time with whom; contact tracing; hand washing; and facility disinfection and the rescheduling of games as well as education of staff, players and their families. In all, the plan covered about 11,400 players and staff from 32 teams across 24 states.

On September 10, when the Kansas City Chiefs kicked off against the Houston Texans in the first game of the season, there were just under 6.4 million confirmed Covid-19 cases in the US, with a seven-day average of more than 35,000 new cases a day. That seemed like a lot back then, but by point of comparison, the country now has topped 26 million confirmed cases, with a seven-day average of about 137,000 new cases a day.

But while cases in the whole country exploded, the NFL was relatively untouched. According to the MMWR report, there were 329 confirmed Covid-19 cases between August 9 and November 21. That's just 2.9% of the 11,400 players and staff tested -- statistics any state would be proud of.

And when unpublished results through January 30 were tabulated, the NFL said, there had been approximately 957,400 tests administered with an overall positivity rate of less than 0.1%.

Only three people -- one player and two staff members -- were hospitalized briefly and there were no deaths, Sills told me when I interviewed him again for this story earlier this week.

Lessons learned

One key component built into the NFL's plan was flexibility -- the ability to pivot to a new strategy if a Covid-19 outbreak emerged.

"One of the things we've all learned in the medical community about this pandemic is it breaks rules. It doesn't follow what we think might happen. And so we've had to really try to pay very close attention to what our data is telling us and to be willing to bend and adapt and modify our protocols," Sills said.

Was it smooth sailing? No. An outbreak early in the season forced the NFL to examine the data and slightly change direction.

"Early in September, we had an outbreak in Tennessee and we went in and really dug into that and tried to understand how the transmission occurred despite our protocols," explained Sills.

"That's when we began to realize it wasn't just 6 feet in 15 minutes," said Sills, who noted not all close contacts are created equal. "And so we began to stratify contacts into what we call high-risk close contacts and just sort of regular contacts."

That meant the exposure they needed to limit had to be expanded to what Sills termed "eating, greeting and meeting."

"Meeting inside: even if you're more than 6 feet apart, if you're in a poorly ventilated room for a long period of time, if someone's positive, there can be transmission inside those rooms. Eating together: most people don't have a mask on when they're eating. And then greeting: just the social interactions outside the facilities. When you interact in the community, if someone is positive and you go and get a haircut or you have a massage at your house," he said.

In response to this new information, several league-wide changes were put into place. The first involved tighter restriction for seven days when a positive test result was received; the second was more frequent testing; and the third was expansion of contact tracing and transmission risk assessment that focused on identifying high-risk contacts.

But now, in addition to time and distance during an exposure, high-risk contacts also took into account face mask use (including the type and the fit) and the ventilation in the setting where that exposure took place.

"We came up with this four-part matrix, which said, let's think about, what is the ventilation status of the exposure? What's the mask status of the individuals?" Sills said. "We also then would consider how much cumulative time of exposure and the distance. If you're failing in two or more of those categories, that's what we considered a high-risk close contact."

The biggest lesson of all, according to Sills? "I think the biggest thing we learned, which is not shocking to those of us in the medical profession: Universal masking works. It's the most effective strategy that we have."

Beyond football

While the NFL certainly has more resources than most other organizations, the lessons that emerged from the great experiment can potentially be used in other situations.

"When you boil it all down, it wasn't the fact that we tested every single day. It wasn't the fact that everyone wore a fancy proximity tracking device everywhere they went. What prevented transmission was mask usage, avoiding in-person meetings, staying in the open-air environments, not eating together, prompt symptom reporting, isolation of anybody that's exposed. None of those things that I just mentioned take a lot of resources," Sills said.

In other words, they're the same basic rules we have known since the beginning of this pandemic -- with more evidence than ever that they actually work.

It's a lesson you can apply this weekend, whichever team you are rooting for. Play it safe; don't turn your Super Bowl gathering into a superspreader event -- mask up, keep physical distance, make sure there's plenty of air circulation, and please don't double-dip into the guacamole.

Originally posted here:
How playing it safe allowed the NFL -- and the rest of us -- to have a Super Bowl - CNN

By now, most of us accept that our mental and physical health are connected. But what you might not know is that what you eat can have an impact on your emotional well-being. As hard as it is to believe, certain foods can help support and soothe anxious feelings, while others may be agitators.

It all comes down to the microbiome. The gut-brain axis plays a vital role in our emotional status because a large percentageabout 95%of serotonin receptors (neurotransmitters) are found in the lining of the gut.

