Celebrity nutritionists reveal their best sugar alternatives

Ask a room full of nutritionists and dietitians for their favourite sugar swap and you rarely get one answer. You get a short list. The names that come up again and again are whole-food sweetness (like dates and fruit), monk fruit and stevia, usually with the same caveat attached: no sweetener is a free pass, and portion still matters. Below is what the published guidance actually says, what experts flag about erythritol blends, and where a whole-fruit monk fruit powder fits into the picture.

One honest note first. Zilch is a new brand (launched October 2025), so we won't put words in anyone's mouth or claim a celebrity backs us. What follows draws on public guidance from bodies like the WHO and the American Heart Association, plus themes registered dietitians raise consistently.

What the experts actually pick

• Experts rarely crown a single "best" sweetener. They recommend cutting added sugar first, then choosing a swap that suits the food and the person.
• Monk fruit and stevia come up most often for having negligible calorie and glycaemic impact at the small amounts typically used.
• Whole-food sweetness (dates, mashed banana, fruit purée) is a favourite because it brings fibre and nutrients, but it still counts as sugar.
• A common caveat: many "monk fruit" and "stevia" products are actually blends bulked out with erythritol, which some experts now watch more carefully.

Do experts agree on one "best" sugar alternative?

Not really, and that's the useful part. The consistent starting point among dietitians is to reduce added sugar overall rather than simply swap one sweet thing for another. The American Heart Association suggests a daily added-sugar ceiling of around 25g (about 6 teaspoons) for most women and 36g (about 9 teaspoons) for most men, yet average intakes sit well above that. Cutting toward those numbers tends to matter more than which sweetener fills the gap.

When a swap is wanted, most experts land on the same shortlist: monk fruit, stevia, or whole-food sweetness. The "right" one depends on the recipe, the person's taste, and how much they plan to use.

What natural sweeteners do nutritionists recommend most?

Monk fruit

Monk fruit is a frequent recommendation because it delivers sweetness with negligible calorie and glycaemic impact at the small amounts typically used, and it comes from a fruit rather than a lab. Dietitians often note it as a smoother-tasting option than stevia for people sensitive to bitterness. Worth knowing: most supermarket "monk fruit sweetener" is a blend, where the intensely sweet mogroside extract is diluted with a bulking agent so it measures like sugar. If you want the detail on how the sweet compound works, see our guide to what mogroside V is.

Stevia

Stevia, from the Stevia rebaudiana leaf, is another regular pick for sweetness without meaningful calories or a large blood-sugar response. Its main drawback, raised often by experts, is a liquorice-like or bitter aftertaste that some people notice more than others. Like monk fruit, it's usually sold as a blend with bulking agents. We compare the two in more depth in Monk fruit vs stevia.

Whole-food sweetness (dates, fruit, banana)

Perhaps the most "expert-approved" swap of all isn't a sweetener at all. It's whole fruit. Dietitians repeatedly point to dates, date paste, mashed banana and fruit purées because the sugar arrives packaged with fibre, vitamins and polyphenols, which slows absorption. The honest caveat they always attach: dates are still a concentrated source of sugar and calories, so this is about quality, not unlimited quantity. The World Health Organization makes a related point. Its 2023 guidance advises against relying on non-sugar sweeteners for long-term weight control, and steers people toward reducing free sugars and choosing naturally occurring sugars in whole foods instead.

A quick word on allulose

Allulose comes up a lot in American nutrition coverage because it tastes and behaves closely like sugar with very few calories. For UK and EU readers there's a catch: allulose is not authorised for sale as a food ingredient in the UK or EU, so you won't find it on shelves here. It's worth knowing about, but it isn't a practical option in Britain. We go deeper in Monk fruit vs allulose.

What caveats do experts raise about erythritol blends?

Here's the nuance many shoppers miss. When a nutritionist says "monk fruit" or "stevia," the product on the shelf is often mostly erythritol, a sugar alcohol used as a cheap bulking agent so the pack scoops one-for-one with sugar. The sweet part might be a tiny fraction of the tub. Erythritol is an approved additive (E968) and is widely sold across the UK and EU, so this isn't about availability. It's about knowing what you're actually buying.

