How to Go Sugar Free in 12 Easy Ways (That's Sweetners Too) by Women's Health The sugar scare is old news - hands up if you replaced your mid afternoon handful of Haribo with a whack of nut butter on an oat cake aeons ago? But in the dash by manufacturers to cut the white stuff from our food and drinks, plenty of alternatives have come into the mix, from the artificial (aspartame) to the naturally derived (stevia.) Bad news is, a major new review of 'non-sugar sweeteners,' or NSSs, has found that they may not help people to lose weight - and that there is not enough evidence of their safety. The analysis, carried out by medical research not-for-profit Cochrane and published in the British Medical Journal, reviewed 56 studies on the harms and benefits of NSSs in generally healthy adults and children. "No evidence was seen for health benefits from NSSs and potential harms could not be excluded," say the review's authors, who also acknowledge that ...