Although everyone knows that candy and chocolate are made with sugar most people don’t realize there is a distinction between types of sugars, quality of sugars and definite pros and cons between using natural and artificial sweeteners. Americans are especially conscious about packing on the pounds and will often turn to artificial sweeteners in an attempt to cut calories. What many people don’t know is that natural sugars are a necessary part of a healthy diet, they are absorbed better and they do not carry with them some of the health concerns of artificial sweeteners which have been implicated in several kinds of cancer.
It is good and commendable to read the ingredients list on everything you buy and this is what every responsible and health conscious consumer should know about candy and chocolate sweeteners. Artificial products used as candy and chocolate sweeteners in several studies have shown weight increases. Whether this is due to increased consumption because people think they can is a possibility, but one of the tests conducted used mice so it may be that these sugars simply don’t burn off as well as natural sugars. Natural sugar is sucrose derived from either sugar cane or from sugar beet and they burn more energy than artificial sweeteners, but they also burn more easily in the human body. Other natural sweeteners like licorice or honey are ingredients often used in candy and chocolate. These products are particularly good for you as both honey and licorice are excellent in terms of health, and both reduce the amount of sugar needed to make the product sweet. Natural sugars used in the production of candy and chocolate are also excellent natural preservatives, often requiring fewer artificial additives to retain quality, texture and shelf life.
