Saccharin

Sugar substitutes that contain little or no calories are called artificial sweeteners, non-nutritive sweeteners or non-caloric sweeteners. Well-known artificial sweeteners include sucralose, aspartame, saccharin, acesulfame-K and neotame.

Sugar alcohols such as xylitol and sorbital are also used to replace sugar and have fewer calories than regular sugar.

Saccharin is an artificial, or non-nutritive, sweetener usually sold with the brand name Sweet'N Low (compare prices) or Sugar Twin. Saccharin is 200 to 700 times sweeter than table sugar so very little of it is needed to sweeten foods.

Saccharin was discovered in 1879 and was used early in the 20th century as a sugar replacement for diabetics. The most common use for saccharin is as a sweetener for beverages. It is found in a few diet sodas. You can find Sweet'N Low in pink packets at restaurants and coffee shops.

Saccharin is not hazardous to your health and it has not been proven to cause cancer in humans, although large amounts of saccharin cause bladder tumors in male rats. The formation of the tumors is due to a protein found in male rats that does not appear in humans.

Saccharin is typically stirred into coffee or tea as a sweetener or it can be added to cold drinks. Although it is heat-stable, it is rarely used in cooking or baking. Saccharin has been mostly replaced by aspartame and sucralose due to its bitter metallic aftertaste.

Saccharin has a long history of safe use by humans. However, studies on rats in the 1970s showed that consumption of large amounts of saccharin caused bladder cancer in male rats. These findings resulted in the banning of saccharin in Canada and labeling regulations in the United States.

In 2000, saccharin was removed from the list of substances that cause cancer in humans after scientists determined the mechanism for bladder tumor formation in the male rats was not relative to human biology. In the United States, products that contain saccharin are no longer required to carry warning labels.