5 expert-approved ways to eliminate artificial sweeteners in your diet

Sign up for CNN’s Eat, But Better: Mediterranean Style. “You’ll be more sensitive to sugar.” You’ll have to cut your sugar intake at the same time you’re weaning off artificial sweeteners to teach your tongue to taste again. “But there is a massive amount of added sugar and sweeteners hiding in foods that are not sweet — in salad dressing, pasta sauce, bread, crackers, even salty chips.” By choosing products without sweeteners, it’s possible to reduce a person’s daily intake of sugar or sweeteners “by a third, maybe even a half as many grams a day before we even lay a hand on anything that you actually expect to be sweet,” he said. “A lot of companies also market their products as healthy or even as a health food, and people often just assume that means it doesn’t have any artificial things in it, including sweeteners,” she said. That’s the thing to try to stay away from, even if you can’t see it on the label.” Ready the alternatives A mistake people often make when trying to cut sugar or artificial sweeteners from their diet is not having an alternative for when the urge for a sweet becomes intense, Zumpano said.