Erythritol drew closer scrutiny after a 2023 study led by Dr Stanley Hazen's team at the Cleveland Clinic, published in Nature Medicine. In a cohort of more than 4,000 people, higher blood levels of erythritol were associated with a greater risk of major cardiovascular events, and laboratory work suggested erythritol made platelets more prone to clotting (the Cleveland Clinic summarised the findings here). It's important to be measured: this was an observational association plus mechanistic experiments, not proof that eating erythritol causes heart attacks, and erythritol remains an approved additive. But it's exactly the kind of finding that leads cautious dietitians to suggest reading labels and, where possible, choosing sweeteners that aren't built on large amounts of sugar alcohols.

• Read the ingredients, not just the front of the pack. "Monk fruit" often means "erythritol with a little monk fruit."
• Sugar alcohols in quantity are also a common trigger for bloating and digestive upset.
• If you want to avoid them, look specifically for products labelled without erythritol or sugar alcohols.

How does whole-fruit monk fruit powder fit in?

This is the gap Zilch is built around. Instead of isolating and purifying the mogrosides into a hyper-concentrated extract (which is why extracts get quoted at many times the sweetness of sugar), Zilch is made by infusing and decocting the whole monk fruit. The result is a formulated Monk fruit powder on a soluble tapioca fibre carrier: whole-fruit-derived rather than a purified extract.

Practically, that means a gentler ~3× sweeter than sugar (you only need a little, but it's far less concentrated than an extract), a cleaner taste profile than heavy erythritol blends, and a formula with no erythritol, no sugar alcohols and no artificial additives. Because the whole-fruit approach retains naturally occurring compounds, the powder is high in fibre and has no added sugar, though it does contain small amounts of naturally occurring sugars from the fruit itself. At the small amounts typically used, the calorie and glycaemic impact is negligible.

We should be honest about what that trade-off means. At Zilch, we chose to leave erythritol out on purpose: it solves the bulking problem, but it brings a cooling mouthfeel, the "is this really monk fruit?" label confusion, and digestive discomfort for some people. So Zilch is not a cup-for-cup baking sugar, and it doesn't caramelise or add bulk the way sugar does. What it does well is clean everyday sweetness, the kind you reach for in coffee, tea, yoghurt or porridge, without the sugar-alcohol baggage.

Where Zilch fits in

If the expert consensus is "cut added sugar, then pick a clean swap that suits your taste," a whole-fruit-derived Monk fruit powder like Zilch is one straightforward option: no erythritol, no sugar alcohols, and a gentler sweetness that leans on the whole fruit rather than a purified extract. It won't replace the fibre and nutrients of a whole date, but for tea, coffee and everyday sweetening it's an easy swap without the sugar-alcohol baggage. Whichever you choose, most experts would say the same thing: use it sparingly and cut the added sugar first.

Related reading

• What nutritionists think about monk fruit
• Why Hollywood is ditching sugar
• Best sugar alternatives for diabetes

FAQ

Do nutritionists actually recommend monk fruit?

Many registered dietitians list monk fruit among their preferred sugar swaps because it offers sweetness with negligible calorie and glycaemic impact at the small amounts typically used, and it comes from a fruit. Most stress that no single sweetener is essential, and that reducing added sugar overall matters more.

Why do experts warn about erythritol in monk fruit products?

Because many "monk fruit" products are mostly erythritol used as a bulking agent. A 2023 Nature Medicine study linked higher blood erythritol to increased cardiovascular event risk, which has made some experts more cautious and keener on reading labels. Erythritol is still an approved additive and widely sold, but Zilch contains no erythritol or sugar alcohols.

Is allulose a good sugar alternative in the UK?

Allulose is popular in the United States, but it is not authorised for sale as a food ingredient in the UK or EU, so British shoppers won't find it on shelves. For now it isn't a practical everyday option here.

Does any nutritionist endorse Zilch specifically?

No, and we won't claim otherwise. Zilch is a new brand (launched October 2025). This article reflects general expert guidance on sugar alternatives, not a personal endorsement of our product.