How many calories does each artificial sweetener have?

Answer 1

Short Answer:

They are all calorie free or nearly calorie free when used in normal servings.

Saccharin (sweet n' Low) has approx 1 calorie per gram

Sucralose (Splenda) appears to be truly calorie free

Aspartame (Nutrasweet & Equal) has approx 1 calorie per gram

Long answer:

They are all so much sweeter (tasting) than sugar that any minimal calorie content they might have is overcome by the fact that so little is used (by weight).

Saccharin has approx 25% of the calories as carbohydrate (sugars and starches) by weight. It has .9 calories per gram vs. sugar which has 4 calories per gram.

This is offset by the fact that it is 10 times sweeter. So... If you substitute saccharin for sugar you will probably use 1/10th the sweetener by wt, or 1 gram vs. 10 grams.

So let's say 1 gram (1 sweet n' low packet) of saccharin is used instead of 10 grams (approx 2 1/2 teaspoons) of sugar. 10 grams of sugar would have had 40 calories. The 1 gram of saccharin has .9 calories per gram, or approx. 1 calorie (1 gram x .9 calories per gram = .9 calories).

So, instead of 40 calories, you got 1 calorie. Saccharin relies more on the fact that it is REALLY sweet than the fact that it has fewer calories by weight.

BTW, since a packet of any of the artificial sweeteners is considered to have fewer than 5 calories per serving, it can (must?) be labeled as zero calories.

Sucralose appears to be actually calorie free. 0.000... calories per gram. (and is approx 600 times sweeter than sugar!)

Though I never did hear back from "Ask the food scientist" at Equal.com, I did stumble across a few things that came from mainstream sources (e.g. FDA, manufacturers, etc.).

Equal states that aspartame is 200 times sweeter than sugar. It has about 1 calorie per gram. A teaspoon of sugar weighs about 4 grams, and has about 16 calories. The good folks at Equal.com suggest you replace 1 tsp of sugar with 0.5 grams (1/2 a packet) of Equal (aspartame). But, if it's 200 times sweeter (presumably by weight), then 1/2 a packet should be able to replace 25 tsp of sugar, not 1 tsp. Not sure where this disparity comes from.

At any rate, Aspartame appears to give you 97% fewer calories vs. sugar (1/2 a calorie instead of 16).

If you are searching for more info, don't confuse Equal with "Equal Sugar Lite", which seems to be a mix of real sugar and aspartame. It has significantly more calories than aspartame, but significantly fewer than sugar.

My "mainstream Sources":

http://www.calorie-counter.net/toppings-calories/nutrasweet.htm

http://www.equal.com/faq/faq.html#7

Answer 2

Most sweeteners contain around 400 Calories (10Grams). This is because that, since the sweetener has been removed all traces of sugar, to make it more tastier they add ingredients which are high in calories, such as fat. That is why you should eat real sugar instead of sweetener. Sweetener is actually less healthy for you and makes you fat.