Compare

Each comparison puts two sweeteners side by side on the things that change the choice: how sweet they are, how they count as carbohydrate, what they do in a recipe, how much the gut tolerates, and where regulators stand. The table at the top of every comparison and the two record cards at its foot come from the same sourced records as our sweetener guides, with each figure linked to its source and the date we checked it. When a record is corrected, every page that uses it changes with it.

The pairs fall into three kinds, and the kind tells you most of the answer before you open the page.

Two bulk sweeteners

Both are used by the spoonful, so the question is which behaves better in the recipe and in the body.

• Allulose vs erythritol: browning and moisture against zero calories and a cooling bite, and two different digestive limits.
• Xylitol vs erythritol: sugar-level sweetness and a dental benefit against zero calories, and a serious hazard to dogs.

Two high-intensity sweeteners

Both are used by the milligram, so the questions are intake limits, how settled the safety file is, and what the packet is bulked with.

• Monk fruit vs stevia: two plant-derived sweeteners, one with a settled intake limit and one with only a temporary one.
• Sucralose vs stevia: a full US food-additive approval against an agreed intake limit, and what happens when you bake.

A bulk sweetener against a high-intensity one

These do different jobs and are often sold in the same tub, so the comparison is about which part of a product does what.

• Stevia vs erythritol: the most common pairing on the shelf, and a settled safety file against an open cardiovascular question.
• Monk fruit vs erythritol: why a “monk fruit” tub is mostly erythritol, and the open question in each half.
• Allulose vs monk fruit: a sugar-like bulk sweetener and a milligram extract, neither of them authorized in the EU.
• Allulose vs stevia: the most sugar-like behavior against the most settled regulation, and two kinds of blood-sugar evidence.