As this study mentions, back in 2013, reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) suggested that anxiety and related disorders would become the second leading cause of disability in both developed and developing countries by the year 2020and that was way before anyone knew a global pandemic was coming. It's safe to say that now we need anxiety-taming solutions more than ever.

RELATED: The One Vitamin Doctors Are Urging Everyone to Take Right Now

Dr. Uma Naidoo, a nutritional psychiatrist, Director of Nutritional & Lifestyle Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, and author of the book, This is Your Brain on Food, writes about food strategies that can help with anxiety and depression. She has said that "the relationship between food, mood, and anxiety is garnering more and more attention." And for good reason. Using food as medicine is a smart first line of defense for mild forms of anxiety. But as always, check with your healthcare practitioner to see what treatments are right for you.

Okay to go the edible route? Try this array of foods:

When you think of zinc, foods such as oysters and liver may come to mindbut those particular sources aren't for everyone. A more universally appealing choice? Cashews. Don't care for them either? Beef and egg yolks are also rich in zinc, which has been linked to lower anxiety.

RELATED: Sign up for our newsletter for the latest healthy eating news.

Leafy greens (think: spinach, parsley, kale, Swiss chard) are naturally rich in magnesium. As a result, they can help you feel calmer per research that found that mice with diets low in magnesium had more anxiety-related behaviors. Other sources of magnesium include legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains.

Fiber has a very unsexy reputation, but we need it in our diets. The great news is, you can get it from fruit, veggies, beans, and whole grains. Why so important? It feeds the good bacteria in your gut.

Omega-3 fatty acids have many reported health and beauty benefits, such as shiny hair and heart health. Some studies have also shown that omega-3 supplements may help reduce anxiety. Other sea-dwellers to consider: mackerel, herring, and sardines. Not into fish? Chia seeds are also rich in omega-3s.

If you aren't eating fermented foods, do you even care about your health? Kiddingbut not really. A study in the journal Psychiatry Research suggested a link between probiotic foods and lower social anxiety. Eating probiotic-rich foods such as pickles, sauerkraut, and kefir was linked with fewer anxiety symptoms.

When fortified with health-buoying vitamin D, which has the superpower of crossing the blood-brain barrier to enter brain cells, these milks can help ward off depression and anxiety.

Foods rich in B vitamins, such as avocado and almonds, help the body make several neurotransmitters, including serotonin, which influences mood, according to the mental health resource site Psycom. Deficiencies of B vitamins including thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin, have been linked to increased anxiety in some people.

Here is the best news you will read all day: Dark chocolate contains flavonoids, which are antioxidants that may benefit brain function and help your noggin respond to stress. In one study of highly stressed individuals (that's all of us now, right?), participants reported significantly lower levels of stress after consuming 40 grams of dark chocolate every day over a two-week period. Here's a potentially genius idea: Combine dark chocolate with avocado for an anxiety-busting chocolate-avo pudding.

Take your pick, literally: blackberries, strawberries, cranberries, raspberries, and blueberries are all packed with antioxidants. As Dr. Naidoo notes, "Since anxiety is thought to be correlated with a lowered total antioxidant state, it stands to reason that enhancing your diet with foods rich in antioxidants may help ease the symptoms."

Spices such as turmeric, which contains the active ingredient curcumin and boosts anxiety-fighting DHA in the brain, can easily be added to food and drinks. Ginger fits the bill, too.

Bright and juicy is usually a good thing when it comes to health. Fruits and veggies that are colorful and rich in vitamin C, like bell peppers and oranges, help reduce inflammation and are known to increase the production of the feel-good brain chemical dopamine.

Similar to citrus fruits, green tea is rich in a dopamine-boosting amino acid called L-theanine. It also boasts many other health properties that are anti-cancer, anti-viral, anti-obesity, and anti-bacterial. Learn how to brew the perfect cup and then, drink up!

As you might imagine, foods that contribute to poor health overall are best avoided when dealing with anxiety. We're talking highly processed packaged snacks, foods with added sugars, artificial sweeteners, caffeine, alcohol, and gluten. Here are the 17 worst foods for depression and anxiety.

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12 Best Foods to Eat When You're Feeling Anxious, According to Science | Eat This Not That - Eat This, Not That

Contributed by Dee Furlough, Family & Consumer Sciences Extension Agent with Dare and Tyrrell counties.

