actually none of them are really great - have you tried Stevia (I carry it with me all the time)

I agree that you're best off avoiding all of them. But of them, probably regular sugar or in the raw is best. Artificial sweeteners are really not good for you. Stevia at least is not known to be harmful.

I don't like the taste of artificial sweeteners so I never use them and there a very few diet drinks I can palate.

Sugar in the raw is a bit less processed having a little more molasses than white sugar. I don't know if it's any "healthier" than white sugar and I would suspect any differences are negligible.

It's probably not so much the type of sugar you consume but rather the quantity. All things in moderation. Of course, I use a lot of sugar in my coffee. ;-)

I think it depends on you - and what you mean by "best". Best tasting, or which one has some redeeming nutritional qualities, what do they do to your liver, which ones cause cavities, which provide a boost of energy, or are those chemical sweeteners dangerous if ingested.... They will all sweeten.

I agree, actually none, and would also suggest taking your own packets/bottle of stevia, but that's not the original question.

If you are counting calories, regular sugar has 16-calories per teaspoon, while Sugar in the Raw has 18 per teaspoon and only a negligible amount of nutrients not in white table sugar in the extra 2 calories. Both are equal in the fructose/sucrose department.

I consider Splenda food-form poison, at least for myself. When I consume it my tongue gets tingly and it feels like someone with sharp fingernails has a grip on my lips. My sister-in-law thought I was nuts when I told her I can't eat Splenda. I was at her home one day and she said she made sugared almonds and I should try some. By the time the first one had been bitten into and chewed twice, I got that awful sensation in the back of my throat, tongue and lips and spit the almond out into my hand and rushed to the sink to rinse my mouth out with water, and said there was Splenda on the nuts - was she trying to poison me!!! So I guess it wasn't all in my head because she didn't think I would be able to tell the difference between Splenda and sugar. Each time I unknowingly eat Splenda, the reaction is worse. I have a friend who is very sensitive to Splenda and has unknowingly consumed Splenda twice and ended up in the hospital.

I also avoid Sweet 'N Low because I'm allergic to sulfa drugs. You can read more about it at the link below. I'd also suggest you do your own research on the subject to satisfy what you mean by "best", because best if pretty subjective. We just gave you our opinions.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Sweet and Low side effects

I appreciate those who have responded to my thread.

The reason I asked is that I have been using Splenda in my coffee for a number of years now but recently read this in the New York Times:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/17/artificial-sweeteners-may-disrupt-bodys-blood-sugar-controls/

What about honey? Should I be using honey in my coffee instead of sweeteners?

I can't answer the honey question. But, I am a person who likes coffee in their sugar. I find that I use half as much Sugar in the Raw than regular sugar in my usual cup of coffee. YMMV.

My personal philosophy is that one should avoid sugar whenever possible (and artificial sweeteners completely!) while still allowing small indulgences. Life is short.

I just pick and choose where I want my sugar and I usually pick something other than coffee. I decided to give up sugar in my coffee and it wasn't that hard, and now I prefer it. But I must have half and half in it. Dairy has some sweetness anyway. Sometimes I add some unsweetened whipped cream. I'm also planning to try coconut milk. Watch out for the creamers though. They are often full of nasty stuff.

So my advice would be - if you really want sweetened coffee, go for a little of the real or raw stuff. But if you are worried about sweeteners, try a rich cream and see if that's enough.

Honey is 40% fructose, 20% water, 30% glucose and 1% sucrose. It's still "sugar". For comparison, white sugar is 50% fructose and 50% glucose. You may find you need to use less honey as a sweetener than you would other sweeteners. And be sure to choose clear (light colored) honey for a more neutral flavor. Sometimes dark honey with a lot of flavor will affect the flavor of what you are sweetening it with. And it's not always a "good" flavor.

I've recently removed high-fructose sugars/fruits/dried fruits and foods high in fructans (onions, garlic, wheat, rye & pistachios, etc...) from my diet because I suspect fructose-malabsorption issues (which tend to arise mainly in adulthood, often due to the fact that amounts of fructose receptors in one's body are slowly reduced by age). And the long-term issue - high intake of foods and sugars containing a high percentage of fructose is bad for your liver and heart (see link below).

