Keep these in mind when you are trying to figure out if a new product is keto-friendly and healthy for you. Overall, it is best to use keto-friendly sweeteners that have been well-researched and widely-used for years. Always be skeptical of any new product with dubious ingredients and no research to back up its marketing claims.

This refers to the Glycemic Index, which measures how much a certain food raises your blood sugar. The baseline is glucose, which measures up at on the GI scale. Typically you want to use the sweeteners that are lowest in GI, and may find it more beneficial taste wise to use a mixture of two or more low GI sweeteners.

Simply put, natural sweeteners are sweeteners made from concentrated components of edible plants. Stevia extract, for example, consists of plant compounds that are extracted from the naturally sweet leaf of the stevia plant.

When investigating whether or not a sweetener can be a part of your diet, you must examine it on its own and learn how it affects the body. For your convenience, here is a clickable list of the natural sweeteners we will learn about in this article:. Stevia is an herb commonly known as the sugar leaf.

This completely nutrient-free extract has grown tremendously in popularity over the last few years and is used regularly by many keto dieters. It is considered a food supplement, free of calories, with sweetening power about times higher than sucrose table sugar.

It is not metabolized by the body and remains stable at both low and high temperatures. Stevia extract has been found to promote health as well.

Studies have shown that stevia can reduce blood pressure slightly, lower blood glucose and insulin levels in diabetics and healthy subjects, and fight inflammation.

This triple effect i. Among all of the sweeteners that have been extensively studied, stevia seems to be the most promising from a health improvement perspective. When purchasing, look for the liquid-based stevia.

Typically this is raw powdered stevia mixed with a solution that keeps it pure. Powdered stevia is also a great option as long as the only ingredient is stevia extract.

With any stevia product, make sure you read the ingredients label. Many sweeteners, especially the products in powdered form, will come with carb-heavy fillers e. Recommendation: Use it!

Your best option is liquid stevia or any other stevia extract that has no added fillers. That being said, some human studies using prolonged intake of up to 1. For reference, mg of pure stevia extract powder is all you need to replace the sweetness one cup of sugar. Rarely will you find yourself consuming this much stevia in one day.

Note that stevia packets, such as Stevia in the Raw, typically contain the carb-ridden fillers like dextrose. Allulose is one of the most sugar-like low-calorie sweeteners on the market.

It is made up of a monosaccharide a simple sugar that is found in small quantities in wheat, certain fruits like jackfruit, figs, raisins , and some sugary sweeteners like maple syrup and brown sugar. Several clinical and animal studies have demonstrated that the natural sweetener can help reduce insulin and blood sugar levels after meals.

Some studies have even found that it has antioxidant and blood lipid lowering properties as well. These results make allulose look like the ideal sugar alternative for preventing common diseases like diabetes and heart disease while enhancing the results of the ketogenic diet. The only thing to be cautious about with this sweetener is that the long-term effects it has on the microbiome are not yet known.

In general, however, allulose has only been found to cause positive effects. Recommendation : Use it sparingly with other sweeteners. Although allulose is shaping up to be an ideal keto-friendly sweetener, it may be best to wait until more high-quality research is conducted and the sweetener is less expensive.

Try using erythritol instead. It has the same sweetness level as allulose, has been proven to be safe at high doses, and is x cheaper.

Usage Tips: You can use allulose as a replacement for table sugar to make carb-laden recipes into keto-friendly treats.

To match the sweetness of table sugar, add around 1. You can also use it in combination with other concentrated sweeteners like sucralose or stevia to achieve a more natural sweetness level without adding calories or messing with the consistency of your food.

Not to be confused with insulin, inulin is a natural chain of indigestible carbohydrates that is commonly extracted from chicory root.

Some studies have even shown it to help improve digestive health and optimize cholesterol levels. If you regularly experience digestive issues, however, inulin may aggravate your symptoms.

Unfortunately, inulin has been found to degrade into smaller fructose chains when exposed to temperatures above degrees Fahrenheit.

Once these degradation products i. Simply put, if the inulin you consume is exposed to temperatures above degrees Fahrenheit, then some of it will be digested as fructose, which contributes hidden calories that indirectly decrease ketone production.

These degraded inulin molecules will not be reflected on food labels, so be careful with how much inulin you consume, especially when it is used in baking or cooking. Recommendation: Use sparingly to mix into other sweeteners like erythritol or stevia If you want to reduce aftertaste.