New Years always seems to bring lots of resolutions that focus on health quit smoking, drink more water, exercise regularly and the famous eat healthy/lose weight. Television, magazines and Facebook are especially full of advice at this time of year. But how much of that information is research-based and scientifically proven? We all know fad diets arent good in the long-run, but what is?

Have you heard of the Mediterranean way of eating? It has been researched since the 1960s and has been proven to be a diet associated with reduced risk factors for cardiovascular disease. It is one of the healthy eating plans recommended by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and recognized by the World Health Organization as a healthy and sustainable eating pattern.

The Mediterranean-style eating pattern incorporates the basics of healthy eating that are traditionally practiced in countries that border the Mediterranean Sea. It is high in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds and olive oil. Fish, other seafood and poultry are the primary sources of meat, with red meat eaten only occasionally. Other features of the Med way of eating are slowing down to enjoy (safe) meals with family and friends, being physically active and even enjoying a glass of red wine!

If youd like to get started eating the Med way, here are some tips:

Get at least five servings of vegetables and fruits each day. Choose a variety of colors and eat more of the dark green, leafy vegetables such as collards, kale, spinach and turnip greens.

Eat primarily plant-based foods. Replace red meat with plant-based proteins such as beans and legumes often.

Choose whole-grain foods such as oatmeal, quinoa, brown rice and popcorn. When choosing bread and pasta, look for whole in the first ingredient on the ingredient list.

Choose at least three ounces of nuts and seeds each week, while keeping within your calorie budget. Avoid candied, honey-roasted and heavily salted nuts and seeds.

Choose olive oil. Replace solid fats like butter and margarine and other oils with olive oil. Use olive oil for cooking, in dressings and marinades. Aim to consume at least four tablespoons each day, while keeping within your calorie budget.

Use herbs and spices instead of salt to flavor foods.

Eat seafood at least three times each week. Include fatty fish, such as mackerel and salmon. Avoid fried fish. Eat white-meat poultry, such as turkey and chicken at least twice a week.

Be physically active. Aim for at least 150 minutes per week or 30 minutes per day.

Optional: drink red wine in moderation. No more than five ounces of wine a day for women of all ages and men older than 65 and no more than 10 ounces of wine a day for younger men.

Med Instead of Meds is an eight-week program created by a group of nutrition and health professionals from NC State University and NC Division of Public Health. Eating the Med Way has been proven to protect against chronic illness. In some cases, eating the Med Way may even result in decreasing medications taken for blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes. Hence the name Med Instead of Meds.

For lots of great information and Med recipes, go to medinsteadofmeds.com. You can also contact your North Carolina Family and Consumer Sciences Extension agent: Dare and Tyrrell dee_furlough@ncsu.edu, Currituck and Camden olivia_jones@ncsu.edu and Hyde catiejo_black@ncsu.edu.

Basil, Shrimp and Tomato Pasta with Feta

This dish is very versatile and can be made with any vegetables or proteins that you have on hand. The fresh basil and feta are the superstars in this dish.

Serves 6Serving Size: cupPrep Time: 20 minutesCook Time: 20 minutesTotal Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

Directions:

Nutrition Information per Serving:

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More than just a resolution: The Mediterranean way of eating - The Coastland Times - The Coastland Times

Published on February 5 2021 5:15 pmLast Updated on February 5 2021 5:15 pm

To score the most points during footballs biggest game of the year may mean scaling back your super Sunday plan.

As COVID-19 vaccinations continue to be given around the country, its important to keep Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines in mind during your game day celebration; including masking, social distancing and frequent handwashing.

HSHS St. Anthonys Memorial Hospital Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ryan Jennings said even if youve already received the COVID-19 vaccine, you could still be able to spread it to others.

After you are vaccinated, your body knows what to do with the virus if you become exposed, so you dont get sick or at least as severely ill. However, we dont yet know if you can pass it to others while your immune system is doing its work, he said. Lets get to the goal line! Large gatherings could spread this disease, resulting in an unfortunate penalty that affects everyone. Help us achieve immunity!

Jennings recommendation is to keep your football party small and limited to only those who live in your household since you cant stay masked while eating game day treats! Additional tips:

Besides COVID-19 safety precautions, there are other things to keep in mind while celebrating on game day.

Jennings said it can be easy to stress out or get really excited during the game.

If you feel shortness of breath, chest pressure or chest pain, you need to get medical help right away, he said. St. Anthonys emergency department is safe and open 24/7 if you need care.

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Celebrating the Big Game Safely from HSHS St. Anthony's Memorial Hospital - Effingham's News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3 -...

