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Home › Articles › Eating For Two › The Sweet (Fake) Stuff During Pregnancy

The Sweet (Fake) Stuff During Pregnancy

Do Artificial Sweeteners and Pregnancy Mix?

By Jacqueline Bodnar

Pages:  1  2  3  

Worried about whether or not those artificial sweeteners are safe to use while you're pregnant? You're not alone. Most pregnant women worry about making sure they follow a healthy eating plan to give their baby the best possible start in life. When it comes to the sweet stuff, there are some things that get the green light and others to which you should consider yielding.

Unsuspecting Places
Detecting which products have artificial sweeteners can be more difficult than you might think. They tend to pop up in some of the least unsuspecting products such as fruit juices, microwave popcorn and fitness waters. They also go by many different names. If you don't know them all you may not recognize them in the list of ingredients. You might unknowingly be using some artificial sweeteners in the products you use every day.

What's Safe?
"In general, artificial sweeteners are safe," says Dr. Milroy J. Samuel, an OB/GYN in Columbus, Ohio. "As with everything, moderation is important." He suggests it is unlikely a woman would ingest enough sweetener to reach a toxic level that would harm her or her fetus.

While not all sweeteners are bad, it's challenging to make sure you are avoiding or using them in moderation if you aren't sure where they are to begin with. Knowing the different names of each sweetener will help you easily identify them. They are used in virtually thousands of products on the market, so you will need to check the ingredient label.

Aspartame
Used under the product names NutraSweet and Equal, this sweetener is up to 220 times sweeter than regular sugar. In 1981, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved aspartame for general consumption. Though the FDA believes it to be safe for most people, there are some people who should not use this product, such as those who have the genetic disease phenylketonuria (PKU) and pregnant women with hyperphenylalanine (high levels of phenylalanine in the blood). Because of their conditions, these people have problems metabolizing an amino acid in aspartame.

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