Sweetness and Light

How sweet it is depends entirely on you. Whether you reach for the sugar bowl, the honey pot or a packet of artificial sweetener, it's all a matter of taste and calories.

Sugar fuels the body and every cell in it. The more you eat it, the more you want.

"Sugar is a naturally occurring substance in foods we eat," says Melinda Johnson, R.D., a Phoenix spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association (ADA). The most common sugars are in fruit (fructose) and milk (lactose). No matter how sugar starts out, your body turns it into glucose.

Table sugar, whether it's white and granular, or brown and sticky, comes from refining sugar cane or beets. Beyond sweetness, sugar has taste and texture and properties that affect cooking and baking. It also has calories and carbohydrates for dieters and diabetics to count.

Honey very similar

Honey isn't much different. A study suggests it may have some antioxidant properties, but Ms. Johnson says using honey as a sweetener is really a matter of preference and taste, not health benefits. That's true, too, of syrups.

"Sugar is not the 'evil' thing it once had the reputation for being," she says. "The body breaks down sugar in the same way it breaks down a piece of bread." Sugar, then -- in reasonable amounts -- can fit into a healthy diet that includes fiber to help slow the absorption of glucose.

The non-nutritive sweeteners that come out of laboratories have no calories. Gram for gram, they can be much sweeter than sugar; that's why the packets are so small. They don't cook the same way as sugar, and they can have some added tastes. From the ADA to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the Food and Drug Administration, the pink, blue and yellow packets are generally regarded as safe.

Do sweeteners make you want more sugary foods? Not necessarily, Ms. Johnson says. However, more sugar -- especially the high fructose corn syrup in many prepared foods -- may trick people into thinking they're hungrier than they should be. That can encourage them to eat more than they need.

"It's all about balance," says Ms. Johnson. "A cookie with sugar as an ingredient may be more satisfying than one without, but sugar substitutes can help cut some calories."

The sweet life

• Be fruitful. Whole fruits offer more than sweet taste. Along with fructose, the natural sugar in fruit, which has the same calories as table sugar, a peach gives you vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber.

• Train your tongue. Ms. Johnson says you can learn to enjoy food that's less sweet. Buy unsweetened cereals and add fruit, sugar or sweetener to your taste. "There is habit in what we select, and it can be trained."

• Read labels. They'll tell you total carbohydrates and what sugars are in a serving. Sucrose, levulose, dextrose, maltose, fructose, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup or fruit juice concentrates are added sugar.

• "Sugar free." Ms. Johnson says "sugar free" products have plusses and minuses. The calorie-free sugar alcohol in sugar-free chewing gums can aid dental health. But very high levels of sorbitol, often found in sugar-free chocolate candy, can cause gastric distress, bloating, gassiness and diarrhea. Too much high fructose corn syrup can also cause diarrhea.

• Cooking tips. Sucralose (Splenda) stays sweet when cooked into a recipe. Stir aspartame (Nutrasweet, Equal) into a cooked food after it's removed from the heat.

• Baking bits. Cakes and cookies have different texture, depending on how much of each ingredient you use. Sugar helps cookie dough spread and become crisp; a substitute will puff. The amount of flour, type of flour and addition of an egg also change the texture.