There's a lot of skepticism surrounding alternative sweeteners after several studies showed that sugar substitutes may cause a slew of health issues. But health experts say they're safe to use in moderationand even helpful for those who need to regulate their blood sugar levels.

Currently, eight alternative sweeteners are approved by the FDA, the most common of which include sucralose, saccharin, and aspartame. Alternative and artificial sweeteners are both terms used to describe sugar substitutes, according to Keri Gans, MS, RD, CDN, and Splenda nutrition consultant. These types of sweeteners are often low in calories or don't contain any calories at all, whereas traditional sweeteners like honey and table sugar are caloric.

As Toby Amidor MS, RD, CDN, FAND, the award-winning nutrition expert and author of "The Best 3-Ingredient Cookbook," previously told Eat This, Not That!that alternative and artificial sweeteners can be between 200 and 700 times sweeter than sugar. That means you really only need to use a small amount of sugar substitute to achieve that sweet taste. Plus, they may be a healthier alternative to real sugarespecially if you crave sweet on a regular basis. (Related: The 7 Healthiest Foods to Eat Right Now).

"Added sugars, which can be found in things like sweet teas and flavored yogurts, are a form of carbohydrate that contributes empty calories and can cause blood sugar levels to rise," Gans says.

When a food or beverage is said to have "empty calories," that means it doesn't have any nutritional value. As a result, these foods don't provide the body with any health benefits. The calories are still converted to glucose in the body, which then supplies energy to cells. But too much glucose can cause blood sugar levels to rise, which can lead to a variety of health issues.

"The body does not recognize sucralose as sugar or carbohydrate, for example, so the small amount of alternative sweetener that is absorbed is not broken down for energy in the body as table sugar does," Gans says.

Below, Gans debunks five common misconceptions about sugar substitutes.

Alternative sweeteners cause

Recent studies indicate that food items and beverages sweetened with alternative sweeteners may cause sugar cravings to decrease, according to Gans.

"In turn, that can help people manage their weight, reduce intake of calories from added sugars, and manage blood sugar levels," she says.

"Collective scientific evidence strongly supports that sucralose is safe for everyone and does not cause cancer," Gans says. "Also, in 2019, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) shared that safety tests on sucralose showed no harm when looking at consumption levels well above what most people would actually eat or drink."

While research has pointed to a possible link between aspartame and cancer, both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concluded that studies haven't established a clear connection. Again, you only need to add a very small amount of artificial sweetener in products to achieve that sweet flavor.

The EFSA's acceptable daily intake (ADI) of aspartame is 40 milligrams/kilograms/day, which means a person weighing 60 kilograms (132 pounds) would have to drink 12 cans of diet soda each day to hit the maximum limit.

For individuals who have prediabetes or are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, non-nutritive sweeteners (meaning ones that are low-calorie or contain no calories) may be the best way to safely satisfy that sweet fix without causing blood sugar levels to spike.

And these sweeteners are great alternatives to sugar for some, according to the American Diabetes Association. "The potential decrease in calories and carbs could lead to better long-term blood sugar, weight and/or cardiometabolic health," it says.

People with type 2 diabetes must monitor how much sugar they take in each day to keep their blood glucose levels in check. Sugar substitutes appear to have no effect on blood sugar levelseven when consumed in large quantities.

A recent study conducted by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and The Ohio State University College of Medicine found that saccharin, which is found in Sweet 'N Low, didn't have any impact on blood glucose (sugar) levels or cause any changes in gut microbiota. (It's important to note that participants in this study consumed double the amount of the average intake of saccharin.)

The effects that sugar substitutes had on gut microbiota were a bit inconclusive, according to the results of a 2019 study published in the journal Advances in Nutrition.

"The effects of sweeteners on gut microbiota have not been completely elucidated," the authors of the study wrote, noting that saccharin and sucralose were associated with a shift in gut microbiota in both animals and humans. "However, more human studies are needed to clarify these preliminary observations," they added.

A shift in gut microbiota is more likely attributable to changes in food choices more so than the use of alternative sweeteners, Gans points out.

In short, the best answer may be to limit your intake of alternative sweetenersjust as you would sugar.

For more tips on how to cut back on the sweet stuff, be sure to read 10 Easy Ways to Eat Less Sugar From a Celebrity Nutritionist.

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5 Myths About Alternative Sweeteners, According to a Registered Dietitian | Eat This Not That - Eat This, Not That