Best for health and ketosis if used in its raw form without being exposed to high temperatures. Maximum Daily Dosage Recommendations: 20 grams per day of inulin has been found to cause no adverse effects. At higher doses, it can have a laxative effect. Also known as Luo Han Guo, monk fruit is native to China, where it has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for decades.

Over the past several years, however, monk fruit has been transformed from a medicinal fruit into a healthy keto-friendly sweetener that is to times sweeter than sugar. The only downside to using monk fruit extract is that it tends to have an unusual taste and bitter aftertaste. To counteract these unpleasant flavors and emulate sugar more effectively, try blending this sweetener with other keto-friendly sweeteners or use a monk fruit sweetener blend instead.

Monk fruit is a safe and healthy keto sweetener that you may find more palatable than other sweeteners. It can be found in liquid form, powdered form, or as a sweetener blend.

As with all sweeteners, read the ingredients carefully. Maximum Daily Dosage Recommendations: There is no known maximal healthy dose. Studies indicate that it is safe to consume at levels well above the amounts typically consumed.

Avoid any products with fillers that raise blood sugar levels. Tagatose naturally occurs in dairy, fruits, and cacao. Although it is a simple sugar like glucose, tagatose is metabolized differently. Tagatose has a mild cooling effect similar to erythritol but caramelizes similarly to sugar while erythritol does not.

It has a smaller glycemic index than Xylitol and is not toxic to dogs, but it is a bit harder to find. Because of its relatively low glycemic index, tagatose only has a small effect on blood sugar levels and can be used with other sweeteners in a low carb diet. It also has some health benefits attached to it like increased HDL cholesterol read more about cholesterol and improved gut health.

Recommendation: Use it sparingly with other sweeteners. It can pair well with lower glycemic index sweeteners in moderation, but it does contain about 35g carbs per g so be careful with the amount that you use.

Sugar alcohols are a category of sweet carbohydrates that are partially resistant digestion. Some of them are produced using natural processes like fermentation while others are produced using artificial processes like hydrogenation.

As the name implies, they are like hybrids of sugar molecules and alcohol molecules. However, these alcohol molecules will not get you drunk. Because sugar alcohols have a similar chemical structure as sugar, they activate the sweet taste receptors on your tongue.

Unlike most artificial and natural sweeteners, sugar alcohols contain calories and net carbs, just fewer than plain table sugar. If you have irritable bowel syndrome IBS or an intolerance to FODMAPs, you may want to limit your sugar alcohol intake or consider avoiding them altogether.

For your convenience, here is a clickable list of the sugar alcohols we will learn about in this article:. Erythritol is found naturally in some fruits and vegetables and is commonly extracted from corn.

Of all the sugar alcohol sweeteners, erythritol contributes the least calories and net carbs to the diet. According to some recent studies, erythritol does not change blood sugar or insulin in healthy individuals. It also cannot be metabolized by harmful mouth bacteria, making it a great sugar alternative for cavity prevention.

Erythritol has also been found to act as an antioxidant and may improve blood vessel function in people with type 2 diabetes. These benefits may help reduce the risk of heart disease, but more studies are needed.

We can consume a substantial amount of it without experiencing any side effects, at about 0. These studies are correlational studies.

Two things occur together. But that doesn't mean one causes the other. Night follows day. Night doesn't cause day. A third factor, which is the earth's rotation around the sun, causes night and day.

This is causation vs. Additionally, let's talk about the random assignments. In most of these studies, they were looking at people who were overweight, or who had diabetes. In these instances, once you adjust for weight and diabetes, all the differences in blood sugar increases went away.

Now it is possible that the overweight and diabetics are more prone to blood sugar spikes after artificial sweeteners. In contrast, however , there is a good bit of evidence suggesting that sweeteners can change your gut biome--and this is important.

Your gut biome can determine how well you metabolize food, your immune system's effectiveness, etc. Use moderation. Check your own blood sugar, especially if you're diabetic, and make sure a particular sweetener isn't affecting you unfavorably. So don't sweat it too much--unless you're guzzling a lot of these sweeteners.

In which case stop it! And remember that almost ALL these sweeteners are still better for you than sugar. Aside from the fact that it provides almost zero calories and is virtually carb-free, I love the sugar-like consistency that it gives for baking. Overall, I think sugar alcohols are the best option for keto baking.