My go-to sweetener for cooking/baking is (coconut) palm sugar (71% sucrose, 3% glucose and 3% fructose), plus it's a low-glycemic sweetener (doesn't raise your blood sugar like high-glycemic sweeteners) when you need a product that reacts in baking like sugar does (stevia is much harder to work with in baked goods and the taste of stevia takes some getting accustomed to). I often mix palm sugar with stevia.

There is also a liquid form - Coconut Nectar - and I make a homemade version of it by mixing 1-1/2 c. palm sugar with 1/2 c. water and heat until the mixture dissolves and use it when honey or agave nectar (56-92% fructose) are called for in a recipe.

So it's back to why...to get to the what. Are you are avoiding "sugar" or avoiding calories, and is it just in your coffee or all the sugars/sweeteners in your diet?

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Harvard Health Publication

Honey is sugar as far as your body is concerned. It has some interesting properties if you consume lots of it--much more than the amount you'd want to sweeten your drink. There are even topical applications for honey. But as a sweetener, it's just sugar, as is Sugar in the Raw (turbinado sugar)--see below.

If by "coffee shop" you mean of the Starbucks variety, I'm guessing this is a once a day indulgence? If you mean the old American definition of a casual restaurant in the same segment as diners and "family" restaurants, then the coffee they serve might be particularly bitter and might make you want to use more sugar than you otherwise might.

Crystaline table sugar:
1 packet = 1 cube = 1 measuring teaspoon (level) = 0.1 oz. = 2.3 g is 9 Calories (the capital C on nutrition info denotes kilocalories) = 1 Lifesavers candy

Sugar is sucrose, which is a bonding of glucose and fructose. Enzymes in your digestive tract debond them and convert them to the forms that can be used by your bloodstream.

I don't think that a Lifesaver or a sugar coffee is going to harm anyone who doesn't have sugar issues. A few tall coffees with several packets of sugar each in a day is like eating a whole roll of Lifesavers each day. That's way too much sugar, especially considering all the sugars (and starches, which are digested as sugar) that are in food. That much refined sugar is either displacing the sugar that comes in good, wholesome, whole foods, or throwing your system way out of balance.

Similarly, one chemical sweetener, if you're not sensitive, likely won't do any more harm than one deep breath on a busy street, or one serving of fish from polluted waters. Several packets several times per day, however, might put more strain on your body.

Sugar in the Raw brand turbinado sugar has a packet quantity of 5 g, which is more than twice as much sugar by weight as white table sugar. No wonder that less is needed!

Honey: 1 teaspoon = 7 g total weight of which 5.66 g is sugar (most of the rest is water, and there are a few hundredths of a gram of protein). Honey is good in tea, but might be weird in coffee. A packet of Starbucks's honey is half an ounce (by weight), which is over 14 grams. It's 43 Calories of which 12 g is sugar. That's a lot more sugar than a packet of sugar!

No sweetener might not be an option for you. The effect in the article you cited is as bad for Sweet and Low as Splenda, but none for sugar, so the best choice, analytically, would seem to be regular table sugar in moderation. Remember, you don't have to use a whole packet! If you're used to very sweet, you can taper off slowly. Start with almost sweet enough, and when that seems normal use a little less. Your perception of "sweet enough" will change and reset itself lower and lower while still allowing you to enjoy your coffee.

I was one of those who always had to have sugar in her coffee/tea, until I quit. After reading how bad that shot of sugar was for my body, I quit cold turkey, and now the idea of sugar in my drink makes me cringe. Your best bet is to quit. Artificial sweeteners are bad too, so just don't go there.

What I can tell you is my daughter is a type 1 diabetic. All sugars, whether it be honey, agave, white, brown, coconut, in the raw, turbinado, etc., require her to use insulin. There are a lot of things people say about glycemic index, etc, but in her case, they all require insulin. To her body, they are all the same. To me, coconut sugar tastes the best.

Splenda and Sweet-n-low do not require her to take insulin but have other drawbacks. Stevia does not require insulin either but also has its own "flavor."