One of the most common questions I get asked about Keto sweeteners is "Is Sweet and Low Keto? The last type of sweeteners is artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, which are created in a chemical process.

This is why they are classified as artificial. The old sugar alternatives like Sweet n Low , and Equal fall into this category. I left this category for last because my recommendation on this category is to avoid as much as possible.

I think Natural Sweeteners like Stevia and Monk Fruit are great for sweetening your coffee or tea, but not great for baking. My favorite alternative sweeteners for baking are Swerve and Truvia.

I do sometimes use a little packet of Splenda in sauces. I think artificial sweeteners should be avoided. If you found this article on Keto Sweeteners helpful, make sure you share it with your friends on Facebook and Instagram so they can learn more about them too!

A great source of information. Thank you. My concern with Truvia is the addition of Natural Flavors which could be most anything, even MSG. Interesting article and thank you for sharing this information. I want to point out that while sucralose has a zero glycemic index and does not raise blood sugar, the most common form of this sweetener is in packets from Splenda.

Splenda packets contain Dextrose and Maltodextrin which are sweeteners that will impact your glucose and insulin levels. They are also listed as the main ingredients 1 and 2 respectively in Splenda packets so they are more prevalent sweeteners than sucralose in each packet.

Dextrose has a glycemic index of and Maltodextrin has glycemic index between so both are equal to refined table sugar. Moral of the story is read the ingredients. Splenda does have a liquid sucralose product that contains no added sweeteners that is much better for diabetics looking to control their glucose and insulin levels.

With everything that seems to be building inside this particular subject matter, many of your points of view happen to be relatively refreshing.

Nonetheless, I am sorry, because I can not subscribe to your whole idea, all be it stimulating none the less. It appears to us that your comments are actually not entirely justified and in reality you are yourself not wholly certain of your argument.

In any case I did take pleasure in examining it. This makes it easier for your body to access and use the fat stores. And there are other benefits that are less obvious as well:.

Sweeteners can be great to add taste to your food without the negative impact that sugar has. But you may still want to get used to less sweetness in your food.

In this way, you actually enjoy the pure taste that nature already gave to the dishes you prepare. On the keto diet, you get into ketosis and maintain it by eating as few carbohydrates as possible.

You need to avoid carbohydrate-rich foods such as pasta, rice, processed snacks, sugary fruits, sugar, sweets, and candy. There are several keto-friendly sweeteners that will give you all the sweetness you want without raising your blood sugar levels.

But you need to know what they are, so you can check product labels and avoid the products that will affect your blood sugar or are unhealthy for other reasons.

Net Carbs means only those carbs that affect your blood sugar. polyols like Erythritol and Glycerol. These net carbs or Go-Keto carbs are the carbohydrates that raise your blood sugar level.

The GI tells you how fast the carbs from a product are digested and metabolized into glucose. The lower the GI of a product, the slower your blood glucose will rise. So, on keto, low carb food as well as sweeteners with a low GI are ideal for maintaining ketosis.

The GI is represented by a number between 0 and The higher the number, the faster your glucose levels go up. Pure glucose has a GI of ; table sugar has a GI of A product or sweetener with a GI of zero has zero net carbs or zero Go-Keto carbs. There are 2 types of sweeteners: natural sweeteners and artificial sweeteners.

These are the most used artificial sweeteners:. are very similar in taste to sugar. You can recognize polyols by the name: it usually ends in — ol such as Xylit ol and Erythrit ol. Polyols are found in natural products. They are technically labelled as carbohydrates, but they are in fact fibres, which your body can digest poorly.

The majority of the calories are not absorbed. Natural Sweeteners — Go-Keto Top 3. If you believe that sweeteners will help you maintain your ketogenic diet, these are the 3 best options:. Of all sweeteners, erythritol is closest to sugar in taste, but it has zero calories and zero impact on blood sugar and insulin secretion.

Erythritol is a polyol that occurs naturally in small amounts in mushrooms and fruit such as grapes and melons. Erythritol is only partially absorbed and digested by the intestinal tract and is generally labelled as safe by the European Food Safety Authority AFSA Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority.

There are several benefits to Erythritol that make it your top choice as a sweetener in your keto diet. Pros of Erythritol.